Sep. 1—PULLMAN — In the days leading up to Washington State's fall camp, which began the first week of August and wrapped up in the last, Nylan Brown figured his apartment would provide too many distractions.
He might end up staying up too late, hanging out and chatting with teammates Tony Freeman and Kaden Beatty. He didn't feel the need to reset at home anyway. Plus, he was pushing for time in WSU's linebacker corps, so he'd rather be around his teammates as much as possible anyway.
So Brown decided to stay at the Cougar Football Complex throughout fall camp, throughout the two-plus weeks the Cougars spent installing head coach Kirby Moore and assistants' playbooks via practices and scrimmages. Brown didn't go home to "reset," he said, because he felt like he had everything he needed: an air mattress, mattress topper, a pillow and Normatec compression sleeves, which players put on their legs to increase circulation, reduce swelling and expedite muscle recovery.
"It was cold in there at night. Nobody's bothering you," Brown said. "Got every snack I need. Go to the weight room, go stretch before I go to bed. If I got questions, I can go ask coach (Trent) Bray. I've got everything I need. All the food is here. Everything's here. So it was good. It was really good for me."
A junior transfer from Kent State, Brown is expected to serve as a backup linebacker in Bray's 4-2-5 defense, playing behind starters DJ Warner and Keith Brown. But because of how sharp those two looked during fall camp, it's likely that Brown isn't far behind, using a combination of pure strength and football IQ to stack up runs and keep the Cougars' mobile QBs contained.
Can he do the same this fall, starting with WSU's season-opening trip to No. 17 Washington in Sunday's Apple Cup? He certainly has the credentials. Last season at Kent State, he played in 11 games, tallying 38 total tackles (21 solo, 17 assisted), with 2.5 tackles for loss and three QB hurries. The year before that, he also played in 11 games, posting 20 tackles, one-half tackle for loss and two forced fumbles.
"I knew about it because that was my favorite nap spot during fall camp, was his air mattress," Keith Brown said with a laugh. "So I'd go out there and find a place to nap. But yeah, just shows his determination and commitment to this program of being around ball and being able to ask questions. Staying within the facility is huge."
If one part of Brown's game is worth a closer look, it's his tackling. Last fall, he missed 14 tackles, which was fourth most in the Mid-American Conference. He isn't the biggest linebacker — he's listed at 6 feet and 246 pounds — so what he lacks in height he makes up for in sculpting himself into a bulldog of a defender. But the missed tackles are something to keep an eye on in his snaps this season at WSU.
The interesting part is that while Brown is new to Washington State, he isn't new to all his teammates. In 2024, he was teammates with Beatty at Kent State. That fall, the Golden Flashes went 0-12, the only FBS team to go winless that season.
Those days still live prominently in the mind of Beatty, who is never one to hide his emotions. That season, Brown was a true freshman and Beatty was a redshirt freshman, but both wound up making meaningful contributions on defense. The Golden Flashes were shut out three times. In back-to-back road losses to ranked foes Tennessee and Penn State, they lost by a combined score of 127-0. In fact, only two of their losses came by one score.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Beatty said. "It built our skin a little bit thicker, and it really helped us to develop our mind and develop through, 'this is a process.' Like I said earlier, you gotta take every minute, what you're doing, every single minute, every single hour, every single day matters, and that's what really it shows to me. As long as we're on our work and we're locked in, then it'll come to fruition and everything will roll out and be where it's supposed to be."
This Sunday, Beatty will get a second crack at the Huskies, who earned a 59-24 win last fall in Pullman. In that game, Beatty made one tackle in 24 snaps. Now set for a starting role, Beatty will be getting much more run. Will it be enough to help WSU pull a massive upset?
That much is unclear, but one thing isn't: Beatty feels the importance of the rivalry, the hatred the Cougars and Huskies feel toward each other. Beatty was born in Baltimore and grew up in Virginia Beach, where he rooted hard for the Ravens in their rivalry games against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now in his second season at WSU, he feels the same passion for the Apple Cup.
"I'm a Coug now, through and through," Beatty said. "It's in my blood. I bleed crimson and gray. So now, just having this rivalry is just something that I'm thrilled to be a part of. And now, I'm gonna be immersed in history with some of the other greats that have went through this building, these walls, and so I couldn't be more excited and more fired up."
