Three years ago, Kainoa Wilson took a chance on the unknown.
His reward? A spot in one of college football’s biggest games of the season.
The 2015 Mililani graduate, who was given an opportunity to walk on to the football team at Washington State after he was accepted into the school, will be on the field for the opening kickoff of Friday’s Apple Cup rivalry game with Washington in Pullman.
Wilson’s Cougars, ranked No. 7 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25, can secure the Pac-12’s North Division championship with a win over the 16th-ranked Huskies.
Not only is the conference championship on the line, but the Cougars have an outside shot at sneaking into the College Football Playoff should things break their way.
Up first, however, is a Huskies team that has dominated the Cougars since Wilson joined the team in the summer of 2015.
Washington has won the past three meetings by a combined score of 131-41. UW has won five straight in the series and eight of the past nine.
“Just trying to keep it rolling, you know, one week at a time,” Wilson said, downplaying the magnitude of one of the biggest games in the 118-year history of the Apple Cup. “I’m just real excited that we got a special thing going here.”
Wilson was one of McKenzie Milton’s favorite targets in 2013, when he led the Trojans with 622 receiving yards and helped them advance to the state final before losing to Punahou.
Injuries limited Wilson during his senior season, but he still managed to catch eight touchdown passes in six games, including two in a wild 53-45 win over the Buffanblu for the Trojans’ first state championship.
Since then, the 5-foot-11 junior has caught just two passes, but he’s become a dynamic player on special teams in his fourth year with the Cougars.
Wilson leads the team with nine tackles on special teams and he scored his first touchdown when he recovered a fumble in the end zone in Saturday’s 69-28 win over Arizona. He also forced a fumble and finished with three tackles overall against the Wildcats, taking advantage of Washington State’s 11 kickoffs during the game.
“It’s super exciting for me,” Wilson said. “I would love to be out there (all the time), but that one opportunity I get, I go full speed every time and I give everything I got to my boys for that one play that I’m out there. You make the most of it because you never know how many plays you will get in a game.”
Recruited to Washington State by then-assistant coach Joe Salavea, who is now at Oregon, Wilson was in for a shock when he made it to campus for the first time.
“I thought the whole state of Washington looked like Seattle,” Wilson said. “It kind of blew me away how it was so flat and stuff, but once you get used to it, the people here are so nice and it’s a great college town.”
Wilson compared his story as a preferred walk-on who played in only three games in three years before this season to the Cougars’ run to a 10-1 record.
Earlier this season, the school hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” morning show for the first time and had a record turnout.
The city council voted the Tuesday before the game to declare a “state of emergency” to allow the city to meet the needs of an unexpected situation due to a heavy influx of visitors and fans.
“I have been on the show 23 years. This has been one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit proclaimed on the show.
The Cougars ended the day beating Oregon 34-20 in a night game at Martin Stadium.
“Everyone enjoyed it because, you know, Washington State, (people) kind of look down on us,” Wilson said. “We’re the underdogs and we know it and we love proving people wrong.”
Friday’s game will be televised on KHON (Ch. 2) at 3:30 p.m. A win would put Washington State in the Pac-12 championship game on Nov. 30. Another win and the Cougars would likely find themselves in their first Rose Bowl since 2003, when Saint Louis alumnus Jason Gesser started at quarterback for the Cougars.
Washington State has been a top destination for athletes from Hawaii ever since. Wilson is one of five players on the roster who graduated from a Hawaii high school.
“The pipeline started a long time ago,” Wilson said. “I’m just trying to continue it.”
PROFILE
Kainoa Wilson
>> School: Washington State
>> Class: Junior
>> Position: Wide receiver
>> Height: 5 feet 11
>> Weight: 165 pounds
>> High school: Mililani (2015)
