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Apr. 9—PULLMAN — Around his Washington State teammates, Isaac Terrell hardly goes by his first name anymore. A third-year edge rusher, Terrell often responds to a different name entirely, but it isn't a nickname that sounds like his birth name, or even an offshoot.
He goes by Bobby.
Allow Terrell to explain. Playing youth football in his hometown of Lehi, Utah, he started to get comparisons to the character Bobby Boucher, played by Adam Sandler in the 1998 flick "The Waterboy." Teammates and parents started to think they looked alike, so he took on the name Bobby.
It followed him around since. At Lehi High, where he earned a wrestling state title as a junior and recorded 10.5 sacks on the football field as a senior, the football PA announcer referred to him that way. "Bobby Terrell with the tackle" would ring out across the speakers. "Bobby Terrell on the sack."
Word spread to interested college coaches, including schools that offered him like Cal and San Jose State. But when he arrived in Pullman in 2023, he was Isaac for some time. That was until one fall camp practice, when former defensive tackles coach Pete Kaligis dropped Isaac's first name. He called him Bobby.
"All the players were around, and then they heard Bobby," Terrell said. "Now everyone calls me Bobby."
As Terrell angles toward his junior season, he's planning to earn more similarities with Bobby Boucher than just an appearance. Terrell appears poised for a breakout junior season, ready to leverage his relatively smaller frame — 6-foot-2, 248 pounds — and wreak havoc in backfields with the kind of playing time he hasn't enjoyed in his first two seasons.
Until now. Terrell played nine games as a freshman in 2023, then all 12 in 2024, totaling 12 tackles, one for loss. Suddenly an upperclassman, Terrell might not feel like a veteran yet, but he's in line for a season like one.
"Now, after having two years and heading into my third year, I just fully understand it systematically," Terrell said. "Now I don't have to think as much. I can just react, because I understand all the schemes. I can see a front and be like, 'OK, probably split zone.' It just speeds up the process, and I can react. I know the footwork. That goes with everything."
But first, Terrell had to decide he wanted to apply all those lessons at WSU, to stay in Pullman. In late December, former head coach Jake Dickert left for the same job at Wake Forest. That, Terrell figured, he could stomach. But the exit of edges coach Frank Maile, who has since landed at Boise State, hit him harder.
"To be honest, Dickert wasn't my favorite coach I've had," Terrell said. "He just wasn't very personal, and didn't almost feel like a real person. It was like the tension was always tight when he was around, just kind of always analyzing everything. So it just didn't feel like he was so much of a person.
"But the hardest one for me was my position coach, coach Maile. He was a really great dude and a really good mentor for me. When he ended up having to leave because of the whole coaching staff change, that was kind of where I was like, well, you know ..."
But to understand Terrell is to understand what he values most: Family and surrounding himself with those he cares the most about. It's one reason why he prefers football over wrestling. Football is a team sport, which gives him the opportunity to build deeper connections with teammates, with coaches and communities of supporters.
One of six siblings, four brothers and one sister, Terrell has always centered himself with family. One day, he hopes to help his parents retire ‚ "because they've made so many sacrifices raising six kids growing up, and just what they did was incredible for us," Terrell said. Next month, he's getting married.
In that way, it adds up that Terrell opted to stay. "I play better football when I'm playing for people that I care about," Terrell said, "(rather) than just playing for myself." He's spent years ingraining himself in the WSU community, and he's come to take pride in wearing the Cougar crimson and gray, he said. The underdog mentality that colors this program resonates with him strongly.
When WSU hired head coach Jimmy Rogers, who in turn hired defensive line coach Jalon Bibbs to pair with assistant D-line coach Everett Thompson, Terrell perked up. When he met those men, he understood he would be playing for coaches who shared his values, who are on the job for the same reason he is on the field.
"They're just super personal, and they're just real people," Terrell said. "A lot of times in football, the coaches don't feel very real, like real people. But you can go talk to them about anything. They're super funny, and they live out the values that they preach. That's a big thing for me with coaches — if they're gonna tell you to do it, they have to do it themselves. I love coach (Thompson) and coach Bibbs. They're awesome coaches."
The good news for Bibbs and Thompson, who coach the entire defensive line in lieu of an edge-specific coach like Maile, is they're inheriting a defensive line corps with an emerging leader. Because he feels so comfortable processing the game, Terrell also feels comfortable pointing teammates in the right direction, helping them understand the minutiae that eluded him in his younger years.
It's another reason why Terrell looks ready for his biggest season. Alongside fellow edge rushers like senior Raam Stevenson — who called Terrell a "freak" in the most complimentary way possible — and sophomore Michael Hughes, Terrell feels like he can just play now. No more thinking. Just playing.
Check out how he described a sequence he sees often: "I just feel that puller coming across, even though my eyes are looking at the mesh point. But I knew that the tackle left, and it was fast flow away. I noticed that the Y was on the other side, and it's a feel thing — I can just react off a box. Quarterback keeps it, you go. It's so much faster, but it's a lot easier to understand the plays."
Those are the kinds of reads that Terrell no longer has to process one by one. In his third season at WSU, Terrell's mind understands it all fluidly now, like understanding a new language without translating it back to your native one. The game comes naturally to Terrell now — almost as naturally as his nickname.
