As a senior at Lake Stevens High School in the fall of 2010, Gunnar Eklund was hoping for an opportunity to play Division I college football. He had the size, desire and work ethic to become a top offensive lineman, and all he needed was a chance.
Initially, it seemed that chance might never come.
Eklund got scholarship offers from Central Washington and some smaller Division II programs, and he likewise got pitches from schools like Eastern Washington and Wyoming. But in a sport obsessed with measurables — in particular height, weight, speed and strength — football often has a hard time measuring maybe the most important trait of all, the heart.
So when Washington State encouraged him to walk on Eklund not only jumped at the chance, he vowed to spend the ensuing years making the most of it.
After redshirting his first season, he started seven games in 2012 before going out with a broken wrist. But he has started all 36 games over the last three seasons at either left guard or left tackle, and he will make his 37th consecutive start Friday when the Cougars visit Seattle to face Washington in the annual Apple Cup.
For the 6-foot-6, 305-pound Eklund, it will be the final regular-season game in what has turned out to be a remarkable college career.
“When you’re a freshman,” he said Monday, speaking by phone from Pullman, “you hear the seniors say they can’t believe how fast (the time) went by. And now here I am a senior and it’s gone by fast, it really has. But it’s been a heck of a ride and a heck of a journey.”
Speaking of head coach Mike Leach and offensive line coach Clay Maguire, “I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity,” Eklund added. “That’s all I wanted, and once they gave that to me I tried to run with it by working hard and always trying to do the best I could.”
Eklund was a two-year starter at Lake Stevens, but recruiters apparently considered him a notch below some of the elite offensive line prospects in Washington and elsewhere on the West Coast. Unsure about his football future, he had conversations with his father, Doug, and with Jeff Pahukoa, a former NFL player and the Lake Stevens offensive line coach.
“They said, ‘Do you believe you can play D-I football?’” Eklund said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I know I can.’ … So I came to Washington State with no offers and no recruiting really. A lot of people probably didn’t think I could play here, but I wanted to work hard and prove a lot of people wrong.”
It was former WSU coach Paul Wulff who allowed Eklund to walk on, though Wulff was fired after the 2011 season and replaced by Leach a few weeks later. Eklund started spring practices in 2012 as the No. 4 left guard, but soon climbed to No. 2. He was still a walk-on in the 2012 season, but was on scholarship by the following spring.
“Nothing comes easy in life or in Division I football, so patience is huge,” he said. “But things will come in time. You’re going to get an opportunity and you just have to be ready for it.”
Eklund’s senior season began in September with perhaps the most forgettable game of his WSU career. In the opener against Portland State, the Cougars were beset by mistakes and lost 24-17. Afterward, he said, “everyone was disappointed and embarrassed. We were super upset. We thought we were ready for the season and that we’d done everything we had to do to have a great season … and then we squandered our first game.
“But some of the older guys came together and we said, ‘This is not going to happen. We’re going to be a team, we’re going to change the culture and get back to playing Cougar football.’ … There was probably not a soul outside our football operations building who thought this team could win, but we had to come together because we had no one else. We said to ourselves, ‘We’re all we’ve got and we’re all we need.’”
What followed was one of the most dramatic turnabouts in college football this season and perhaps in WSU football history. The Cougars have risen to a No. 20 national ranking by winning eight of their past 10 games, losing only to California 34-28 on Oct. 3 and to Stanford 30-28 on Oct. 31.
“I think a lot of people are shocked, but no one on this team is shocked by what’s happened this season,” Eklund said. “Honestly, we think we should be undefeated.”
Still, a final 9-3 record would sound pretty good, and that will be WSU’s mark if the Cougars knock off Washington on Friday. That game “is all that’s on our minds right now,” Eklund said. “It’s a big week, a rivalry week, it’s a battle for the state, and for all the seniors it’s our last Apple Cup.”
Regardless of the outcome, the Cougars are assured of a postseason bowl game, after which Eklund will consider his post-college options. He would like to play in the NFL — “That’s always a goal,” he said — but he also has career interests in real estate and perhaps development. Likewise, he might take up coaching as a way to mentor young athletes, much like he was mentored along the way.
His years at Washington State have been “an awesome experience,” he said. “And I wouldn’t be here without the support of so many people. The (Leach) coaching staff that gave me a shot and Coach Wulff who told me to come here. If not for them, I don’t know where I’d be playing or even if I’d be playing at all.
“Everyone who’s been there for me, I have to thank them for helping me to get better as a football player and as a person. I really feel like I’ve grown up a lot in the last five years, and I’m super thankful for everyone who’s helped me along the way. Without so many of them, none of this would’ve been possible.”
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