How WSU RB Wayshawn Parker found his way to Pullman and a key role as a freshman
Greg WoodsSep. 18, 2024
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — Wayshawn Parker was scared before his first college snap. He had the jiggles, in his own words, nerves about taking the field. The stakes were relatively low in Washington State’s season-opener, a rout over FCS Portland State last month, but Parker is a true freshman. He had never played on a stage like this.
Quarterback John Mateer got in his running back’s ear, tried to quell Parker’s anxiety.
“When you take that first hit,” Mateer told Parker, “it’s gonna feel just like high school.”
On his first career carry, Parker broke free for a 20-yard gain, gashing the Vikings up the middle.
OK, Parker thought to himself, I can get in the groove of this.
In the opening minute of the second frame, Parker really got in the groove. He took a shotgun handoff, burst up the middle and shook a few tackles on his way to a 54-yard touchdown rush. Moments later, he scored again, this time on a long touchdown pass from Mateer.
OK, OK, Parker thought. Now I’m getting into it.
A week later, in WSU’s home win over Texas Tech, Parker felt his nerves vanish like a magic trick. This was an even bigger stage, an evening kickoff against a Power 4 school, but Parker felt at ease. He looked around at the Gesa Field crowd, some 28,000 striped in crimson and white, and understood he could do what he did the week prior.
So he delivered. He finished with 11 carries for 69 yards and a touchdown, a 43-yard surge up the left sideline, where he kept his balance around a pair of diving Texas Tech tacklers. The game was already slowing down for Parker after one college game. Now it felt like it was moving in slow-motion.
In WSU’s Apple Cup win over rival Washington last weekend, Parker made his coaches look like soothsayers for entrusting a true freshman with such a meaningful role in such a meaningful game. He registered 10 carries for 49 yards, including a 37-yard rush where he put a UW defender on the ground with a vicious juke. He also hauled in a 16-yard pass on third-and-long, keeping a drive alive for the 3-0 Cougars.
That’s the roundabout way of capturing the obvious: Parker may be a true freshman, an early enrollee, but he has unlocked the Cougs’ rushing attack in ways that are transforming the idea of what a Washington State offense can look like. He’s sturdy and quick, balanced and elusive, punishing opponents for trying the rush-three, drop-eight defense that flustered last year’s WSU team.
In three games, Parker has piled up 29 carries for 214 yards and two touchdowns, good for an average carry of 7.4 yards. Nationwide, he is Pro Football Focus’ 90th-best graded running back. Among freshmen with his workload, running backs with 25 carries or more, Parker ranks No. 1 in the country, earning a rushing grade of 76.8.
In other words, no matter where you look across the college football landscape, Parker is equal parts talented and unique. Few teams in the nation have put their trust in true freshman running backs, but WSU has done just that, making running backs coach Mark Atuaia look like a genius. Parker has yet to start a game, but he is the WSU running back, logging nearly 20 more carries than redshirt sophomore Leo Pulalasi, who is second on the team with 11 attempts.
As the Cougs prepare for their next game, a home matchup with San Jose State on Friday evening, it’s becoming clear they are wielding a rushing attack never before seen in program history. Mateer, the quarterback, is as dangerous with his legs as he is with his arm. His main backfield partner, Parker, has sharpened the spear with speed and strength.
How far can Parker take Washington State’s ground game? Perhaps more importantly, how did Parker end up in Pullman in the first place? There was a time when the WSU coaches who landed him weren’t so sure he would.
“We offered him,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said, “really hoping he wouldn’t have that great of a senior year.”
First, Parker had to turn himself into the kind of prospect Dickert and Co. would want.
Wayshawn Parker weighed some 230 pounds as a sophomore at Sacramento’s Rosemont High, where he played his first two years of high school ball. He was a heavier kid, not the slender speed threat he is today, which is why he was the Wolverines’ primary fullback and linebacker. He was their backup running back.
In those days, Parker — nicknamed Bobo around his house — wasn’t getting much attention in the recruiting orbit. Academic issues plagued him. He didn’t like where he was, where he could be. He saw his older brother, Wadus, flourish on the football field, and wondered why he couldn’t get there too.
