WSU releases week one depth chart vs. Montana St.

When it comes to Mike Leach depth charts, it’s always best to take them with a grain of salt. There’s typically a bunch of “OR” designations at positions that don’t require an “OR” designation and there aren’t a lot of changes made throughout the season.

It’s game week, though, and we’re all very excited about that. So, here’s the week one depth chart for Washington State in the season opener against Montana State.

Overall, no major surprises, but we’ll dive into it a little more below:

• Running backs Jamal Morrow, James Williams, Gerard Wicks and Keith Harrington will serve this season as the designated “OR” group, it appears. The four horsemen have battled it out for reps throughout camp, and it’ll likely be a hot-hand approach all season. I’d expect Boobie and Morrow to receive the bulk of the reps early, however.
• Robert Lewis reportedly injured himself in a scrimmage two weeks ago and while WSU does not disclose injuries, the general consensus is that he’s going to be out for quite some time. So naturally he’s listed as the starter at H-receiver ahead of Renard Bell. We’ll just go ahead and assume that Bell is technically the starter there.
• True freshmen Jamire Calvin, Davontavean “Tay” Martin and George Hicks III each cracked the two-to-three deeps. Calvin and Martin are listed as the backups at Y- and X-receiver, respectively, while Hicks finds himself in a battle for one of the cornerback sports with junior Darrien Molton.
• After moving from WILL to RUSH linebacker this offseason, Frankie Luvu is listed atop the depth chart there, though he’ll technically share that designation with senior Dylan Hanser and redshirt junior Chima Onyeukwu. All three should see snaps this weekend.
• This depth chart doesn’t yield any clarity at nickelback, as Hunter Dale and Kirkland Parker figure to still be battling for the starting job there. They’ll both see time this weekend and it’s probably the top positional battle I’ll be watching vs. the Bobcats.
• While Hercules Mata’afa is entrenched as the starter at tackle, Logan Tago and Kingston Fernandez are listed at “OR” to backup the All-Pac-12 defensive linemen. Meanwhile, Garrett McBroom projects to get first crack behind Daniel Ekuale at nose tackle and Nnamdi Oguayo, who appears healthy and happy, will tandem with Derek Moore at end.
• The starting offensive line has been settled since basically spring ball with Andre Dillard, Cody O’Connell, Frederick Mauigoa, B.J. Salmonson, and Cole Madison protecting Luke Falk from left-to-right, but there was some uncertainty throughout camp about the second unit. Heading into Montana State, Liam Ryan, Cedric Bigge-Duren, Noah Osur-Myers, Robert Valencia and Josh Watson round out the second unit, though they could move around if an injury forced one of them into action. Very fluid on the line.
• It appears that Morrow and Calvin will get first cracks at returning punts while Robert Taylor will, once again, handle the kickoffs with Bell mixing in, as well. Of course, wide receiver Kyle Sweet and Erik Powell will handle the punting if for some reason Leach decides that giving up is a cool thing to do and punts a football to the other team.

And that’s that. WSU has released a depth chart, that’s what it reads and the biggest news here is that we’re officially game-weeking, which is a very fun and good thing.