Wake Forest hires Washington State’s Jake Dickert as new coach

Two days after Dave Clawson announced his resignation, Wake Forest hired Washington State‘s Jake Dickert as his replacement Wednesday.

Dickert was in his third full season at Washington State and guided the Cougars to an 8-4 record this year. He took over midway through the 2021 season after Nick Rolovich was fired by the university for declining to take the COVID vaccine, and Dickert was promoted to permanent head coach following the regular season.

“My number one priority will be building relationships with our current student-athletes and earning their trust. We will have a clear focus on retaining our current roster while adding valuable pieces that fit our program and Wake Forest University. 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,” Dickert said in a statement.

“Before I go further, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the players, staff, and leadership at Washington State University. I will forever be thankful for their belief in me and the opportunity to lead a program that meant so much to my family and me. The relationships built there will remain a cherished part of our journey, and I am immensely proud of what we accomplished together both on and off the field.”

Dickert, 41, is 23-20 overall at Washington State, which played in a two-team Pac-12 this season and pieced together a schedule after the other teams bolted for other conferences. The Cougars started 8-1 before losing their last three games. Washington State was Dickert’s first head coaching job. He spent the first part of his coaching career in the Division II and FCS ranks before joining the Wyoming staff under Craig Bohl in 2017. Dickert was Wyoming’s defensive coordinator in 2019 and was hired that next year as Rolovich’s defensive coordinator at Washington State.

Washington State was 11th nationally this season in scoring offense (36.8 points per game), with quarterback John Mateer leading college football with 44 total touchdowns. Dickert announced Monday that Mateer was entering the transfer portal, and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle also left to take the same position at Oklahoma.

Clawson was at Wake Forest for 11 seasons and took the Deacons to seven bowl games. He guided Wake Forest to 11 wins and the ACC’s Atlantic Division title in 2021 and won eight games the next season, but the Demon Deacons’ record dipped to 4-8 each of the past two seasons. Clawson will stay on at Wake Forest in an advisory role. His resignation comes amid sweeping changes in college sports with NIL payments to players and the transfer portal.

“You can’t do something successfully, and it’s not fair to the players or the institution if you’re doing something that your whole heart and soul isn’t into,” Clawson said at his resignation news conference. “I did not want to do this; in my perfect world I’d be having this press conference in three or four years. But I just looked at kind of where the industry is right now, and I just felt like it was time.”