WSU Cougars coach Jake Dickert leaving for Wake Forest

Wake Forest has agreed to a deal with the WSU Cougars’ Jake Dickert to become the Demon Deacons’ next football coach.

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Wake Forest announced the move Wednesday morning, two days after Dave Clawson resigned unexpectedly after 11 seasons that included regular bowl bids and an Atlantic Coast Conference division title.

“Coach Dickert’s approach to building a program — through evaluation and development of talent with a plan rooted in detail, discipline, and an unwavering commitment to student-athlete development — reminds me of what made Dave Clawson so successful during his 11-year transformational tenure as our head football coach,” athletic director John Currie said in a statement from the school.

“Jake’s philosophy of fostering personal growth, cultivating trust within the team, and relentlessly competing for championships embodies the principles we hold dear.”

WSU released a statement from director of athletic Anne McCoy on Wednesday morning confirming earlier reports of Dickert’s departure. In the statement, McCoy announced that assistant head coach and defensive tackles coach Pete Kaligis, who won a national championship in 1991 while an offensive guard for the UW Huskies, will serve as acting head coach for the Cougars’ upcoming Holiday Bowl appearance against No. 22 Syracuse.

A statement from WSU Director of Athletics Anne McCoy.#GoCougs pic.twitter.com/fF9MCPbmsB

— Washington State Cougars (@WSUCougars) December 18, 2024

Dickert, 41, had been the defensive coordinator when he took over during the 2021 season as the Cougars’ interim coach after Washington State fired Nick Rolovich for refusing a state mandate that all employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. Dickert led the team to a 3-3 finish to earn the permanent job, then went 20-17 in the three seasons since.

The Athletic first reported Wake Forest was set to hire Dickert.

“We will have a clear focus on retaining our current roster while adding valuable pieces that fit our program and Wake Forest University,” Dickert said in a statement. “Additionally, I am excited to immerse myself in this special community as throughout this process my belief that this is the perfect place for our family and our program only strengthened.”

“I cannot tell you how excited, proud and honored I am to be the head football coach at Wake Forest University." – @CoachDickert 🗣️

🔗: https://t.co/WYijgCPa4c pic.twitter.com/zrGflq5j3P

— Wake Forest Football (@WakeFB) December 18, 2024

WSU has spent nine weeks in the AP Top 25 poll over the past two seasons, peaking at No. 13 during a five-week run amid a 4-0 start in 2023 and reaching No. 19 in early November of this season.

Washington State went 8-4 this year, the first since the Pac-12 fell apart with the majority of its schools scattering to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 and Big Ten. The Cougars’ Holiday Bowl meeting with Syracuse is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 27.

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Kaligis has spent the last three seasons on Dickert’s WSU staff. The pair previously worked together from 2017-19 at Wyoming, where Kaligis had a 13-year tenure in several coaching positions. In addition to his football playing career at the University of Washington, he was an All-American in track and field in the shot put.

Dickert arrived at Washington State after a three-year run at Wyoming in a career with stops that have included the Division II level, though those had generally been at schools in the central part of the country or further west.

He’ll relocate to the eastern seaboard for this job at an elite private university with one of the smallest undergraduate enrollments in the Bowl Subdivision ranks (5,471 students in the 2023-24 academic year). It also comes as the Demon Deacons have suffered through consecutive 4-8 seasons in Clawson’s otherwise successful run, a product of a changing landscape in college sports that hindered Wake Forest’s successful formula of retaining and developing players to compete with schools featuring four- and five-star prospects.

Notably, those changes have included free player movement through the transfer portal and players being able to profit from their athletic fame through name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities — a combination that has led to roster upheaval across college sports.

In Wake Forest’s case, the Demon Deacons had an 11-win season that included a trip to the ACC title game in 2021, as well as brief stints in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 in 2021 and 2022 amid a run of seven straight bowl appearances before the past two four-win seasons.

Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.

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