Report: Wake Forest to hire Washington State coach Jake Dickert

Wake Forest moved quickly to secure its new head coach.

According to the Athletic, the Demon Deacons are hiring Washington State coach Jake Dickert just days after Dave Clawson stepped down. Clawson announced Monday that he was resigning after 11 seasons as the team’s head coach.

Washington State is 23-20 in three-plus seasons under Dickert. He took over midway through the 2021 season after coach Nick Rolovich was fired over a prolonged vaccination fight with the university. The Cougars have posted two winning seasons in Dickert’s three full seasons with the school and were 8-4 in 2024 during their first season in college football’s wilderness.

Oregon State and Washington State were effectively left without a conference ahead of the season when 10 of the Pac-12’s members found other conferences. Oregon State and Wazzu made up the “conference” portion of their schedules via an alliance with the Mountain West and are spearheading an effort to rebuild the Pac-12 with an assortment of current Mountain West teams.

Washington State lost three straight games to end the season after an 8-1 start in 2024, though the Cougars were one of the more entertaining teams in college football. Washington State scored nearly 37 points per game but gave up over 28 points a contest.

QB John Mateer led college football with 44 total touchdowns, though he too is leaving Washington State. Dickert announced Monday that Mateer would be entering the transfer portal.

Mateer’s decision to transfer comes as Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle was hired as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. The turnover in Pullman may be indicative of Washington State’s tough future ahead at the top level of college football as the Cougars are no longer part of a power conference.

Wake Forest went 4-8 in 2024 for a second consecutive four-win season. The Demon Deacons won 11 games in 2021 but fell to 8-5 in 2022 before going 4-8 in 2023. In 11 seasons at Wake Forest, Clawson’s teams went 67-69 with seven bowl appearances. He came to Wake Forest after five years in charge at Bowling Green. The Falcons were 32-32 in his time there and went to three bowl games.