Ex-Husky Assistant Cato Reportedly Will Join WSU

While Jimmy Lake's University of Washington football tenure didn't do a lot for the career advancement of his staff, tight-ends coach Derham Cato seems to have bounced back nicely.

After spending three seasons at Missouri, Cato appears headed back to the state with 247Sports reporting he is expected to be hired by Washington State as part of Kirby Moore's new staff in Pullman. Moore and Cato worked together at Missouri.

The Charlotte, North Carolina, native coached the Husky tight ends in 2020 and 2021 following four seasons as an offensive analyst for Chris Petersen.

Once everyone was let go when Lake was fired, Cato actually left coaching for a year and went into sales.

It's not been a good year for former UW coaches from Lake's original staff -- Ikaika Malloe was fired as defensive coordinator at UCLA and Pete Kwiatkowski was let go from the same coaching job at Texas.

However, running backs coach Keith Bhonapha recently was hired at Oregon State as part of JaMarcus Shephard's new staff.

And now Cato apparently is Northwest bound.

Kirby Moore is expected to hire Missouri tight ends coach Derham Cato as part of his staff at Washington State, sources tell me and @chris_hummer.

They worked together the last three years Missouri. Cato has coached players like Missouri standout tight end Brett Norfleet. pic.twitter.com/JAJRANYBkB
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 24, 2025

He is remembered in Montlake as the coach who got taken out on the sideline by one of his own players on a punt in 2021 at Oregon State in the first quarter and had to be taken to a local hospital with a leg injury.

Cato was looking away when a punt-coverage guy called "a gunner" got knocked out of bounds and into him.

"I kind of got blindsided," he said the following week. "I saw him at the last second and got hit. It is what is."

Luckily for him, Cato didn't suffer any kind of injury that required surgery, though he missed the rest of a game the Huskies lost 27-24. He didn't rejoin the team until it was boarding the charter flight to go home.

"It was more embarrassing than anything, honestly," he said.

The thing about Cato is he can take a hit. As a player, he was a three-year starting defensive tackle at Dartmouth, last playing collegiately in 2004. Now considerably lighter, he carried a 6-foot-4, 275-pound frame back then.

Still he was a little sheepish in talking about his Oregon State collision.

"I've got to have more awareness," Cato said. "It's on me."

Interesting enough, if he joins the Cougars as is expected, his first game will be against the UW in the Apple Cup to open the 2026 season at Husky Stadium.

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