WSUCougar
05-11-2006, 03:45 PM
Most of you have probably never heard of Will Derting. A few may have seen his name a few times, and fewer still will have watched him play. I watched his college career with great (if bittersweet) interest and can probably safely say that I have seen him play as much as anyone outside of Pullman or a Pac-10 videotape room.
If you ever watched one of his WSU games, you surely would have heard the most famous story about him. He grew up on a cattle ranch in rural Okanogan, WA, and his house didn’t even have a phone when recruiters tried to contact him.
But he ended up at Washington State and promptly made an impact as a flying-all-over-the-field linebacker. He had phenomenal instincts, and was one of those players that was always around the ball and making plays. He was an all-conference LB as both a sophomore and junior (despite playing virtually all that season with a dislocated wrist), and was a preseason All-American candidate and potential Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year going into his senior year. Then he blew his knee and wrecked most of his final season.
He was one of those players that you love to watch, a true big time talent who actually lives up to the hype. Some schools crank out these types of players on a regular basis, but at WSU they’re a bit less common. It was especially cool because he was a homegrown, obscure talent. I had high hopes that he would recover from his knee injury and sign on as an undrafted free agent in the NFL. He was undersized by NFL LB standards (6-0, 230), but his skill-set would surely make up for that.
But it was not to be. Derting’s father just formerly announced that his son’s football career is officially over due to the knee injury. So he’s back to wrestling cows in Okanogon.
If you ever watched one of his WSU games, you surely would have heard the most famous story about him. He grew up on a cattle ranch in rural Okanogan, WA, and his house didn’t even have a phone when recruiters tried to contact him.
But he ended up at Washington State and promptly made an impact as a flying-all-over-the-field linebacker. He had phenomenal instincts, and was one of those players that was always around the ball and making plays. He was an all-conference LB as both a sophomore and junior (despite playing virtually all that season with a dislocated wrist), and was a preseason All-American candidate and potential Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year going into his senior year. Then he blew his knee and wrecked most of his final season.
He was one of those players that you love to watch, a true big time talent who actually lives up to the hype. Some schools crank out these types of players on a regular basis, but at WSU they’re a bit less common. It was especially cool because he was a homegrown, obscure talent. I had high hopes that he would recover from his knee injury and sign on as an undrafted free agent in the NFL. He was undersized by NFL LB standards (6-0, 230), but his skill-set would surely make up for that.
But it was not to be. Derting’s father just formerly announced that his son’s football career is officially over due to the knee injury. So he’s back to wrestling cows in Okanogon.