Joe Salave'a signs a three-year deal and officially joins the Oregon football staff and will make more than he made at WSU
Washington State’s defensive line coach Joe Salave’a has officially been announced as Oregon’s assistant head coach and defensive line coach.
The Ducks unveiled their newest hire on Friday morning, and Andrew Greif of The Oregonian reports that Salave’a signed a three-year contract that will pay him $550,000 annually.
Salave’a would have made $400,000 at WSU this year.
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His departure to join new Oregon coach Willie Taggart’s staff means the Cougars are in the market for a new defensive line coach. Salave’a was a tremendous recruiter for the Cougars during five years in Pullman. His ties to American Samoa in particular proved lucrative for WSU, which had 11 players of Samoan or Asian-Pacific Islander heritage on its roster in 2016.
Salave’a developed Destiny Vaeao, Xavier Cooper and Toni Pole into NFL-caliber talents during his time at WSU, and has Hercules Mata’afa on that same track.
The Cougars will now have to make a second assistant coach hire this offseason. They recently announced the addition of former Toledo receivers coach Derek Sage to the staff. Sage replaced JaMarcus Shephard as inside receivers coach after Shephard left WSU in December to rejoin his mentor Jeff Brohm at Purdue.
Leach will likely take input from WSU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch in the search for a new defensive line coach.
WSU loses DL recruit Joe Tryon to UW
Hazen (Renton) High School defensive end Joe Tryon, a longtime WSU commit, flipped his commitment to UW on Thursday night, his high school football coach Chris Bennett confirmed in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
Tryon (6-foot-5, 230 pounds), is rated a three-star defensive end by Scout.com, had been verbally committed to WSU since last August, and the Cougars were the first Pac-12 school to offer him a scholarship.
But according to Bennett, UW entered the mix when the Huskies offered Tryon a scholarship about a week ago.
Bennett said Salave’a’s departure was not the reason Tryon flipped his commitment.
“I think a big thing was that his sister goes to UW, and being able to be close to her, and his mom living here and him being able to see her without getting on a plane, that was a big factor too,” Bennett said. “He had lots of offers and the UW offer came in a little later than others, and when it did, it was always in the back of his mind, where he might like to go when given the chance.
“I don’t think he thought the chance would happen, but when it did, it was in the back of his head.”
Bennett said WSU special teams coordinator Eric Mele, who recruits the Seattle-area for the Cougs, was in Renton Thursday night to attend Tryon’s basketball game.
Tryon was scheduled to take an official visit to WSU later this month, but Bennett said he’s unsure whether Tryon will still make the trip to Pullman.
“From talking to him, he just wanted to decide and shut down the recruiting process,” Bennett said.
Tryon holds offers from UW, WSU, Utah, Oregon and TCU.
Williams signs with the Eagles
The day before the San Diego Chargers announced their move to Los Angeles, former WSU receiver Dom Williams announced he had left the Chargers to sign a futures contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he will be reunited with former WSU teammate Destiny Vaeao. Williams spent 2016 on the Chargers’ practice squad, and hopes to earn a roster spot in Philadelphia. He will also get to wear his No. 80 again — the same number he wore in college at WSU.