Instant Reaction: Dickert leaves WSU — Brock and Bump weigh in

Jake Dickert is no longer the WSU football coach, leaving Wednesday morning to take over the program at Wake Forest – and leaving Cougars fans with the Deacon Blues.

WSU Cougars coach Jake Dickert leaving for Wake Forest

Seattle Sports’ two college football insiders – Brock Huard and Michael Bumpus – both took to the air shortly after the news broke on their daily shows and shared their reactions.

On Brock and Salk, which airs from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports 710 AM, the Seattle Sports app and SeattleSports.com, Brock Huard said going to the ACC with the Demon Deacons is a “big, big challenge” for Dickert after spending the past four seasons as WSU’s coach.

Huard, a FOX college football analyst and former UW Huskies quarterback, added that he recently had a text conversation with Dickert. And while he didn’t divulge particulars about that exchange, Huard said he thinks that all of the turnover related to the WSU football program this year – including the crumbling of the Pac-12, athletic director Pat Chun leaving for UW, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle going to Oklahoma, and quarterback John Mateer entering the transfer portal – represented a final straw for Dickert.

“Ben Arbuckle leaves Washington State, and I think this was probably the final tipping point for Jake Dickert,” Huard said. “I texted with him the other day, and he didn’t say this but I’m just kind of reading between the lines – it’s one thing to lose personnel, it’s one thing to lose an athletic director, it’s quite another when you can’t hire the kind of coaches that you know you need to hire to win. … I think if you’re Jake Dickert, you’re like, ‘I mean, what do you want me to do?'”

Watch Huard’s full reaction in the video here.

The departure of Dickert is a little more personal for Bumpus, a college football analyst for The CW who was a star wide receiver at WSU from 2004-07. The connection to the Cougs doesn’t get in the way of Bumpus being realistic about the situation Wazzu is currently in, however.

Bump also has a potential solution for the Cougars to build and maintain continuity on the coaching staff.

“I was surprised, but then I wasn’t at the same time,” Bumpus said of his initial reaction to the news. “… I wish he would stay, but I understand. It’s a better opportunity over there, and it’s crazy that we’re looking at Wake Forest, a football program that has two double-digit winning seasons since 1908. And he said, look, I’m going to the ACC where I think that I can compete because we’ll have more money. I can hold guys down. I can go out and poach some guys if need be.

“You’re not poaching anybody if you’re Washington State. You’re just going into the (transfer) portal and saying, ‘Look, we can help develop you.’ So it’s just a frustrating situation, but that is the reality of being a Washington State Cougar. We don’t have the resources that other schools have, and you need to get somebody who has connections to the school. You should hire four or five former players to help build this program. The head coach, you go get the most experienced guy, but this is what I would do: I would hire four or five former players as assistants, let them develop and grow, then have one of them take over eventually. Now you have that connection. You need guys with connection.”

Watch video below of Bump’s reaction when he went on the air with Bump and Stacy, which you can catch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

Klatt: WSU QB Mateer’s transfer highlights ‘totally broken’ system

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