MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Former West Virginia nose guard Lamonte McDougle signed with Washington State late Wednesday and will be eligible to play for the Pac-12 school in 2019.
An undersized lineman who emerged as a freshman All-American last season, McDougle appeared in 13 games with nine starts while making 23 tackles with two sacks. He surprisingly opted to leave in late March by telling Mountaineers coaches he wanted to play in a defensive system that would facilitate more tackles and sacks.
West Virginia prohibited McDougle from transferring within the Big 12, while also barring him from upcoming nonconference opponents like Tennessee, N.C. State, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Missouri and Maryland.
Recovering from shoulder injury, McDougle sat out spring drills at WVU when rising sophomore Darius Stills surged up the depth chart. The Mountaineers subsequently signed graduate transfers Kenny Bigelow from USC and Jabril Robinson from Clemson to bolster next season’s defensive line.
The 5-foot-10, 300-pound McDougle was committed to Washington for a three-month period during the summer of 2016 before ultimately flipping to WVU. Now he essentially has flipped back, joining the program reconstructed by Mike Leach, who coached his father Stockar McDougle at Oklahoma during the 1999 season.