Washington State University Athletics

Jason Gesser is known to most Cougar fans as the quarterback who led Washington State football through one of its most successful runs in school history. Playing for head coach Mike Price from 1998-2002, Gesser was a three-year starter, leading WSU to a pair of bowl games en route to becoming the school’s winningest quarterback of all time with 27 wins. The Honolulu native earned First Team All-America honors and was the Pacific-10 Conference Co-Offensive MVP during his senior year, finishing seventh in the Heisman Trophy race. He finished his Cougar career as a three time All-Pac-10 selection, a four-time Academic All-Pac-10 honoree and was named to the Dave O’Brien Watch List as a senior, signifying the nation’s top quarterback. Gesser left WSU owning school records in a number of offensive categories, including career starts (34), total yards (9,007), pass attempts (1,118), completions (611), touchdown passes (70), consecutive games with a touchdown pass (25) and is the only player in program-history to be elected team captain three times. During his career, he appeared in 40 games, made 35 starts, led the Pac-10 in passing yards as junior, was the first Cougar to throw for 3,000 yards twice and led WSU to a 2001 Sun Bowl victory and to the 2003 Rose Bowl. Following his WSU career, Gesser spent two seasons in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, one year in the Canadian Football League and three in the Arena League. He later coached at the high school level and at the University of Idaho and Wyoming, before returning to Pullman in 2014, joining the Cougar football broadcast team as an analyst while also working in the Cougar Athletic Fund as the Assistant Director of Development.