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Sep. 12—From the opening kickoff onward, Washington State senior Tyson Durant was relentless.
He didn’t expect to recover a dropped kick off, but thanks to a conversation he had with WSU coach Jake Dickert, he did not hesitate.
Durant sprinted down the field and threw himself on the loose ball. Eight seconds into WSU’s first 2024 primetime game, “Pac-12 after dark” had delivered.
“Didn’t really much expect it,” Durant said. “I saw that the kick was a little bit shorter than usual — sky kick to the right — and I saw that their end was running up real fast to go catch it. So I’m like, ‘He doesn’t look like he’s in the position to where he’s going to make this play.’ So I was like, ‘Let me just be an athlete. Let me just go shoot that.’ And, you know, let’s go. It worked out.”
Cougar quarterback John Mateer gave the ball right back to Texas Tech on a deep-ball interception on the offense’s opening drive, but Durant was not discouraged with having to get back on the field less than 20 seconds of football time after he had made a huge play to get off it.
Durant tackled Texas Tech tight end Trey Jackson for a loss of 1 yard on third-and-3 to force an opening three-and-out.
Less than a minute into the game, Durant had already made two high-stakes plays.
Dickert said he thought the defensive back transfer from Akron played timid and hesitant versus PSU and challenged him after to play with more intensity.
That intensity showed up on the opening kickoff, on Tech’s first third down and throughout the game. Durant made a career-high matching eight tackles (four solo) and batted down two passes, including an acrobatic diving denial of the ball on fourth down to force one of the Red Raiders’ four turnovers on downs.
“I think that showed with Texas Tech, starting fast, what (Dickert) always preaches, and then just playing with…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/analysis-wsus-defense-showed-strides-121700689.html
Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Publish date : 2024-09-12 12:17:00
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