Wake Forest to Hire Washington State's Jake Dickert As New Head Coach

Dickert will take over in Winston-Salem following 3.5 years as the head coach at Washington State.

Jake Dickert is set to become the new head coach at Wake Forest. / Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images

Wake Forest is hiring Washington State head coach Jake Dickert as its next head coach, replacing Dave Clawson who stepped down earlier this week. The news of Wake Forest closing in on Dickert was first reported by Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports.

Washington State is holding an emergency staff meeting at 7 am PT, which is when Dickert is expected to formally announce his departure.

The 41-year-old Dickert took over as Washington State's interim head coach in 2021 after the program fired Nick Rolovich. He finished 2021 with a 3-3 record to help the Cougars reach a bowl game, and the interim tag was removed. Since then, he has taken the Cougars to bowl games in two of his three years as the full-time head coach. Washington State went 8-4 this season and is set to play in the Holiday Bowl against Syracuse on Friday, Dec. 27.

Dickert will now take over a Wake Forest program in a power conference, which is more than he could say this season when Washington State was deserted as one of the two remaining members of the Pac-12 conference.

While Wake Forest is in a power league in the ACC, Dickert will likely experience similar roster retention issues that he dealt with at Washington State due to Wake's current NIL budget for football. However, this job presents an opportunity to compete in the ACC with an anticipated pay raise in his new role.

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