Washington State redshirt senior defensive back Bryce Beekman, 22, found dead

WSU safety Bryce Beekman (26) catches during a practice on Friday, August 2, 2019, at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)

The Washington State community is mourning yet another loss within its football team as redshirt senior defensive back Bryce Beekman has died, at a residence in Pullman, Washington. Tuesday night according to the Pullman Police Department. He was 22.

 The redshirt senior came to Washington State from Arizona Western Junior College and ended up turning into a rising star for the Cougars, starting all 13 games a season ago. Beekman finished fifth on the team with 60 tackles and had arguably his best individual game in the Cougars' bowl loss to Air Force with seven solo tackles (one for loss). He was slotted to be a starting member of the defense in 2020.

 Per Washington State’s website, Beekman wore No. 26 with the Cougars in honor of former NFL All-Pro safety Sean Taylor.


New Washington State coach Nick Rolovich had a conference call with reporters on Tuesday and said that he thought a majority of his team’s players were not in Pullman. Classes are not in session at Washington State because of the coronavirus outbreak and spring practices have been indefinitely put on hold.

 “I don’t think this is a time where football should really open their mouth too much as far as ‘poor me,’” Rolovich said on Tuesday. “I think when the time is right and the people making decisions feel the time is right, we’ll get back to it and when we get back to it we’ll attack it with everything we’ve got. But there’s zero part of me for not doing football in this situation. We wouldn’t have their full attention. They have family, these kids have got their own lives to live. I think it’s the best thing right now to be concentrating on them and academics and if we can get some football stuff done as we move forward, we will, but a lot of the time we would be spending on football is being spent on recruiting and the uncertainty of when this thing would open back up.”

 Multiple Washington State players have already taken to Twitter to mourn the loss of their teammate.

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