WSU's Pelluer sidelined for season with injury

PULLMAN – Peyton Pelluer, the senior middle linebacker who essentially served as the quarterback of the Washington State defense, will miss the rest of the season with a foot fracture, his family acknowledged Sunday.

The injury occurred in the first half of the Cougars' 52-23 win over Oregon State on Saturday at Martin Stadium.

Pelluer will go undergo surgery within two weeks, then faces five to six months of rehabilitation, according to his father, Scott Pelluer.

A fixture of the Cougars' defense since midway through his second-year freshman season in 2014, Pelluer started 34 consecutive games, including the first three this year.

His injury came just six days after he was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for perhaps the best performance of his career. In the Cougars' 47-44 triple-overtime in over Boise State, he made 14 tackles and returned an interception 36 yards for a touchdown to fuel WSU's comeback from a 21-point deficit in the final eight minutes of regulation time.

Pelluer, a fourth-generation WSU football player from Sammamish, Wash., with roots on his mother's side to north central Idaho, was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention last year after ranking fourth in the league with 93 tackles, including 7½ for loss.

After he left the field Saturday, he was replaced by Nate DeRider, who tallied five tackles and a sack. The injury went largely unnoticed by reporters, but Pelluer was nowhere to be seen from the second quarter onward. Cougars coach Mike Leach, adhering to his standard policy of avoiding reference to injuries, said after the game Pelluer was "doing a fantastic job."

Pelluer's absence will prompt the Cougars to rely more heavily on DeRider, second-year freshman Jahad Woods and probably others. The No. 18 Cougars (3-0) play host to Nevada in a nonleague game Saturday (3 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).