SAN DIEGO – Kyle Thornton took his time leaving the stage. Bright lights in the media room illuminated his eye black and made his crimson Washington State jersey shine brightly the last time he wore it after his WSU career ended with a loss to Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl on Friday.

As he made his way toward the exit, Thornton gathered his strength and slowly took a step down from the stage. Before he left, he had to reassure his brothers: interim head coach Pete Kaligis, quarterback Zevi Eckhaus and receiver Kyle Williams, all of whom had gathered to discuss this game and what’s next. Your program enters an off-season with many questions to answer.

Since they are leaving the team, Thornton and Williams will no longer be able to play for WSU. Instead, they can provide a blueprint for what administrative leaders should look for in the next team management team: talented, dedicated players who demand more from those around them. Aspiring young men who saw Pullman as more than just a stepping stone to something better.

In many ways, Thornton and Williams represent what is special about Washington State: the university and the program provide a place to focus on football, develop as players and men, and embrace the underdog mentality that permeates campus like a tide. can translate into results and beats programs with better resources and larger dollar amounts at their disposal.

Thanks to Jake Dickert’s departure to Wake Forest last weekend and nearly 30 players entering the transfer portal this month, the Cougars have plenty of questions to answer this offseason: Who will be the next head coach? How will this decision affect the rest of the squad? What about the current signing class?

Because of the way they have written their WSU careers, Thornton and Williams can offer some guidelines.

On Friday, Williams did it with his game, totaling 172 yards and a touchdown on 10 catches, breaking Dez Bryant’s receiving record in this Holiday Bowl. He took a short slant shot 66 yards to the house and used his volatility to make many a defender miss. In doing so, he ended a career that cemented his status as WSU’s best receiver in a decade. He was by far WSU’s best player in this game.

Thornton had a quieter performance, making four tackles, but his best isn’t always in numbers. It’s because of the veteran presence he provides, the leadership he shows, and the trust he’s earned by drawing on a hellish career to earn the respect of his teammates. In his sixth year as a Coug, Thornton created a decorated experience that will long be remembered in this program.

The truth is, Thornton couldn’t have made any tackles in that game and still left the program with his legacy in hand. For that, credit his play in WSU’s Apple Cup win in September, when he dropped from the linebacker spot and brought down Washington running back Jonah Coleman just short of the goal line, marking the Cougars’ first victory in the rivalry series in three years secured. Thornton, a former walk-on, waited his turn and seized the moment he had envisioned all along.

“I’m not sure I have the right words for it. I think that’s why it’s kind of expressed in the tears that I’m shedding here,” Thornton said, a little tearing up in his eyes. “Just so many emotions, so grateful for the journey. The biggest thing that comes to mind is gratitude, gratitude for all the individuals, all the coaches, all the players, all the staff, just all the people who have touched my life and helped make me who I am today , especially this man right here on my left (Kaligis). There aren’t many like him, and without him I wouldn’t be here.”

Sometime in the next few days, WSU athletics director Anne McCoy will decide on a new head coach, a decision that will shape the next era of this program. In recent years, hiring a new WSU coach has been important, as hiring a new coach is always important. Now, as the Cougs prepare for an independent schedule in 2025 and prepare for the start of the new Pac-12 in 2026, this is of utmost importance.

Hire the wrong person and Washington state could find itself in a bad spot during an already turbulent time. Aside from the forgettable 2023 season, the Cougs have had regular bowl appearances over the last decade, but that could change. Without the traditional power conference status that attracted plenty of recruits, WSU could find itself in a place it hasn’t been since Paul Wulff roamed the sidelines.

However, hire the right guy and the Cougars could usher in a brave new era for the program. Their institution will never be the same, but they could make the most of it and establish themselves as the best of the new Pac-12, and when realignment gets underway again in the 2030s, they could be able to reintegrate into one Power conference – whatever that looks like by then.

It’s a roundabout way of stating the obvious: Much depends on the decision of McCoy, who could hire anyone from Montana State head coach Brent Vigen to Alabama assistant JaMarcus Shephard, who spent the 2016 season as the wide receivers coach Cougars spent. Or it could be a surprise candidate that hasn’t occurred to so many people.

Whoever it is, though, should be someone like Thornton and Williams, someone like many of the WSU seniors who got this thing done. Thornton could have gone. The same goes for Williams, who put together a 2023 season that put him on the radar of coaches across the country who would have agreed to have Williams on their team.

They survived the institutional change that characterized the next few years of Washington State and the university in general, they survived through the collapse of the Pac-12, they survived through the departure of their head coach, they survived through the early ones Surviving the departures of her teammates, persisting in both winning and losing streaks.

There shouldn’t be any shame in doing otherwise – Mateer made about $3 million in the transfer portal, and while fans have every right to feel spurned, it’s the players’ and coaches’ jobs to take care of themselves – but there should also be glory. That’s what Thornton and Williams deserve, and it should dictate what happens next in this program.

“It means everything,” Williams said as he concluded his WSU career. “It was a long college journey for me, a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. But to end it where a lot of things were given up and you just see everyone’s commitment, just the brotherhood and camaraderie of the team, it was special. If I could do it all over again, I would do it again and again.”

“It’s been a struggle for the Cougs for a long time, and honestly we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Thornton said. “That’s all we know. That’s how we are. We love fighting and that brings us closer and makes us who we are. Honestly, I decided to stay because I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I wanted to be a part of this group, a part of this group of fighters.”