PULLMAN – Jake Dickert has coached his last soccer sport at Washington State.
Dickert is leaving WSU for the pinnacle teaching job at Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons’ program introduced Wednesday morning, ending Dickert’s tenure at WSU, which lasted three full seasons. He coached the final six video 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 function interim head coach for the Holiday Bowl, WSU mentioned in a launch. Kaligis is in his third 12 months at Washington State, which adopted a 13-year stint at Wyoming, the place he coached a number of positions, together with offensive line, working backs and defensive tackles.
“This morning, Jake knowledgeable us that he has accepted a proposal outdoors of Washington State and won’t be main our crew on the upcoming DirecTV Holiday Bowl. The seek for Cougar soccer’s subsequent head coach will start instantly,” WSU Athletic Director Anne McCoy mentioned through launch. “The crew has labored so laborious and achieved an amazing deal this 12 months. They deserve to finish the season with a memorable bowl sport expertise.”
Dickert, 41, had a 23-20 file at WSU. He took the Cougars to 3 bowl video games – the 2021 Sun Bowl, the 2022 LA Bowl and this 12 months’s Holiday Bowl, which is about for Dec. 27 in San Diego. He guided this 12 months’s WSU crew to an 8-4 file, this system’s first eight-win season since 2018.
Dickert, who got here to WSU in 2020 as defensive coordinator, had the Cougars ranked as excessive as No. 18 within the College Football Playoff rankings this season after an 8-1 begin. The Cougars misplaced their final three regular-season video games, although, dropping out of the rankings and into the Holiday Bowl.
WSU performed eight Mountain West groups this season as a part of a Pac-12/MWC scheduling settlement that offered Washington State and Oregon State video games for this season. The Pac-12 fell aside in August 2023. The Cougars’ 2025 schedule is essentially an unbiased one, together with video games in opposition to Ole Miss, Virginia, James Madison and two in opposition to Pac-12 holdover OSU.
It’s unclear how a lot Dickert’s buyout was. In January 2023, he signed a one-year contract extension, placing him beneath contract via 2027.
McCoy and WSU’s administration had ongoing contract extension talks with Dickert and his company all through the season, McCoy mentioned, however Dickert’s aspect needed to complete the season and “see the place issues have been at,” McCoy mentioned at a information convention Wednesday.
“The final piece was that wasn’t gonna be an element whether or not he selected to remain or go,” McCoy mentioned, “as a result of he knew what the supply was. To be trustworthy, possibly getting via the season to understand how he felt about whether or not he could be staying or not.”
Dickert met with the crew Wednesday morning, in accordance with a social media put up 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 just a few assistants from WSU: common supervisor Rob Schlaeger, assistant coach Justin Kramer and inventive crew director Carson Rorick.
WSU was set to host observe Wednesday morning, however that was canceled. The crew will as a substitute observe on Thursday morning.
Dickert turns into the fifth WSU coach to depart this system because the finish of the common season, becoming a member of offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski, each of whom left for Oklahoma, and working backs coach Mark Atuaia, who left for Utah. Dickert dismissed defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding after the common season.
On Monday, Dickert mentioned he had chosen receivers coach Nick Edwards to name performs within the bowl sport. Dickert was set to name the protection. It’s unclear who will take over these duties .
University president Kirk Schulz can be set to retire this coming summer season.
That leaves the Cougars with out a head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, working backs coach and quarterbacks coach for the upcoming Holiday Bowl. On prime of that, 22 gamers have entered the switch portal as of Wednesday, together with 10 starters. That quantity might soar now that Dickert has left. The 23 highschool gamers WSU signed on this month’s early signing interval can now request releases from their National Letters of Intent.
The greatest names amongst that group embody speedy quarterback Steele Pizzella, working again Jamar Searcy, linebacker AJ Tuitele and receiver Noah Westbrook. Wide receiver Jack Foley flipped from Wake Forest to WSU.
The Cougars have misplaced a number of key items from this season’s crew to the switch portal, together with beginning quarterback John Mateer, working again 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 mentioned that even with these losses on the roster and training employees, WSU is not going to pull out of the Holiday Bowl.
“People are enthusiastic about a number of actually nice issues occurring at Washington State,” McCoy mentioned. “I feel persons are annoyed with among the realities of faculty athletics which might be no totally different right here than they’re different locations. They’d be feeling that irrespective of the place they labored, to be trustworthy, within the nation. So I feel issues are good. The crew is fired up. The crew just isn’t in any kind of gap.”
