Proud to be a Coug

PULLMAN – While growing up in Spokane, Jared Karsetter said he always wanted to play football at Washington State.

Through the past three seasons, he’s had plenty of reason to regret that decision while the Cougars lost 32 of 37 games under Paul Wulff.

All that losing comes after Karstetter’s wildly successful prep career at Spokane’s Ferris High School, which went 12-1 and reached the Class 4A semifinals his senior season. His last two high school basketball teams went 58-0 and won back-to-back state championships.

So, Jared: Knowing what you know now, would you still go to Washington State?

“For sure,” he said without hesitation. “I think I’ve learned a lot about work ethic. Sometimes (winning) was maybe a little easier than I appreciated in high school. The experience down here – I have my family close. They get to come to all the games.

“Some of the lessons I’ve learned have really helped mold how I look at things in life. I think my perspective on what’s important has really been defined.”

Washington and Arizona State recruited him, but Karstetter said his only other scholarship offers came from Idaho, UNLV, Montana (in football and basketball), Eastern Washington and Air Force.

Still, Karstetter acknowledges that all the losing “hasn’t been easy” after he had a steady stream of individual and team success in football, basketball and track while in high school.

“You come in as a freshman, you don’t understand what it takes,” Karstetter said.

“You know you can play; you feel like you have the talent to play here. But as far as the team’s ability to win and compete, you don’t really understand what it is when you first get here. And I don’t think the coaches understood either …

“Part of it was the new system. It’s hard to learn and implement it. At the same time, it was a hard couple of years. You put so much time and effort into it.”

The 2008 season was especially trying for Karstetter, who had committed to WSU before Bill Doba’s exit.

He made three starts for the Cougars (2-11) as a true freshman, but the team was fractured.

“Everyone competed and tried, but you could definitely see some guys would quit during the game,” Karstetter said. “That was hard for me to deal with, especially growing up with the group of guys that I ran with in high school and how successful we were. It was just not in my nature or anything I’d been around before.”

Karstetter carries a 3.6 grade point average while taking pre-med and pre-dentistry classes. He made the Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic first team last season and hopes for a long, productive NFL career.

“He’s the type of guy you could build a program around,” Wulff said. “He’s a perfect student-athlete. His parents did a good job.”

Karstetter has started every game and led the Cougars in receptions the past two seasons. His 62 catches, 658 receiving yards and seven TD catches last season were career highs.

An excellent blocker at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Karstetter makes it sound relatively easy to excel in the classroom and on the field.

“The busier I am I find the more organized I am,” he said. “Sometimes in the spring when we don’t have (as much football), you kind of lose track of time and you’re not quite as productive as in the season. ”

Offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy appreciates Karstetter’s contribution.

“With Jared,” Sturdy said, “in recruiting you would say, ‘OK, get a bus, go find a hundred of ’em (like Karstetter) and we’ll be really happy.’

“Fill the bus up, bring the bus back and you’ll win a lot of games. Plus, you’ll have some guys that date all the coaches’ daughters …

“You know what I’m saying? He’s one of those guys. You trust him. He’s a leader on campus, he’s a leader in the classroom, a leader in the community, a leader on the football team, got an outstanding work ethic.”