Jake Dickert Reflects on Getting Washington State Bowl Eligible in 2024

Joe Londergan | Oct 26, 2024

Oct 19, 2024; Pullman, Washington, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach Jake Dickert look son during a game against the Hawaii Warriors in the second half at Gesa Field at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-Imagn Images / James Snook-Imagn Images

Last week, with a 42-10 win over Hawaii, the Washington State Cougars improved to a 6-1 start on the season. That means WSU are bowl eligible for the third time under Dickert and for the eighth time in the last nine full seasons (WSU only played four games in the 2020 season). The Cougars missed out on a bowl game in 2023 despite a 5-1 start to the season.

This week during The Cougar Football Hour with Jake Dickert, Dickert noted his pride in his team reaching that mark and the opportunities reaching a bowl game provides a program with a lot of younger key players.

"First things first, it means that we're all going somewhere warm in December. That's a big deal. But at the end of the day, like I've said this last year and and the first year when we went to the bowl game, at Washington State it can never be like overlooked how hard that is to do. Look at the history of it. And for our guys to do it this early to be locked in, we really didn't talk about it going into the game. I think guys are aware of what that means."

"But they're really proud of it, especially our seniors from last year and not getting what we wanted to do with that team. It was one of their big goals to make sure that we're earning extra time together. And the best part about the bowl season is I call it winter camp. You know, those young guys, the freshman in our program, they get all kinds of opportunities to grow and get better and play and practice. I mean, it's an extra, depending on when you play, 15 practices. So I'm just excited for those guys and the connection of this team is real and they're just really excited to continue to play together. If we keep stacking it up, we can go to obviously a very high bowl game, which will be exciting for our fans."

WSU will look to improve to a 7-1 start on Saturday at San Diego State with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 PM PT on CBS Sports Network.

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