PULLMAN – Wade Jacobson said good riddance to football after his final high school game four years ago.
“I hated football in high school,” he said.
Fortunately for Washington State, Jacobson learned to love it in junior college. The 6-foot-6, 306-pounder starts at offensive right tackle, three years after he was determined to become a chef.
“I was going to go to culinary school,” Jacobson recalled. “I was all signed up and ready to go, then one of my old coaches said, ‘You should try football.’
“I was 6-5, 200. I was a skinny kid. I was like, ‘I can’t play at a juco. I’m too small.’
“So,” Jacobson said with a smile, “I gained 110 pounds in 61/2 months.”
The refreshingly candid Jacobson is as affable off the field as he is ornery on it.
“He’s got a gregarious personality,” WSU offensive line coach Steve Morton said. “That’s who he is. He’s a fun-loving kid.”
Jacobson said he thought the Cougars football program “was a joke” before he made his recruiting trip to WSU “and fell in love with this place” and the rebuilding plan of coach Paul Wulff.
Jacobson said he “felt like some of the guys gave up” mentally down the stretch in WSU’s only loss this season, when San Diego State rallied for a 42-24 victory.
Still, he’s convinced the Cougars can make a run at the Pac-12 North title despite the presence of No. 6 Stanford and No. 9 Oregon in the division.
What a change from a year ago, when the Cougars finished 2-10 and Jacobson admittedly struggled while playing (and starting at) guard for the first time in his life. “My head was (going) 100 miles an hour,” he said.
“He’s playing really good,” said John Fullington, WSU’s starting left guard. “He’s improved so much. He’s getting knockdowns; he’s manhandling people.
“He’s a big goof,” Fullington said with a grin. “Oh man, I love Wade!”
Jacobson, whose father traveled the pro rodeo circuit, was a successful team roper as a youth growing up on a ranch on the outskirts of Hollister, Calif. He still loves following rodeo, and he’s an avid hunter who also likes to hit the rifle range.
Jacobson was recruited by several junior colleges as a baseball pitcher, but no college football teams expressed interest until an assistant coach at his high school, Shawn Tennenbaum, lined him up with nearby Gavilan College.
Jacobson said he is eternally grateful to Tennenbaum and Andy Gonzalez, the offensive line coach who helped Jacobson develop into a third-team JC All-American at Gavilan. Jacobson said he turned down scholarship offers from North Carolina and San Jose State after his freshman year and offers from Arizona, Nevada and San Diego State after his sophomore year to come to WSU.
“I loved everything about this school,” said Jacobson, who plans to graduate with a degree in criminal justice in May. “I’m proud to call myself a Cougar.”
Jacobson, a senior, hopes he can be proud to call himself an NFL player a year from now. If pro football doesn’t work out, there’s always cooking.
“I go home after practice, I turn the Food Network on,” Jacobson said. “I’ll be sitting there with the pen and paper writing down recipes.”
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