Washington State has long been a landing pad for Southern California players who were not recruited by UCLA or USC.
The Cougars have 33 players from the region on their roster who will be returning to close to home for Saturday's Pac-12 Conference football game at the Rose Bowl.
"All you hear about from the guys is, 'I can't wait to get back to Cali,'" said receiver Dom Williams, who played at Pomona Garey High. "There is a lot of hype about going back to California right now.