Continue reading...
He goes by Bobby.
Allow Terrell to explain. Playing youth football in his hometown of Lehi, Utah, he started to get comparisons to the character Bobby Boucher, played by Adam Sandler in the 1998 flick "The Waterboy." Teammates and parents started to think they looked alike, so he took on the name Bobby.
It followed him around since. At Lehi High, where he earned a wrestling state title as a junior and recorded 10.5 sacks on the football field as a senior, the football PA announcer referred to him that way. "Bobby Terrell with the tackle" would ring out across the speakers. "Bobby Terrell on the sack."
Word spread to interested college coaches, including schools that offered him like Cal and San Jose State. But when he arrived in Pullman in 2023, he was Isaac for some time. That was until one fall camp practice, when former defensive tackles coach Pete Kaligis dropped Isaac's first name. He called him Bobby.
"All the players were around, and then they heard Bobby," Terrell said. "Now everyone calls me Bobby."
As Terrell angles toward his junior season, he's planning to earn more similarities with Bobby Boucher than just an appearance. Terrell appears poised for a breakout junior season, ready to leverage his relatively smaller frame — 6-foot-2, 248 pounds — and wreak havoc in backfields with the kind of playing time he hasn't enjoyed in his first two seasons.
Until now. Terrell played nine games as a freshman in 2023, then all 12 in 2024, totaling 12 tackles, one for loss. Suddenly an upperclassman, Terrell might not feel like a veteran yet, but he's in line for a season like one.
"Now, after having two years and heading into my third year, I just fully understand it systematically," Terrell said. "Now I don't have to think as much. I can just react, because I understand all the schemes. I can see a front and be like, 'OK, probably split zone.' It just speeds up the process, and I can react. I know the footwork. That goes with everything."
But first, Terrell had to decide he wanted to apply all those lessons at WSU, to stay in Pullman. In late December, former head coach Jake Dickert left for the same job at Wake Forest. That, Terrell figured, he could stomach. But the exit of edges coach Frank Maile, who has since landed at Boise State, hit him harder.
"To be honest, Dickert wasn't my favorite coach I've had," Terrell said. "He just wasn't very personal, and didn't almost feel like a real person. It was like the tension was always tight when he was around, just kind of always analyzing everything. So it just didn't feel like he was so much of a person.
"But the hardest one for me was my position coach, coach Maile. He was a really great dude and a really good mentor for me. When he ended up having to leave because of the whole coaching staff change, that was kind of where I was like, well, you know ..."
But to understand Terrell is to understand what he values most: Family and surrounding himself with those he cares the most about. It's one reason why he prefers football over wrestling. Football is a team sport, which gives him the opportunity to build deeper connections with teammates, with coaches and communities of supporters.
One of six siblings, four brothers and one sister, Terrell has always centered himself with family. One day, he hopes to help his parents retire ‚ "because they've made so many sacrifices raising six kids growing up, and just what they did was incredible for us," Terrell said. Next month, he's getting married.
In that way, it adds up that Terrell opted to stay. "I play better football when I'm playing for people that I care about," Terrell said, "(rather) than just playing for myself." He's spent years ingraining himself in the WSU community, and he's come to take pride in wearing the Cougar crimson and gray, he said. The underdog mentality that colors this program resonates with him strongly.
When WSU hired head coach Jimmy Rogers, who in turn hired defensive line coach Jalon Bibbs to pair with assistant D-line coach Everett Thompson, Terrell perked up. When he met those men, he understood he would be playing for coaches who shared his values, who are on the job for the same reason he is on the field.
"They're just super personal, and they're just real people," Terrell said. "A lot of times in football, the coaches don't feel very real, like real people. But you can go talk to them about anything. They're super funny, and they live out the values that they preach. That's a big thing for me with coaches — if they're gonna tell you to do it, they have to do it themselves. I love coach (Thompson) and coach Bibbs. They're awesome coaches."
The good news for Bibbs and Thompson, who coach the entire defensive line in lieu of an edge-specific coach like Maile, is they're inheriting a defensive line corps with an emerging leader. Because he feels so comfortable processing the game, Terrell also feels comfortable pointing teammates in the right direction, helping them understand the minutiae that eluded him in his younger years.
It's another reason why Terrell looks ready for his biggest season. Alongside fellow edge rushers like senior Raam Stevenson — who called Terrell a "freak" in the most complimentary way possible — and sophomore Michael Hughes, Terrell feels like he can just play now. No more thinking. Just playing.
Check out how he described a sequence he sees often: "I just feel that puller coming across, even though my eyes are looking at the mesh point. But I knew that the tackle left, and it was fast flow away. I noticed that the Y was on the other side, and it's a feel thing — I can just react off a box. Quarterback keeps it, you go. It's so much faster, but it's a lot easier to understand the plays."
Those are the kinds of reads that Terrell no longer has to process one by one. In his third season at WSU, Terrell's mind understands it all fluidly now, like understanding a new language without translating it back to your native one. The game comes naturally to Terrell now — almost as naturally as his nickname.
Continue reading...
