Commentary: Why Jake Dickert’s departure shouldn’t cause WSU fans to fret

SEATTLE – Not sure this is really the blow some Cougars fans might think it is.

There isn’t a lot to suggest that a would-be statue in front of Martin Stadium has departed.

Jake Dickert leaving Washington State to become the football coach at Wake Forest prompts a number of thoughts that will be expanded on shortly, but one of them is this: He can be replaced by someone a whole lot better.

That isn’t meant to be a dig at a man who has developed quality quarterbacks – such as Heisman Trophy finalist Cam Ward (now at Miami) and John Mateer – during his three-year tenure on the Palouse. It’s not an attempt to diminish the stability he brought in 2021, when he replaced coach Nick Rolovich, who was fired midseason for not complying with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

But the man’s record over his three full seasons stands at 7-6 (2022), 5-7 (2023) and 8-4 (2024). And that last year came when the Cougars were playing in the two-team Pac-12 and suffered losses to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming to end the season.

This was not exactly a powerhouse on the rise. Not when you also consider that 1) WSU also needed overtime to beat a middling San Jose State squad in September, and 2) Mateer announced he was entering the transfer portal earlier this month.

None of this means that Dickert’s efforts didn’t bring some joy to Cougars fans. Nor does it mean that he won’t succeed at Wake Forest, where his developmental résumé surely impressed the Demon Deacons’ brass.

But Washington State has a chance to upgrade one year before it ventures into the new-look Pac-12, which will incorporate five teams from the Mountain West and one from the West Coast Conference. That, however, doesn’t change the following.

1. Washington State is a long way from a destination job. I suppose that’s always been true to a point. But take a look at other WSU football coaches who have moved on. Mike Price went 10-2 in 2001, then took the Cougars to the Rose Bowl in 2002. His next job? Alabama.

Mike Leach had three nine-win seasons, including one of the 11-win variety in 2018. His next job? Mississippi State of the SEC. Alabama may be the most successful college football program, but Mississippi State went to 13 consecutive bowl games from 2010-22.

Wake Forest: One winning record in the ACC since 2011.

Sure, given that this is still considered a power conference, it is a move up. But if Florida State and Clemson end up leaving the conference – a more than possible outcome – the ACC may not be better off than the Pac-12 in a few years.

2. Loyalty is (still) dead. Don’t get attached to anyone associated with your college football team. This probably isn’t a sentence worth repeating these days, but we’ll do it one more time. Washington State has more than 20 players in the transfer portal, and it’s hardly an anomaly. Marshall, for example, has 30. But the coaching carousel seems just as crowded, and an opportunity to jump to what feels like a more stable situation will almost always be taken.

Even if Dickert thought he was going to be a Coug for the long haul – even if that was something he tried to sell players on – it was almost surely never going to happen. If they’re in demand, they jump. Unfortunate but true.

Do you feel betrayed by Dickert leaving? Washington State Athletic Director Anne McCoy was asked Wednesday.

“You know, I think at the end of the day, Jake Dickert was our football coach until he took an opportunity somewhere else, and we have a lot to be, I think appreciative of a lot of work that was done, but I wouldn’t say betrayed at the end of the day,” she said. “Although I think it’s unfortunate timing relative to the bowl game, and you know finishing off a season and really adding another piece to a lot of emotions that this team is feeling right now.”

It isn’t terribly uncommon for a coach to take a new job before a bowl game, as Dickert did with the Cougars set to face Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27. It doesn’t mean the remaining players need to be OK with it, though. Nor do the fans.

That said, upset as those fans are feeling right now, they should know much better things can come with the right hire. What Dickert accomplished was commendable. At the same time, he’s replaceable.