Jake Dickert offers lamest excuse for embarrassing departure from Washington State

Washington State's post-season exodus reached rock bottom on Wednesday night, when word broke that coach Jake Dickert had decided to follow quarterback John Mateer and some 20 other transfers out the door in order to take the head job at Wake Forest.

On the one hand, you can understand why Dickert ultimately concluded that his career would be better off elsewhere. The Cougars got left in the lurch when the Pac-12 dissolved, and the conference's future remains murky despite poaching half the Mountain West starting in 2026. Wazzou is geographically isolated, and in this brave new NIL world, the program is never going to have the resources necessary to keep the big boys from poaching stars like Mateer.

On the other, though, Dickert presumably knew all that when he was preaching all about loyalty and being true to your word and how some things are simply more important than money. He built his brand in Pullman on that sort of defiance, and to see him turn around and take the next off-ramp he could find is a bit rich. And the way in which Dickert handled his exit makes clear that he was never really the man or the coach he made himself out to be.

Jake Dickert left Washington State in the most pathetic way imaginable

Dickert's departure came out of the blue — he couldn't even be bothered to hold a team meeting to notify his players before he was out the door. And while his old team and its fans were still licking their wounds, wondering exactly what just happened, Dickert decided to rub their noses in it, posting a photo on Thursday afternoon of he and his family in a private jet bound for Wake Forest.

Dickert's inability to read the room extended to his introductory press conference. Rather than taking the high road, focusing on what appealed to him about the Demon Deacons, he instead decided to slam his old job, claiming that Washington State simply couldn't provide the resources for he — or, it was implied, anyone else — to win big. At one point, Dickert even took a shot at the state of Washington, claiming that it's "not exactly the recruiting Mecca of football".

Of course, the Cougars' limited resources and geographic disadvantages didn't stop them from producing players good enough for Dickert to try and poach on his way out the door.

Again: It's understandable that, after three turbulent years at the helm in Pullman, Dickert might decide that it's time for a new challenge. The problem isn't that he left Washington State; it's how he's conducted himself, and the ways in which that behavior comes into conflict with the image that he presented when it was advantageous for him to do so. Dickert talked a big game when times got rough and the team's Power 5 future was crumbling around it, and you can't blame Cougars fans for holding him to it now.