Coach Jake Dickert leaving Washington State for Wake Forest
PULLMAN – Jake Dickert has coached his final football game at Washington State.
Dickert is leaving WSU for the head coaching job at Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons’ program announced Wednesday morning, ending Dickert’s tenure at WSU, which lasted three full seasons. He coached the last six games of the Cougars’ 2021 schedule as interim head coach, then accepted the full-time job that offseason.
Assistant head coach and defensive tackles coach Pete Kaligis will serve as interim head coach for the Holiday Bowl, WSU said in a release. Kaligis is in his third year at Washington State, which followed a 13-year stint at Wyoming, where he coached multiple positions, including offensive line, running backs and defensive tackles.
“This morning, Jake informed us that he has accepted an offer outside of Washington State and will not be leading our team at the upcoming DirecTV Holiday Bowl. The search for Cougar football’s next head coach will begin immediately,” WSU Athletic Director Anne McCoy said via release. “The team has worked so hard and accomplished a great deal this year. They deserve to end the season with a memorable bowl game experience.”
Dickert, 41, had a 23-20 record at WSU. He took the Cougars to three bowl games – the 2021 Sun Bowl, the 2022 LA Bowl and this year’s Holiday Bowl, which is set for Dec. 27 in San Diego. He guided this year’s WSU team to an 8-4 record, the program’s first eight-win season since 2018.
Dickert, who came to WSU in 2020 as defensive coordinator, had the Cougars ranked as high as No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings this season after an 8-1 start. The Cougars lost their last three regular-season games, though, dropping out of the rankings and into the Holiday Bowl.
WSU played eight Mountain West teams this season as part of a Pac-12/MWC scheduling agreement that provided Washington State and Oregon State games for this season. The Pac-12 fell apart in August 2023. The Cougars’ 2025 schedule is largely an independent one, including games against Ole Miss, Virginia, James Madison and two against Pac-12 holdover OSU.
It’s unclear how much Dickert’s buyout was. In January 2023, he signed a one-year contract extension, putting him under contract through 2027.
McCoy and WSU’s administration had ongoing contract extension talks with Dickert and his agency throughout the season, McCoy said, but Dickert’s side wanted to finish the season and “see where things were at,” McCoy said at a news conference Wednesday.
“The ultimate piece was that wasn’t gonna be a factor whether he chose to stay or go,” McCoy said, “because he knew what the offer was. To be honest, maybe getting through the season to know how he felt about whether he would be staying or not.”
Dickert met with the team Wednesday morning, according to a social media post by linebacker Keith Brown. A twin-jet Cessna Citation Sovereign left the Pullman-Moscow airport for Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at 10:48 a.m. Wednesday, with Dickert aboard, plus a few assistants from WSU: general manager Rob Schlaeger, assistant coach Justin Kramer and creative team director Carson Rorick.
WSU was set to host practice Wednesday morning, but that was canceled. The team will instead practice on Thursday morning.
Dickert becomes the fifth WSU coach to depart the program since the end of the regular season, joining offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski, both of whom left for Oklahoma, and running backs coach Mark Atuaia, who left for Utah. Dickert dismissed defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding after the regular season.
On Monday, Dickert said he had selected receivers coach Nick Edwards to call plays in the bowl game. Dickert was set to call the defense. It’s unclear who will take over those responsibilities .
University president Kirk Schulz is also set to retire this coming summer.
That leaves the Cougars without a head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, running backs coach and quarterbacks coach for the upcoming Holiday Bowl. On top of that, 22 players have entered the transfer portal as of Wednesday, including 10 starters. That number could jump now that Dickert has left. The 23 high school players WSU signed in this month’s early signing period can now request releases from their National Letters of Intent.
The biggest names among that group include speedy quarterback Steele Pizzella, running back Jamar Searcy, linebacker AJ Tuitele and receiver Noah Westbrook. Wide receiver Jack Foley flipped from Wake Forest to WSU.
The Cougars have lost several key pieces from this season’s team to the transfer portal, including starting quarterback John Mateer, running back Wayshawn Parker, linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, offensive lineman Fa’alili Fa’amoe, receiver Kris Hutson, cornerback Ethan O’Connor, defensive lineman Ansel Din-Mbuh and punter Nick Haberer.
McCoy said that even with those losses on the roster and coaching staff, WSU will not pull out of the Holiday Bowl.
“People are excited about a lot of really great things happening at Washington State,” McCoy said. “I think people are frustrated with some of the realities of college athletics that are no different here than they are other places. They’d be feeling that no matter where they worked, to be honest, in the country. So I think things are good. The team is fired up. The team is not in any sort of hole.”