It’s a hot, sunny day in Pullman, and redshirt junior linebacker Darryl Monroe is getting ready for practice to start. He stands at 6’1”, 235 pounds—a player who has ability to shed the block of a defensive lineman and lay a huge hit on a quarterback.

After running through their routine warm up drills in practice on the Rogers Practice Field, Monroe, wearing a gray helmet, white practice jersey and full pads, gathers the defense. Standing in the middle of the huddle, Monroe talks about what the game plan is for the defense for day and then breaks off with a special saying.

“One time for the one time, say it like you mean it, we all we got, we all we need,” Monroe said.

The middle linebacker said the chant originated during the middle of last season, when the Cougars were facing adversity.

“It was just a sort of thing where we felt like if you weren’t a Cougar, everyone was against us,” Monroe said. “It was just like a heated practice and I was just talking to guys like ‘man we don’t need anyone else, we all we got’.”

WSU junior linebacker Kache Palacio picked up on the saying and responded with the saying, “we all we need.”

“From there we was like that’s what we break on because that’s what we honestly believe,” Monroe said. “The only thing we need here is our players and our coaching staff and we can take on the world.”

No doubt about it, Monroe is the leader for the Washington State Cougars. Last season he was voted team captain ten times for the Cougars.

Monroe finished third tackles for the team last season with 94, and if the Cougars are to make another run at a bowl game this season he’ll have to increase those numbers given the amount of depth the Cougars have lost on the defensive side for this season.

“Our MIKE linebacker’s got to be our leader, and the DB’s (defensive backs) rally around that position, our d-line rally around that position and that’s part of it,” WSU Defensive Coordinator Mike Breske said.

The redshirt junior will be entering his third season as the Cougars’ starting middle linebacker, and embraces the role as leader for the Cougars on defense.

“You always got the chance to go out and better yourself, because if you aren’t getting better then you’re making everybody else worse because they are always following you,” Monroe said. “The younger guys look up to you.”

Monroe claims being the leader of the WSU football defense is his biggest leadership role, however he’s shown signs of leadership during his playing days at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fla.

Monroe’s linebacker coach Ken Jones said he never had to yell at his linebacker group when Monroe was at Dr. Phillips, thanks in part to Monroe’s leadership.

Monroe became a standout player at Dr. Phillips High School. During his senior year, in 2010,  he helped the school achieve their best season in the program’s history, appearing in the 6A Florida State Championship game.

Monroe has tweeted pictures of a sacred wall at Dr. Phillips High School that holds pictures of athletes who have gone on to play professional and collegiate football. Green Bay Packers free safety HaHa Clinton-Dix is among them. While Monroe holds a spot on the wall thanks to his time at WSU his goal to land among the other NFL names.

Monroe keeps in frequent contact with his former high school coaching staff. Dr. Phillips High School Running Backs Coach Riki Smith is one of the coaches who Monroe said had a major impact on his life. “Ray-Ray,” was Monroe’s nickname in high school, Smith said.

“He was like the heartbeat man,” Smith said. “He was the one in the locker room, talking junk, the one getting hyped. You could just tell he loved football. He’s so passionate, just a great kid, great practice player.”

Monroe was named to the Central Florida All-Defensive Team by the Orlando Sentinel in his senior year at Dr. Phillips High School. He was labeled as a two-star recruit and ranked the No.66 best outside linebacker in the 2010 recruiting class, according to scout.com. The Dr. Phillips outside linebacker held offers from South Florida, Middle Tennessee, and Louisiana-Lafayette, schools not far from his hometown, Orlando. But Monroe decided to don crimson and gray and play football at school 2,315 miles away.

When he got the offer from Washington State he was unfamiliar with the Pac-12 and WSU. However, former Washington State Co-Defensive Coordinator Chris Ball encouraged Monroe to visit WSU. He recruited Monroe tirelessly, and offered him a scholarship.

 “He was really in my personal life and then when I came up here, everyone treated me like family. Everyone was just so friendly; it felt like a home away from home,” Monroe said.

Monroe made two trips to Pullman before officially signing with the WSU football team.

After suffering from a season-ending torn Achilles during his first year with the Cougars in 2011 and adjusting to a new coaching staff, things have been moving upward for Monroe with his football career in Pullman.

Coming off of their first bowl game appearance since the 2003, expectations for the WSU football team are beginning to rise. But Monroe wants to take one week at a time.

“Just live in that moment, win that game, celebrate with my boys, and after that Sunday, win another one,” Monroe said. “I just want to look at it as if ‘just win this game, you have one game for the rest of your life, win it.’”

Once Monroe leaves WSU he plans to play football for as long as he can and then focus on broadcast production.

“He’s going to make it,” Smith said. “He just has that work ethic that you can’t coach, you can’t teach. Some players are talented but they don’t know how to work. Where you can get the guy that’s not as talented, but has great work ethic and he’s a baller. But if you find those kind with great talent and great work ethic, then you got a special player like HaHa (Clinton-Dix). I think “Ray-Ray” can get there too.”