‘Beyond the dream job’: Former WSU coach Kyle Smith opens up about leaving for Stanford

PULLMAN – Earlier this month, as Washington State was preparing for the Pac-12 Tournament, Kyle Smith took a moment to himself. The Cougars’ head coach was being courted by Stanford, which was in the market for a new head coach, and Smith knew he was the leading candidate.

Before the team traveled to Las Vegas, the site of the conference tournament, Smith finally let his guard down, let his tunnel vision slip for a moment. He asked himself a question.

If we won the national championship, would you still go to Stanford?

“And it was a ludicrous thought, but I said, ‘Yep,’ ” Smith said. “Why not? I would do it. It was this unique thing, one of one.”

On Monday morning, Smith accepted the head coaching job at Stanford, ending his five-year tenure at Washington State and replacing outgoing Cardinal coach Jerod Haase, who failed to guide the program to an NCAA Tournament appearance in eight seasons.

Stanford fired Haase fewer than 10 minutes after his team fell to Washington State in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals on March 14.

But until that point, Smith had blinders on for WSU, which was a lock for its first NCAA Tournament since 2008. Even as the Cougs picked up steam in late February, using a road win over then-No.4 Arizona to leapfrog into first place in the Pac-12, Smith refused to listen to any schools’ interest – much to the chagrin of his agent.

“I just didn’t want it to affect our NCAA Tournament and the whole bit,” Smith said.

After all, Smith said, he wasn’t looking to leave for just anywhere. He liked his situation at Washington State, liked the way his family of five fit into the slower pace of small-town Pullman. On the Palouse, he had found a caregiver for his 13-year-old son, Bo, who has autism.

For as much success as he was enjoying at WSU, though, Smith understood he was heading into an uncertain situation if he stayed. The Cougars, one of the two Pac-12 programs left behind by conference realignment, are becoming West Coast Conference affiliate members next season as WSU and Oregon State attempt to rebuild the conference. How would that affect the Cougars’ roster, which Smith had already rebuilt over the offseason? It gave Smith pause.

Smith, who previously worked in the Bay Area as San Francisco’s head coach from 2016-2019, felt Stanford was the right fit. To him, it was an attractive job for several other reasons: Stanford had a conference home, the ACC. It had more resources than what WSU could offer. The Cardinal were also the only school to make Smith their top candidate, he said, which is why he didn’t listen to any other programs’ offers.

“It sounds corny. It sounds trite. It’s true – it’s beyond the dream job,” Smith said. “Because I never really imagined that it would be an option. But it’s 100% what I’ve always believed in, as far as a student-athlete, and I’m not intimidated by the fact you can’t get guys in school. I’m fine with that. There’s enough. There’s enough people that have that academic background that can play, that want to be there. And that’s really appealing to me.”

It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Smith, who had accomplished what the previous two Washington State coaches could not: Usher in a hoops revival in Pullman. In 2019, when Smith took the job, he was inheriting a WSU program that had just suffered its seventh consecutive losing season, which led to the dismissal of former coach Ernie Kent – who won a combined four conference games in his last two seasons.

Smith’s WSU teams never experienced a losing season. The Cougars went .500 in his first season, a game over in the next, and by his third year, they were back in the postseason, making the NIT semifinals. They returned to the NIT in 2023, and last weekend, seventh-seeded WSU snapped its 16-year NCAA Tournament drought, dispatching 10th-seeded Drake before falling to second-seeded Iowa State in the Round of 32 on Saturday evening.

By the next day, Smith held an official offer from Stanford, with whom he interviewed during the weeklong gap between WSU’s regular-season finale and the Pac-12 Tournament. On Sunday night, he slept on it. He accepted the offer on Monday morning.

“There’s only a few places where my family can (live). Very unique situation,” Smith said, citing the Stanford Autism Center, widely regarded as one of the best in the country. “We love Pullman. We really do. Don’t love realignment and the NIL. Not sure if it was sustainable, not knowing what league and that stuff.

“So I was like, well, (at Stanford) the NIL is not an issue. And people want to stay there, I believe. Right now, they haven’t. But we’ll see. That’s my task. I think I can sell Stanford.”

On his way out from WSU, Smith never received a written contract extension offer, he said.

“They were getting the final numbers on it,” Smith said. “There was nothing hard in writing. I said, that’s great. They said there’s gonna be more coming. They’re working on it. So I was like, I’m good with that. I appreciate it.”

Smith did like that athletic director Pat Chun – who bolted for the same job at rival Washington on Tuesday – and other school brass made several promises to try and keep him at WSU – an improved travel situation, featuring more charter flights; an increased salary pool for assistant coaches; a pay bump for Smith; and more years on his deal.

What mattered most to Smith: more money for his assistants and more charter flights. The Cougars took several charter flights out of Pullman last season – back home from USC on Jan. 10; for the Oregon/Oregon State trip on Feb. 8; home from ASU on Feb. 24; and back from Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament on March 15. For the rest of their six road swings, they flew out of Spokane, a 1½-hour drive from Pullman.

Other than Oregon State, most other Pac-12 schools use charter flights for every road trip, a reflection of the smaller budgets with which the Cougars and Beavers are operating.

“I was worried that Pat (Chun) would leave some day – the day came today,” Smith said, “and you’re gonna have a new boss and all those pieces. It’s special; it’s challenging. But having the long-term security to build the program, the same idea. Building a program was important to me. The last two springs have been really challenging. You hope you’re moving that direction, going that way, but I don’t know what the future brings in that regard, because it’s just chaos.”

Smith is hoping for less chaos at Stanford, where he hopes to build a roster of players committed to staying at the school. He didn’t have the same experience at WSU, which lost six players to the transfer portal last offseason, including several key pieces. TJ Bamba, the team’s leading scorer, transferred to Villanova. DJ Rodman, who averaged nine points and five rebounds last year, went back on his promise to return for his senior year and transferred to USC.

Carlos Rosario, a reserve forward, transferred to Drake. Forward Dishon Jackson, who missed the season with an injury, transferred to Charlotte. Forward Mael Hamon-Crespin left the team midseason to return to his home country of France. Center Adrame Diongue transferred to San Jose State and fellow center Jack Wilson transferred to Minnesota.

That’s also to say nothing of the previous offseason, which saw five Cougars transfer out of the program, including second- and third-leading scorers Tyrell Roberts and Noah Williams, the latter of whom took his talents to rival UW.

“It just opened the door for Myles (Rice),” Smith said. “It opened the door for Jaylen (Wells) and Andrej (Jakimovski). It worked out that way.”

On Monday morning, Smith met with the WSU players and coaches to alert them of his decision. Among other things, Smith said, he chatted with them about the program, how he hopes it stays what he built it into – a player-empowerment program.

Then he turned it back on himself.

“We talked about my why – empowering people to empower themselves,” Smith said. “It’s kind of the same situation now for me.”