Apr. 11—PULLMAN — Zevi Eckhaus had never grilled before, but the sun was shining and spring had arrived in Pullman, so he decided to go for it.
It was last Saturday, and Eckhaus and his Washington State team had just wrapped up one of their final spring practices of the year. Before parting ways for the day, Eckhaus let six or seven of his teammates know he'd be grilling some burgers and wings at his place if they'd like to stop by.
Not long after Eckhaus returned to his apartment with the necessary equipment and ingredients — he needed to buy a grill to begin with, so he recruited fellow quarterback Jaxon Potter to join him at Walmart so he could use Potter's truck — he was greeted by much more than six or seven teammates.
"Ended up being around 27, 28 guys who showed up to the house," Eckhaus said.
Which is why tere's now a picture floating around Instagram of Eckhaus in action: He's wearing a gray and crimson cutoff WSU T-shirt, a towel draped over his left shoulder, holding a spatula with his right hand and giving the camera a thumbs up with his left, standing right beside the grill and a bowl of chicken waiting to be grilled.
Eckhaus laughs telling the tale — "If you've got 25 hungry football players, it doesn't take much to satisfy their hungers," he said — but it also represents another way his life has changed in the last year. After transferring from FCS Bryant in January 2024, Eckhaus came to WSU to compete for the starting quarterback's role, but that eluded him. For the 2024 season, Eckhaus backed up John Mateer, who has since transferred to Oklahoma, following former offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle there.
Around that time, Eckhaus realized his career wouldn't play out according to his plan, which was to win the starting job and enter this spring's NFL draft. Instead of working out for the draft, the redshirt senior is spending these days doing the same at WSU, where he's in line for the starting job this time around. But perhaps more important, he's established another level of camaraderie with his teammates, the kind that brings them together for Eckhaus' first time manning the grill.
He's also realized activities like these are part of what gives remote WSU its allure, part of what gives him a different experience than living in his hometown of Culver City, California, in the Los Angeles area. In that part of the country, Eckhaus said, it's all about flash: What's gonna be the biggest picture that I can make? What's gonna be the coolest outfit that I can wear? What's gonna be the coolest car that I can drive?
"When you're in a place like this, it's not really about those things. It's really about, 'OK, well, how can we spend time together and enjoy making memories that last forever?' " Eckhaus said. "We spend time with one another. We go fishing, we play cards, we have fun with one another, we grill. We go to the house and we grill. So it's things like that that you really begin to appreciate a little bit more when you're not in an environment like Los Angeles."
It's also provided Eckhaus with an outlet to decompress and relax, to enjoy the company of his teammates. The word Eckhaus likes to use is comfort. He feels more comfortable now than he did a year ago, when he had only recently moved to Pullman — more comfortable with the scenery, the practice settings, the games, the locker room environments — everything.
For Eckhaus, it's a fine line that he walks like a tightrope. He seems to have an internal understanding that he's in line for the Cougars' QB1 role, which comes with some level of job security. But because of his nature — what he calls "a voice in the back of your ...
