Apr. 5—PULLMAN — Hudson Cedarland was ready to walk away from football, at least at Washington State.
After years of battling injuries and rising up the depth chart only to plummet when it mattered most, the linebacker put a plan in place: The day before the spring semester started, he would clear out his locker, head home to Gig Harbor, Washington, to train and enter the transfer portal in April.
One day in early January, Cedarland completed the first step of his plan. He cleared out his locker in the Cougar Football Complex. But that's about when a thought occurred to him: What if he could move to tight end? He had already called head coach Jimmy Rogers about the idea, but he got a wait-and-see response from Rogers, who had only been on the job for about a week. He needed more time to assess the roster.
But what if, Cedarland thought, he could ask Rogers in person? He desired a fresh start, understanding he faced a steep climb up the depth chart at linebacker, and told himself he had nothing to lose.
Cedarland took the elevator up to the fifth floor, home to the Cougar coaches' offices, where he ran into Rogers in a hallway. Cedarland introduced himself, reminded Rogers of their previous phone call. Cedarland was about to bring up his idea to move positions, but remembering the idea himself, Rogers cut him off.
"Wait," Rogers said, smiling as he looked Cedarland up and down. "Hold on a second."
Rogers pulled out his phone and dialed tight ends coach Chris Meyers, one of the many coaches he brought over from FCS South Dakota State. Before long, Meyers came striding down the hallway, where he saw Cedarland and Rogers.
"Hey man," Meyers told Cedarland, "what's your name?"
"I'm Hudson Cedarland," Cedarland said.
"Welcome to the tight end room," Meyers answered.
"I couldn't stop playing the game without knowing that I didn't give it one more shot at tight end," said Cedarland, a redshirt junior. "I knew that's something that I've always wanted to do, and that even when I was here playing linebacker with (former head coach Jake) Dickert's staff and everything, deep down, I missed the offensive side of the ball, knowing that that could be an option down the road.
"Especially battling injuries, making good steps and maybe almost being the guy, and then getting hurt and then dropping back down the depth chart. It always felt like a battle to get to where I needed to be. So I was just ready for a change. Thankfully, the staff was willing to let me make that change."
Cedarland entered the transfer portal in January, joining some 30 of his teammates in doing so. But he withdrew his name because of the confidence he felt from the Cougs' new coaches, who supported his idea to switch to tight end, a position that might fit Cedarland better now with the way the new staff views it — more power and less finesse.
Cedarland is joining WSU's tight end corps at an opportune time. Returning veteran Andre Dollar has missed each of the past two open practices — on Saturday, Rogers said Dollar is working through injuries — and outside of redshirt sophomore Trey Leckner, the Cougs' unit is relatively thin, at least more so than in years past.
It figures to provide a window of opportunity for Cedarland, 6-foot-3 and 239 pounds, the player Rogers and Meyers see for the position — physical and strong, and open to blocking for what will likely be a much more run-centric offense than WSU has seen in quite some time.
"The transition's gone great. I'm enjoying it," Cedarland said. "I think I'm making good progress along the way. I've only practiced — today was practice 12, 12 days as a college tight end. ...