Wadus, a class of 2014 prospect out of nearby Elk Grove High, produced back-to-back seasons of 1,300-plus rushing yards as a junior and senior. He totaled 50 touchdowns in that span. He played the 2016 season at Sacramento’s American River College, where he produced 365 rushing yards in eight games.
“So for Bobo to even get recognition in the household, he had to do more than what his brother was bringing to the table, and that was a lot,” Wadus, Wayshawn’s father, said. “Imagine that kind of impression in the household. That’s what kind of footwork (Wayshawn) was chasing.”
Around the house in Sacramento, Wayshawn’s father pushed him. Do some push-ups, Wadus might say. He encouraged Wayshawn to get active.
Around that time, Wadus’ work relocated and he moved the family, Wayshawn and his younger brother Waylon, to Elk Grove. Wayshawn enrolled at Elk Grove High, where he played his junior year.
That’s about when he found a park near his home, which became his sanctuary. He would play basketball, which he still considers his other sport. He put himself through several drills. He worked on his footwork. Sometimes he would just run laps, listening to music — “getting a vibe in,” he said. His favorite artists were rappers OMB Peezy (a relative of Parker’s) and NBA Youngboy.
That got him in better shape for his junior football season. He totaled 53 carries for 807 yards and 13 touchdowns. A few months later, he fielded an offer from UNLV — his only offer at that time.
Parker also ran track as a junior at Elk Grove, participating in five running events: The 100, 200, 400, 4×100 relay and 4×400 relay. By the end of track season, he had recorded a personal-best time in the 100 of 11.55 seconds, good for 10th place at that race.
He also vowed to improve in the classroom, where he had lagged behind earlier in his preps career. His academic issues, truth be told, held him back from catching the attention of more college coaches. When he improved on that front, the opportunities started flowing.
“My motivation was really my older brother,” Parker said, “watching him, seeing what he can do, the opportunities he had. I felt like I wanted that opportunity. So I was like, OK, I gotta push myself if I wanna do this, I wanna do that.”
That’s around the time when he appeared on the radar of Washington State’s coaches. He attended a camp put on by Sacramento State, the Big Sky school in the area, and so did Atuaia. By this time, Parker had slimmed down to 160, which helped him unleash his speed.
It was impossible for Atuaia to miss. He put Parker through all manner of drills, all types of positions. Could he make this cut? Make that catch? He tried Parker at running back, receiver, to test his versatility. “It just fell into my hands right then and there,” Parker said.
Soon after, Parker and WSU grew closer. He didn’t receive an offer, not until he took his official visit to Pullman. That came the weekend of Sept. 22, 2023, the weekend when the Cougs knocked off Oregon State for their fourth straight win to open the season, helping them vault all the way up to No. 13 in the AP poll. It was Parker’s first and only official visit.
“Washington State was the first one to just put their money where their mouth was, first and foremost,” Wadus, Wayshawn’s father, said. “That experience of going down there, seeing the environment, the people, talking to the coaches, seeing how genuine they was about my son, seeing how far of a study they had done on him from when they first was involved, on seeing him from play-to-play, the homework they did on him.”
Wayshawn also felt a stronger push from Atuaia and WSU, more so than San Jose State, Sacramento State and UNLV, his other offers. Before he extended an offer, Atuaia got on Parker’s case about his grades. Those needed to be in order to go to college, Atuaia told him, not just at WSU — anywhere.
That’s the kind of personal touch, Parker says, that sold him on the Cougs. They wanted him to succeed anywhere, not just in Pullman, which brought him to the Palouse after all.
As a senior, Parker transferred to Sacramento’s Grant Union High. He totaled 2,055 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns, sending a sense of worry through WSU’s coaching staff. Parker may have committed, but would he get pried away by another school and sign with them?
“It’s one of those things, like, I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to hang on to this guy,” Dickert said.
Dickert and the Cougs did. They even got him on campus in January, allowing him to compete in spring ball, which is when they started to realize they might need to play him right away. Six months later, all Parker has done is convince coaches they made the right choice, plowing ahead with the type of speed and strength that make WSU’s 3-0 record even more convicting.
Greg Woods Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review
