PULLMAN — Gavin Fugate was a multi-year star for the W.F. West High School football team during his prep career. Jack Ellison arrived on the field as a late bloomer for Black Hills.
While their prep careers went in completely opposite directions, the start to their college careers has been identical.
Entering year three at Washington State, neither have stepped onto the field at Martin Stadium in a regular season game yet.
“Absolutely,” Fugate said of their No. 1 goal.
The two redshirt sophomore linebackers are vying to carve out a role, whether as backups or on special teams, for a Cougars team that opens the 2025-26 season on August 30 at home against Idaho.
Under first-year head coach Jimmy Rogers, who comes over after a standout tenure for FCS powerhouse South Dakota State, WSU gets another defensive-minded leader at the helm.
Rogers has already seen the two Southwest Washington athletes stand out in a couple different ways throughout fall camp.
“They’re good kids and they want to be at Washington State,” Rogers said. “Jack Ellison is extremely explosive and well put together. He has gotten consistently better. Gavin has grown a lot here and will help impact us.”
For Ellison, he didn’t have much time to see if he was a Division I caliber player. He didn’t play for the Wolves until his sophomore year, suffered an injury, then played his entire junior year. He got injured again his senior year.
“I was big into lifting; I like to train,” Ellison said. “Once I started seeing progress, that dream became a little more true.”
Still, even with over a year of football under his belt, the Cougars felt compelled enough to give Ellison a shot. Although he was brought in under a previous staff, the new coaches have enjoyed working with the 6-foot-2, 222-pound player.
“Jack has taken huge strides,” WSU defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Jesse Bobbit said. “He’s playing at a high level.”
Fugate was a quarterback and safety for the Bearcats, most notably leading them to the Class 2A state semifinals in 2022. He never played linebacker before donning a crimson jersey.
Coupled with some nagging ailments has led to a sharper learning curve for Fugate. Now, he feels much better about everything.
“The first two years are always sort of a whirlwind,” he said. “More comfortable this year. My body is better than it’s ever been, my mind feels better than it’s ever been.”
As a former signal caller, albeit at the high school level, Bobbit stated the next step in Fugate’s development is harnessing back to his days in Chehalis to see how linebackers shifted and where they were in a scheme.
The basics come first, though.
“When you take that all into perspective, where they’re at right now at the level of linebacker play they’re showing, it is pretty impressive,” Bobbit said. “You can tell, it is starting to click for them.”
Linebacker was more natural for Ellison coming in, but there was still plenty to learn.
“It is a matter of technique for me,” he said. “Coming here and being taught by the best, receiving that type of coaching has skyrocketed my game.”
The room itself has four guys in their fifth year in college football, then a bunch of youth. Ellison and Fugate have enjoyed the competitiveness within the group.
“There’s no animosity towards anyone in the room,” Fugate said. “We’re building each other up. Team comes first.”
“We’re able to bond with each other,” Ellison added.
Mainly, the pair are hopeful to showcase enough either in practice or in games — if they earn the opportunity — to give Rogers and Bobbit confidence to play them more often.
“They’re both working in the right directions that should help us on special teams and at the end of the day, things happen in football,” Bobbit said. “Those are guys that are putting themselves in roles on defense.”
