Washington State 2025 Player Spotlight: RB Leo Pulalasi

Like many of its positions heading into 2025, Washington State's running back room looks vastly different and yet will still retain at least a bit of the familiar. With last year's lead back Wayshawn Parker now at Utah, the door has opened for someone else to step up and take on the workload. While several new names have come into the mix this offseason, the one that could end up being an X factor in that area is a youngster who stuck around: Leo Pulalasi.

It has been guys like Angel Johnson and Kirby Vorhees that have captured a lot of the attention coming in from South Dakota State this spring. Pulalasi, however, has been here before. As a freshman with WSU last season, he appeared in all 13 games and got 65 touches. He turned those into 302 yards (good for third on the team behind Parker and then-QB John Mateer) and a pair of touchdowns. Pulalasi also caught eight passes. In 2023, during his redshirt campaign, he played in two contests, going for 105 yards.

The Tacoma native waited in the wings for much of the year last season but, after the Cougars lost practically their entire starting roster following the regular season finale, Pulalasi got the opportunity to show his stuff in the team's Holiday Bowl against Syracuse. There he he averaged 4.4 yards per carry and paced the offense with 61 on the ground.

That production looks as though it could carry over into this season as Pulalasi was one of the feature backs in Washington State's Crimson and Grey spring game last month. It is no secret that the team plans to focus on the ground game in 2025 and quarterback Zevi Eckhaus stated as much, telling reporters "We're going to run the ball this year and we're going to be really, really good at running the ball."

One would have to imagine that Pulalasi will feature heavily into that plan for head coach Jimmy Rogers, especially seeing how the aforementioned Johnson is currently dealing with an injury. Pulalasi, now a sophomore, brings a steady and much-needed level of consistency to the rushing attack. His mere presence in the locker room could go a long ways in helping carry the Cougs offense to where it wants to be and what he is able to do on the field, even if it is in a complimentary role, might just be what sets it over the top.

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