Oct. 29—PULLMAN — The reaggravation amounted to the worst days. Trey Leckner had missed all of spring ball with a foot injury, and as he angled to return as Washington State's top pass-catching tight end, he had every reason to believe he could enter his final form in his redshirt junior campaign.
Then, over the summer, he broke his foot again. He would miss the entirety of fall camp with the injury.
"That was really hard," Leckner said.
In all, Leckner was out almost the entire calendar year: spring ball, summer workouts, fall camp, the beginning of the season. He was expected to miss the first half of the Cougars' 2026 campaign, which would have meant a return in mid-October, a costly blow for an offense that would prove to be anemic. But Leckner recovered quicker than anyone in the building expected. His first game back came on Oct. 3, in WSU's home loss to Fresno State.
Since then, Leckner has caught 12 passes for 92 yards, including four-reception outings against Utah State earlier this month and Boise State last weekend. That hasn't led to wins — not much has this season for the Cougars, who are still looking for their first FBS victory — but with his reliable hands and shifty athleticism, Leckner has given new quarterback Owen Eshelman a handy release valve in tight spots.
The best example came late in the second quarter, midway through the long scoring drive that WSU used to tie the game before halftime. Facing a fourth-and-2 near midfield, the Cougars needed a play to net them a couple yards. It probably wouldn't come on the ground, where their offensive line has struggled to clear space for their tailbacks. And a standard shotgun dropback pass didn't seem like a smart idea either.
So WSU coach Kirby Moore looked at his playsheet and dialed up a short pass from Eshelman to Leckner. In only his second career start, the Cougars' redshirt freshman quarterback took a quick dropback and laced a pass to Leckner, who had come surging to the right while the rest of his teammates flowed to the left. That meant Leckner was wide open, and after he caught the ball, he only needed to fall forward another yard or so for the first down.
Ten plays later, WSU running back Kirby Vorhees squeezed into the end zone and the game was tied at 7-all.
"Obviously I was coming back across the field and I saw the D-end rush up the field," Leckner said, "so I snapped my eyes around quick, and I knew it was gonna be coming to me on fourth-and-short. So just put my head down and tried to get the first down. And it's been great playing with Owen. I mean, I think he's a really good leader. I think since he's taken over the role, he hasn't flinched. He hasn't shown any nervousness or anything like that. So it's been really good to play with him."
It's tricky business, discussing any encouraging developments with this WSU offense, the unit that ranks among the country's worst in just about every department you like. The Cougs are scoring only 1.35 points per drive, which ranks No. 135 of 138 FBS teams, a niche stat that does a nice job of painting the whole picture: As Eshelman takes over for Caden Pinnick, he's looked far sharper and accurate than his predecessor, but many of the same problems exist with this group.
Washington State still can't run the ball, averaging only 15 carries for 48 yards from running backs in seven games against FBS competition. The Cougs' offensive line still can't clear lanes for those guys, and they still can't keep their quarterback clean. And even with Moore calling plays, which he has now done on a full-time basis for the last three games, nothing consistent and explosive has washed over their offense.
That forces you to look at the details, at the finer points with this offense that could help WSU take down San Diego State on the road this weekend. Can the Cougars end their five-game losing streak? They'll be going up against one of the country's worst scoring defenses in the Aztecs, who rank No. 135 in total defense (462 yards per game) and No. 133 in scoring defense (36 points per game).
Can Leckner make an impact against that type of defense? The temptation is to say yes. He's fluid and reliable. In 13 targets this year, he has 12 receptions, and he has yet to drop a pass. In fact, in his entire career, he has been dinged for only one drop, which came in last winter's Idaho Potato Bowl. Add it all up and you get these numbers: 52 targets, 41 receptions, 365 yards, four touchdowns, and just one drop.
He's doing it all as a bit of a tweener, listed at 6-foot-3 and 243 pounds. He's not enormous and burly like other tight ends, but he's also not tiny, either. He's also carving out this type of career at WSU, which isn't exactly known for producing prestigious tight ends, at least not in the modern era. Back in 2017, the late Mike Leach was quoted as saying, "God didn't make very many true tight ends."
Leach may not have used tight ends in his time at WSU — in fact, he was famous for refusing to use them at all — but they've enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years, especially in Pullman. Leckner has helped facilitate that, as has former Cougar Cooper Mathers, who set the program's single-season record for touchdown catches by a TE with six during the 2024 season.
So how did Leckner become a tight end in the first place? Back in high school, at Glacier Peak in Snohomish, he remembers feeling like he was too slow to be a receiver, but a bit too big to play running back. "So tight end, kinda H-back was that perfect spot for me," Leckner said, "where I can do everything, kinda be a Swiss Army knife in the offense."
Leckner has been all of that and more for WSU. Among Cougars who have at least 75 pass-blocking snaps, he ranks tops on the team with a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of 69. In the run-blocking department, he checks in with a grade of just 45.3, which is far below average.
Can that number be chalked up to the possibility that he's still working his way back into shape? Maybe, but he's finished with similar numbers in each of his previous two years — 48.5 in 2024, 56.1 in 2025 — so it's more likely he's just more of a finesse player.
That has served him well. So has his drive to get back on the field. Earlier this year, when he was working through rehab to do so, he impressed tight ends coach Derham Cato, who has been coaching for more than 15 years. Sometimes when a player is working his way back from injury, he said back in August, he worries about them losing "that mental intensity."
"But that has not been the case," Cato said. "He's still got his notepad out every meeting. He's taking notes. He's dialed. He's right behind with the guys that aren't on the sideline every team period, talking to them, right? Just in terms of technique stuff, scheme stuff, responsibility stuff. So he's done a hell of a job with it."
"I'm definitely the type of person where it's everything or nothing," Leckner said. "I think, yeah, I have to knock the rust off. Obviously, missing all spring and all fall camp and getting back into the swing of things. I'm definitely still making mistakes that maybe I wouldn't have made — you know what I mean? — if I had all that time practicing and getting better. But just working the new techniques with my coaches and really just grinding, grinding in practice, so I can go out there and execute."
