No headline

| January 30, 2020 12:00 AM

Washington State adds four

to football coaching staff

PULLMAN — Washington State coach Nick Rolovich announced the hiring of four defensive assistant coaches to the Cougar Football coaching staff Wednesday.

Mark Banker will coach the safeties, A.J. Cooper will coach the defensive ends, Ricky Logo will coach the defensive tackles and John Richardson will coach the cornerbacks and be the recruiting coordinator. Banker and Logo both coached with Rolovich at Hawai’i while Cooper and Richardson both coached at Wyoming with newly hired Cougar Defensive Coordinator Jake Dickert.

Banker worked the past two seasons as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach for Rolovich at Hawai’i, helping UH to back-to-back bowl games, including a 10-5 mark and Hawaii Bowl win over BYU in 2019. Banker, a 40-year coaching veteran, mentored a pair of All-Mountain West Conference selections the last two seasons in Honolulu led by 2019 NFL second-round pick linebacker Jahlani Tavai who appeared in 15 games including six as a starter for the Detroit Lions as a rookie.

Cooper, who owns 14 years of college coaching experience, comes to Washington State after spending the past six seasons working the defensive ends and special teams for the University of Wyoming. Prior to the 2019 season, Cooper was promoted to serve as the Cowboys’ defensive run-game coordinator. He worked the previous eight seasons at North Dakota State including the final five seasons coaching the Bison defensive ends.

Logo worked the past two seasons coaching the defensive line for coach Rolovich at Hawai’i, helping UH to back-to-back bowl games including a 10-5 mark and Hawaii Bowl win over BYU in 2019.

Richardson, who owns 11 years of college coaching experience, comes to Washington State after spending the past six seasons as the cornerbacks coach for the University of Wyoming. Richardson helped the 2019 Cowboys finish sixth in the country in red zone defense, No. 11 in the country in rush defense (107.1) and scoring defense (17.8), No. 40 in tackles-for-loss (83) and No. 43 in total defense.

Senior cornerback Tyler Hall capped his career earning All-Mountain West Conference honorable mention for the second straight season.