Hunter Dale’s emergence at nickelback a good sign for WSU

Halfway through spring practice, Washington State is already better off at nickelback than it was two weeks ago, when defensive coordinator Alex Grinch started out spring by cautioning that the Cougars might have a revolving door of players at that position until they found the right man for the job.

Junior Hunter Dale spent the first two years of his career at WSU playing mostly on special teams. But he moved from free safety to nickelback this spring, and has impressed the defensive coaches with his progress and has held down a spot with the first team so far.

Saturday morning, in WSU’s first full contact scrimmage of the spring, Dale had two tackles and a quarterback hurry, and has looked comfortable in the position vacated by Shalom Luani and Parker Henry.

Hunter Dale has made great strides, says WSU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch

“I’ve been very, very pleased with Hunter Dale,” WSU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “I think he’s responded to the challenge of going down there, and I think he thinks it’s a big deal to run with the ones, which it is.

“We’ll continue to evaluate to see who that guy might be, and it may be a guy who’s not at that position right now. But if there’s a couple of guys to single out right now through eight practices, Hunter Dale is one of them. (He’s) kinda taking that step as a junior in the program.”

Dale signed with WSU in 2015 and is the lone Louisiana native on the Cougars’ roster. He played in every game last season, but saw very little action on defense.

Still, he spent the last couple of years soaking up tips from veterans like Isaac Dotson, Peyton Pelluer, Shalom Luani and Taylor Taliulu, and has fully embraced his move to nickelback.

“Learning from those guys, it’ll actually boost your playing timing and your lifting and everything, to get in there so you can perform on the field,” Dale said.

Grinch put Dale on a weight loss program over the winter, and the 5-foot-10 Dale lost 15 pounds before packing on five extra pounds of muscle. He’s currently listed at 195 pounds.

Now, “I feel like I can move better, and I’m more fluid in my technique, and I’m learning from coach (Roy) Manning and Grinch, listening to them because they know what they’re talking about,” Dale said.

So far, Grinch likes what he’s gotten out of Dale.

“He’s playing physical, he’s playing fast and he’s held up in coverage,” Grinch said. “We see a lot of passes, so we get a pretty good evaluation of guys that way.”

Former Federal Way High quarterback D’Jimon Jones has been taking second team reps at nickeback behind Dale and he had what Grinch termed his best performance of the spring during Saturday’s scrimmage.

“There’s been some hiccups through the first seven (practices) so we’ll continue to work with both those guys,” Grinch said.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Hunter Dale’s emergence at nickelback a good sign for WSU."