WSU Football | Abdullah finally finds spotlight

PULLMAN — For a guy best known as a quiet, lunch-pail type of player his entire WSU career, Husain Abdullah is sure making a lot of noise his senior season.

The 6-foot, 199-pound safety from Pomona, Calif., has helped lead quite a turnaround for the WSU defense and helped resurrect flatlining bowl hopes.

Heading into the bye week a month ago, WSU was 2-5 and off a 53-7 whipping from Oregon. The defense was on the verge of — if not in the midst of — a total breakdown.

During the week off, safeties coach Leon Burtnett and coach Bill Doba decided to have Abdullah line up closer to the line of scrimmage to play a bigger role against the run.

The wrinkle has produced dramatic results — the defense has given up just 14.7 points per game since.

"Our corners are growing up a little bit, so we can lock them up [with receivers] and bring the house, which we didn't do early," Doba said. "Before we had to keep him deep."

"Since we moved him up closer to the line of scrimmage, he's playing exceptionally well," Burtnett said. "Nobody takes on blockers or screens better than Husain."

In WSU's 33-17 win over Stanford last Saturday, Abdullah tied a career high with 14 tackles and grabbed the game-sealing interception, a 55-yard return for a touchdown.

On Monday, he was named the Pac-10 defense player of the week.

In the past six games, Abdullah has 64 tackles, 7 ½ for a loss.

Abdullah has been a starter and solid contributor since the beginning of his redshirt sophomore season, but until recently, the soft-spoken safety has not been in the spotlight.

"I've never seen or heard my name as much as I have recently, so I must be doing something right," Abdullah joked.

This spring, his teammates voted him a defensive captain. "He's a quiet leader," Doba said. "He'll come drop by my office sometimes with suggestions or explains things from a player perspective. He's just a great kid."

"I kind of have to soak this all up right now," Abdullah said. "I just can't believe after this week, I'll never play in Martin Stadium again. I just want to do well so the lasting memory of me here is a good one."