WSU hires South Dakota State’s Jesse Bobbit as next defensive coordinator

PULLMAN — New Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers has now filled both coordinator spots on his staff.

Rogers is hiring Jesse Bobbit as the Cougars’ new defensive coordinator, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review on Friday, bringing over his former South Dakota State DC of two years. Bobbit was also a graduate assistant with the Cougs from 2020-21.

ESPN was the first to report the news.

An Illinois native, Bobbit served as SDSU’s linebackers coach and DC each of the previous two seasons, holding opposing offenses to just 14 points per game this year, tops in the FCS. The Jackrabbits held FCS opponents to single digits on five occasions, including a shutout win over SE Louisiana. SDSU permitted just 284 yards per game, No. 5 in the country.

Bobbit’s SDSU defense held opposing offenses to a third-down conversion rate of 31%, No. 8 nationally, and the unit’s 93.2 rushing yards allowed per game ranked fifth. South Dakota State’s safeties coach in 2022, Bobbit graduated in 2017 from SDSU, where he played linebacker for four seasons.

WSU is also hiring Everrette Thompson as defensive line coach, a source confirmed. 247Sports was the first to report the hire of Thompson, who played defensive line at rival Washington from 2008-11, spending the last three years at FCS Cal Poly, where he worked as a quality control coach in 2022 and 2023 before being promoted to special teams coordinator and assistant offensive line coach for 2024.

A Seattle-area native, Thompson started his coaching career at Phoenix College, where he worked as special teams coordinator, linebackers coach and defensive line coach from 2015-17. After that, he spent the 2018 season as a graduate assistant at FCS Northern Arizona, where he was promoted to defensive line coach for the 2019-21 seasons.

Rogers has now made three hires for his staff: Bobbit, Thompson and offensive coordinator Danny Freund, who spent the 2024 season as SDSU’s offensive coordinator, splitting the job with offensive line coach Ryan Olson. 

Rogers has a pool of $4.5 million to split among his assistants, WSU athletic director Anne McCoy said, a $1M increase of what was planned for former head coach Jake Dickert this season. For the 2024 season, Dickert’s pool was $5.2M. In previous years, the number was around $5.9M, as the Cougars enjoyed conference payouts from the traditional Pac-12.

For the 2025-26 academic year, Rogers will have another $4.5 to spend on scholarships and student-athlete benefits, McCoy said. This season, NCAA scholarship limits are expanding from 85 to 105, though schools aren’t required to fund all 105. McCoy and the Cougs are electing to give Rogers a dollar amount to use as he sees fit on scholarships, institutional NIL, revenue sharing and more.

Rogers’ introductory news conference is set for sometime next week.

Bobbit will have to work with a revamped WSU defense in 2025. The Cougars are losing a lot on defense headed into next season, including linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah (transferred to UW), cornerback Ethan O’Connor (transfer portal), defensive linemen David Gusta (portal), Ansel Din-Mbuh (transferred to TCU) and Khalil Laufau (transferred to Houston), plus nickelback Kapena Gushiken (portal) and safety Jackson Lataimua (portal).

On Friday, nickelback Jerrae Williams entered the portal before withdrawing his name hours later, On 3 Sports reported. As of this writing, 33 Cougs were in the portal, including an entrance by backup safety Reece Sylvester on Friday afternoon.