Winning is always a team effort. In football, everyone plays a part in the team’s success on the field. The offense is like a puzzle, with the quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight ends and linemen all fitting into specific roles.
The credit usually goes to the quarterback and skill positions, but without a good offensive line, the offense would not be able to function. The ball carrier will go nowhere without blockers, the quarterback needs to be protected to have time to throw and receivers need time to get open. The offensive line’s crucial role in the offense often goes understated, but it cannot be overlooked.
The Cougars’ O-line has been particularly impressive early in the 2024 season. So far, they have allowed just two sacks in three games, while helping the Cougs accumulate 661 rushing yards, for an average of 220 rushing yards per game.
Against the Washington Huskies in the Apple Cup, the line held strong, allowing just one sack and blocking for 136 Cougar rushing yards, while giving quarterback John Mateer plenty of time to throw.
“It’s one of our keys to winning. Protecting the quarterback,” starting center Devin Kylany said.
They also held strong against a crowd of 57,567 fans, many of whom were determined to cause penalties and make the Cougs false-start. WSU did have three false starts, for a net loss of 15 yards, but that was still less than the Huskies, who committed four. The Huskies also got flagged for multiple holding calls, while the Cougs never held through the whole game.
“They played their asses off,” head coach Jake Dickert said in his postgame press conference. “A year ago, we wouldn’t have been able to hold up. They bring it now and they didn’t hold anything back. They bring it any situation, any down and distance, any zone.”
The line is led by Kylany, a 6-foot-5 redshirt junior from Lake Stevens, Washington. Kylany has stepped into the role of starting center this year after serving as a backup lineman in 2023. Despite playing in 19 games over the past two seasons, most of Kylany’s action had been on special teams, and he had very limited playing time at center.
Kylany spoke to the media in the preseason and described the mentality it takes to be an offensive lineman.
“If you’re an offensive lineman, you have to want to hurt someone 60 times in a row because that guy is trying to hurt the guy you’re protecting,” he said.
That mentality fueled the Coug’s gritty, physical performance against the Washington defensive line. The same Husky team that had seven sacks against Eastern Michigan the week prior was rendered mostly ineffective against the Cougs.
The line is coached by Jared Kaster, who is in his first year with WSU. Kaster joined the Cougar coaching staff after spending 2023 as the offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator at Austin Peay University.
“I’m a huge culture guy,” Kaster told the media when he was hired. “We are the protectors of the organization. Every day we come out here, we have to have that mindset that everybody relies on us and our success.”
The Cougars have put a major emphasis on building a winning culture in 2024, particularly with the uncertainty regarding the future of the Pac-12. If nothing else, the Cougs want to prove they can still compete with the best teams in the country. The coaches play a role in building the culture, but so do the leaders on the team. Among them is senior left tackle Esa Pole.
“[Kaster] always tells me to be a leader… Be someone to lead… When I see a rep that one of the tackles may have messed up, I’ll pull him over to the side and coach him up a little bit,” Pole said.
Pole has come a long way since transferring to WSU from Chabot College in 2023. The Hayward, California native did not play football in high school, but his physicality has helped him improve rapidly in college. After two years in junior college, he came to WSU, where his brother Kalafitoni Pole had been a three-year starter.
At 6-foot-7, 319 pounds, Pole towers above the competition, but that does not mean he never has doubts. In 2023, he told the Spokesman-Review about his brother’s advice to him for conquering those doubts.
“The biggest thing that [my brother] always told me every play, every time I step up or line up or even during workouts and lifts, he’s always said, ‘I’m in my head,’” Pole said.
If Pole is in his head, he hides it well. He’s been named to the Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Watch List and has stepped up as a leader for the Cougars O-line unit.
Next to Pole stands left guard Rodrick Tialavea. The 6-foot-5 redshirt junior from West Valley City, Utah. Tialavea came to Wazzu after being the No. 10 ranked prospect in all of Utah in 2019, according to 247 Sports. Tialavea had appeared in 20 games between 2022 and 2023 but had only made two starts before week one of 2024.
“Big Rod [Tialavea] has done an unbelievable job from day one to now of probably being the most consistent guy in the room,” said Kaster on Tialavea’s growth during training camp. “He’s on clips at meetings about being physical at the point of attack and pulling.”
Tialavea attended Highland High School, where he started alongside fellow Cougar Christian Hilborn. The former high school teammates now find themselves starting on the same Cougar line.
Hilborn has been a regular on the Cougs’ O-line since his first start in week one of 2022. The redshirt junior has not missed a start but now finds himself learning a new position. Hilborn had played 18 games at left guard and seven at left tackle, but moved to the right side of the line in 2024, starting at right tackle in the Apple Cup.
Then there is Brock Dieu, the Cougars starting right guard. At 6-foot-3, 288 pounds, Dieu is the smallest member of the o-line, but that has not stopped him from making a name for himself. He was ranked by ESPN as Arizona’s No. 14 high school prospect in 2020 and broke out as a starter for Wazzu in 2023.
After the Apple Cup, Dieu said his goal is to stay “hungry and humble.” Despite the big win, the Cougars are not finished yet, and Dieu feels it is best to not get high and mighty. He also gave insight into the teamwork element of the offensive line.
“You don’t play as a hand, you play as a fist,” he said.
Kylany would agree.
“O-line is all about trust. The team trusts us to do our job and we have to trust each other to be where we’re supposed to be,” Kylany said. “We’re not just playing for ourselves, we’re playing for the guy next to us.”
