Much has changed in a year for WSU football as new season begins

Washington State is starting the 2022 season on a new foot, with some new coaches, a new transfer quarterback and a new motto for the locker room in Pullman.

The 2021 season for WSU had many highs and lows …

It all started under former head coach Nick Rolovich, with the team starting 1-3 and the hot seat simmering for Rolovich -- for more reasons than that record. Pressure mounted from the fans for Rolovich to be fired, regarding his vaccination status and his rocky start. After that fourth game, the state of Washington announced all unvaccinated employees will either have to be vaccinated, have a religious exemption, or else they will be fired on Oct.18. Then … the team went 3-0 to surge into a winning record, beating California, Oregon State and Stanford. So now the Cougars are 4-3.

But the question remained, what was going to happen with Rolovich? He was adamant about not getting the vaccine and tried for religious exemption, but it was denied. Oct. 18 came and Rolovich exited, fired.

This is where the season could have truly gone wayward.

But enter defensive coordinator Jake Dickert, who took the reins of the program as interim head coach. The expectations were low for Dickert, especially as the Cougs had the harder part of their schedule -- BYU, a highly-ranked Oregon team, an Arizona State squad fighting for bowl eligibility, and in-state rival Washington.

WSU went 3-2 to finish the regular season, with the losses coming to BYU at home by 2 and at No. 3 Oregon by 14, after being tied at halftime. After a 1-3 start, the Cougars finished 7-5, rolled over rival Washington 40-13 and became bowl eligible once again.

Dickert received praise all over Pullman, as he was the first coach to bring the Apple Cup back since former head coach Mike Leach in 2012.

Now Dickert enters his first full season as head coach after signing his extension in the offseason.

Now there are some expectations.

WSU brings in the transfer quarterback from Incarnate Word, Cameron Ward, to be the immediate starter for this team as a sophomore. Alongside Ward is offensive coordinator Eric Morris, who was the head coach at Incarnate Word before coming up north.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Cougars brought in defensive coordinator Brian Ward, the former coordinator at Nevada, and his redshirt senior linebacker Daiyan Henley as a transfer.

The team has some big challenges this upcoming season, with No. 14 USC, No. 7 Utah, No. 18 Wisconsin and No. 11 Oregon all within the first eight weeks of the season.

The offense will use a tight end for the first time in a very long time, after using the Air Raid offense under Leach and Rolovich. Dickert is calling the new style “Coug Raid."

As game week arrives with Idaho coming to Gesa Field on Saturday for the opener, the Cougars are predicted to finish seventh in the Pac-12 this season.

This season will be a trial test for Dickert, the coaching staff and the team as a new era of WSU football in Pullman begins.