Report: Wake Forest hires Washington State coach Jake Dickert as Dave Clawson replacement

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons have their next head coach. Jake Dickert, previously of the Washington State Cougars, is set to take over in Winston-Salem, per a report by The Athletic.

This comes following the sudden and surprise resignation of previous head coach Dave Clawson, who led the program from 2014 through the 2024 season. He held a record of 67-69 there and has since moved into an advisory role.

With him, Dickert is going to bring four seasons of head coaching experience with him. He took over as the interim head coach at Washington State in 2021, replacing Nick Rolovich, and would go on to earn the full-time job in Pullman. Since then, he has a 23-20 record and led the Cougars to three bowl games.

Just 41 years old, Dickert is seen as an up-and-coming coach in college football. Prior to his time at Washington State, he worked his way up as a defensive assistant, with stops at Wyoming, South Dakota State, Minnesota State, and North Dakota State among others.

While at Washington State, Dickert coached several talented quarterbacks. That includes Cam Ward, who would later transfer out of the program. In 2024, he turned to John Mateer. Again, Dickert saw his quarterback thrive and go on to be a highly sought-after transfer.

Unfortunately, for Washington State, it has been a difficult couple of seasons as the Pac-12 had its membership drop from 12 schools to just two schools. Washington State, along with Oregon State, was one of the teams left behind. Since then, the Cougars have been part of the effort to recruit new schools to the conference and rebuild but it’s a long path to get there.

Having Dickert remain with the program offered some stability during an uncertain time. Now, the Cougars are going to be in the market for a new head coach as he jumps to the ACC.

Wake Forest is a historically difficult job and Clawson seems like he’s going to be a difficult coach to replace. Known for his slow mesh offense, Clawson left with the third most wins of any coach in program history and the best winning percentage of any Wake Forest head coach since 1950. That came on the back of seven straight bowl appearances and a Top 25 finish in 2021.

Clawson’s tenure at Wake Forest came to an end with two straight 4-8 seasons. It will now fall on Dickert to try and rebuild the program back to what it had become at the height of the Clawson era.