Washington State lands biggest commit yet in JUCO WR Devin Ellison
The Seattle Times
Greg Woods
Jan. 10, 2025 at 5:10 pm
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — A day after Jimmy Rogers was formally introduced as Washington State’s next football coach, he reeled in his biggest fish yet.
Junior college transfer wide receiver Devin Ellison is transferring to WSU, he announced on social media Friday morning, giving the Cougars their highest-profile transfer since Rogers took the job in late December. A three-star prospect, Ellison will have two years of eligibility (plus a redshirt year) after playing one year at Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey, California.
In 10 games last season at Monterey Peninsula, Ellison made 45 receptions for 837 yards and 16 touchdowns, ranking as 247 Sports’ No. 6 JUCO wide receiver in his class. He hails from Canton, Georgia, which is about 45 minutes outside Atlanta.
Ellison, who received his WSU offer last weekend and visited Pullman earlier this week, picked the Cougars over finalists UCF and Boise State. But he was pursued by dozens of schools, including Fresno State, San Diego State, UTSA, Hawaii, Nevada, Western Kentucky, Akron and several FCS clubs.
Ellison started his career in 2022 at Southern University, where he never saw the field.
Rogers and the Cougars also earned commitments Friday from Cal Poly transfer cornerback Kai Rapolla and Southwestern Oklahoma State transfer punter Dylan Mauro. Rapolla, who will have two years of eligibility, entered the transfer portal in December, committed to San Diego State, then decommitted and re-entered the portal.
In 2024, he totaled 30 tackles, five pass breakups and two interceptions in 10 games, all starts. A native of Winchester, California, Rapolla redshirted in 2022, then recorded 14 tackles and four pass breakups in nine games in 2023. He finished the 2024 season with a Pro Football Focus coverage grade of 81.8, well above average and tops on the team.
Six-foot and 190 pounds, Rapolla joins a WSU CB room as an immediate starting candidate. The Cougs are losing both of their 2024 starters, Ethan O’Connor (transferred to Miami) and Steve Hall (transferred to Missouri), while Rogers has also landed a commitment from former SDSU CB Colby Humphrey, a veteran.
Mauro spent the 2023 season at UTEP before transferring to Southwestern Oklahoma State for the 2024 campaign. A Dallas-area native, Mauro is a candidate to replace former longtime WSU punter Nick Haberer, who transferred to Vanderbilt this offseason.
Ellison, Rapolla and Mauro make up the 18th, 19th and 20th transfers Rogers has landed at WSU. They’re the fourth, fifth and sixth Rogers has landed from a school other than SDSU, joining Cal Poly transfer defensive lineman Soni Finau, who committed on Wednesday, and Michigan State transfer tight end Ademola Faleye, who committed on Thursday.
On Friday, Rogers also landed three more high school commits, giving him six from those ranks: Cornerbacks Trillion Sorrell and Tyrone Cotton, plus athlete Damarius Russell, all three-star prospects. All three were previously committed to Rogers at SDSU, which applies to all of the high school pledges he’s landed, an unsurprising development considering high school recruiting across the country mostly wrapped up during the Dec. 4-6 early signing period.
WSU is losing several receivers from last season — senior Kyle Williams exhausted his eligibility, Carlos Hernandez transferred to Wake Forest and Kris Hutson took his talents to Arizona — which makes Ellison’s addition important for the Cougs. At 6-foot-2, he provides some size on the outside, making him a starting candidate right away.
The Cougars are returning two wideouts with experience at WSU: Josh Meredith and Tre Shackelford, both of whom entered the transfer portal but later withdrew their names. It’s likely Meredith, Shackelford and Ellison will feature prominently in the Cougars’ 2025 wide receiver rotation, which could also include rising sophomore Branden Ganashamoorthy in a new, run-centric scheme under Rogers and offensive coordinator Danny Freund.
For his part, Mauro booted 64 punts for 2,764 yards last season, good for an average punt of 43.2 yards, with a long punt of 84 yards. He punted 10 times for 50-plus yards and landed 19 inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. He also handled kickoff duties for SW Oklahoma State, notching six touchbacks on 36 kickoffs.
With Haberer off to Vanderbilt and longtime kicker Dean Janikowski out of eligibility, Mauro’s addition is another important one for WSU, which has some holes on the kicking side of its special teams department. Mauro is the second kicker WSU has added under Rogers, who has also secured a commitment from former South Dakota State kicker Jack Stevens, a rising sophomore.
Former WSU long snapper Colson Brunner has also transferred to Vanderbilt, so the Cougars will need to find a replacement for him. The only long snapper currently on WSU’s roster is Sean Bures, who will be a redshirt sophomore in 2025.
On the high school front, Rogers did well to add some depth to the defensive backs room with the additions of Cotton and Sorrell. Cotton, who hails from the Chicago area, also had offers from Indiana, Miami (OH), Akron, Buffalo and a handful of FCS schools, including Western Michigan and Western Illinois.
Cotton also competed in track and field last spring at Glenbrook South High, where he recorded a personal-best 100-meter dash time of 11.49 seconds. He logged four first-place finishes in the long jump, with a high mark of 22 feet, 6.25 inches, and he registered three first-place finishes in the high jump, with a PR of 6 feet, 5 inches.
“Tyrone is a long and rangy lockdown cornerback who will impact our team right away,” Rogers said via South Dakota State release on signing day. “We cannot wait to get him on campus and develop him into one of the best cornerbacks in the country.”
Sorrell, a 6-foot cornerback prospect out of Edina High in the Minneapolis area, recorded 18 tackles (2 for loss) and two passes defended in eight games played last season. He also caught 30 passes for 547 yards and seven touchdowns, according to MN Football Hub, earning offers from FCS schools North Dakota State, South Dakota, Northern Iowa, St. Thomas and North Dakota.
“Trillion brings a ton of athleticism and fire to the secondary,” Rogers said via release. “We love the competitiveness and edge that he plays the position with. Trillion will be ready to compete right away.”
Finally, the 5-11 athlete Russell — from Waseca, Minnesota, a little outside Minneapolis — turned down offers from Texas Tech, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa before committing to Rogers at SDSU.
Russell earned high school conference awards as special teams player of the year (2022), receiver of the year (2023) and player of the year (2024). He completed his prep career with 110 receptions for 1,800 yards and 19 total touchdowns on offense, plus 100 tackles and 11 interceptions on defense.
An all-state selection in 2024, Russell has been selected to play in the Minnesota high school football all-star game.
“Damarius is one of the most instinctual players in the class,” Rogers said via release. “He has extraordinary ball skills and playmaking ability. His suddenness and speed will make an impact in our secondary.”
Greg Woods: Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review
