How the No. 22 WSU Cougars are excelling under Jake Dickert

The WSU Cougars have been one of college football’s best stories at the midway point of the season.

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Despite the tumultuous times in recent years – from the controversial departure of former coach Nick Rolovich in 2021 to the demise of the Pac-12 last year – the Cougars are 7-1 and the 22nd-ranked team in the country. They already knocked off the UW Huskies earlier this season in the Apple Cup and even have an outside shot of reaching the recently expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

WSU head coach Jake Dickert joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday for a conversation about the Cougars’ season. And later in the show, Brock Huard shared his reaction after talking to Dickert while delving into why he feels Dickert is doing all the right things on the Palouse.

How Dickert is building WSU Cougars

Dickert took over as WSU’s head coach after Rolovich was fired in the middle of the 2021 season. He now has three recruiting classes under his belt, none of which were very highly regarded. WSU’s classes have ranked 60th, 63rd and 63rd, respectively, over the past three cycles, according to 247sports.com.

But the Cougs have been able to find value in players who have gone under the radar. Starting quarterback John Mateer, a 2022 signee, had only one other offer from an FCS school (New Mexico State). Leading rusher Wayshawn Parker, a 2024 signee, had only one offer from a Power Four school. And leading receiver Kyle Williams is a UNLV transfer whose only offers out of high school were from smaller FCS programs.

Dickert shared how he embraces the challenges of recruiting to a small, remote town like Pullman.

“I mean, sometimes (the recruits) just show up and it’s not for them, and people have looked at that as a downside sometimes,” Dickert said. “I say, ‘No, this is who we are, guys.’ We sit in my office, we look out the windows, I got the best view in town and it’s like, you got to embrace this. You got to understand what it is. It is agriculture. It is wheat. It is toughness. It is creating a connection because we have each other and not a bunch of fancy things to do. That is who we are, and I think that is a separator because you got to love football here, you gotta love it. … It’s gotta be really important to you, and I think you don’t come here for the shine and the light.”

Huard, a college football color analyst on FOX and former quarterback for the rival UW Huskies, explained how that sort of thinking is the key to success at program’s similar to WSU.

“These colleges got to figure out, ‘How do I make it work in this market?’ And Wazzu, like Kansas State – my favorite team to cover – do it the same way,” Huard said. “You have to find people that love Manhattan, Kansas, for the wheat fields and they love the work and they’re wired the right way. And we gotta take two-star (recruits) and ‘We redshirt them all.’ (WSU’s) whole O-line … are guys that have been there, (except) for one and he transferred from North Dakota after starting for three years. They all redshirt. … They’re from small towns themselves.

“You know how to build it and what it’s going to take, and you don’t fool yourself. In a lot of places, they try to fool themselves.”

Huard used Utah as an example of a program trying to fool itself. The Utes were one of the Pac-12’s better programs in its final years, but they’re currently 4-4 and riding a four-game losing streak that has them sitting near the cellar of their new conference, the Big 12, at 1-4.

“Guess what Utah started doing last couple of years? Here’s a truck for you and a truck for you and here’s 100 grand for you and here’s half a million for you,” Huard said. “Uh-oh, now a little adversity hits and what happens? It’s coming off the rails this year. It’s coming unglued.”

Listen to Brock and Salk’s reflection on their conversation with WSU Cougars coach Jake Dickert at this link or in the first audio player to appear in this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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