The Washington State Cougars take the field against the Oregon State Beavers at Martin Stadium on Oct. 17, 2015 in Pullman. Washington State defeated Oregon State during that day’s game, 52-31. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images)
The Washington State University football coach is one of the highest-paid public employees in the state. Yet WSU is bringing aboard its fourth head coach since 2020.
The Pullman school announced Friday that it was hiring Kirby Moore away from Missouri to replace Jimmy Rogers, who lasted less than a year.
The question now is whether Moore’s tenure will be different and usher in a new era of stability.
Moore, 35, has been the offensive coordinator at Missouri for the past three seasons.
He grew up in the Yakima Valley town of Prosser, and is the younger brother of New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore.
Kirby Moore was a wide receiver at Boise State from 2009-2013, then started his coaching career at the College of Idaho in 2014. Moore spent the next two seasons at the University of Washington, working as a graduate assistant and offensive assistant.
A press conference introducing Moore will be held next Tuesday. Terms of his contract were not disclosed.
“Coach Moore is the real deal, and exactly who we needed to propel us to the top of the new Pac-12,” WSU President Elizabeth Cantwell said Friday. “Our student-athletes have lucked out.”
Moore said in a statement that, “Becoming a first-time head coach at a special place like Washington State is a dream come true for my family and I.”
WSU’s football coach is paid well over $1 million a year. Despite that salary, the position has seen recent turnover due to a combination of the pandemic and two ambitious coaches using WSU as a stepping stone.
The coaching turmoil comes as WSU seeks to stanch dropping enrollment while remaining relevant in the turbulent college football landscape.
Cantwell has said repeatedly that a successful football program is key to reversing an enrollment decline of some 6,000 students at WSU in recent years. That starts with the right coach as Washington State University transitions to the new-look Pac-12 next season.
The highest-paid employees of the state of Washington are almost always the football and men’s basketball coaches at the University of Washington and WSU, each making well over $1 million per year. By contrast, Gov. Bob Ferguson makes about $230,000 annually.
Rogers was hired away from South Dakota State last winter for a salary of $1.57 million per year. He led the Cougars to a 6-6 record, and shortly after announced he was leaving for his dream job as head coach at Iowa State.
Prior to Rogers, Jake Dickert spent just over three years leading the Cougars, making about $2.5 million per year, before jumping ship last year for Wake Forest.
Dickert’s predecessor, Nick Rolovich, was hired in 2020 to replace the legendary Mike Leach. Rolovich coached during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, and was fired early in the 2021 season for refusing the state’s order that he get a COVID vaccination. Rolovich sued the state for $25 million, but lost in federal court.
The last football coach to spend any real time in Pullman was Leach, who was at one time the state’s highest-paid employee at $3 million per year. Leach led the Cougars to six bowl games in eight seasons before leaving after the 2019 season for Mississippi State, part of the powerful SEC. Leach died in 2022.
‘A job that coaches can have success at’
To be sure, the WSU job comes with some disadvantages. Pullman is a town of about 35,000 people located 75 miles south of Spokane in wheat farming country. It is far from the glitz of big cities, and recruiting top athletes there can be a challenge. Now that top players are demanding millions of dollars in “name, image, likeness” money to sign with a team, those difficulties are magnified.
Rogers this week insisted he did not intend to leave Pullman after one season, but could not turn down a job he had wanted for years.
“I didn’t take the Washington State job and move across the country to abandon it in one year. I didn’t,” Rogers said at his introduction Monday at Iowa State. “I took that jump because I believed in that product and what I could produce there.”
Rogers said that he would have liked to coach the Cougars in the Idaho Potato Bowl against Utah State on Dec. 22, but the administration decided an assistant coach would do that instead.
Complicating the problems at Washington State is that Athletic Director Anne McCoy was unceremoniously fired a few weeks ago by Cantwell for not raising enough in donations to the athletic department.
For all the coaching changes, WSU’s football team has remained pretty good. The Cougars will go to their ninth bowl game in ten years this season, unprecedented success for the program.
“Washington State has proven time and again that it can be a job that coaches can have success at,” broadcaster and former Washington State quarterback Alex Brink said.
Cantwell has said the dramatic changes in the college football world that left Washington State behind require a coach who views name, image, likeness money and the transfer portal as strategic tools, not impediments.
Cantwell has also worked this year to improve the football fan experience in Pullman. That includes funding for a new scoreboard and other upgrades inside 33,000-seat Martin Stadium, in an effort to boost tepid attendance.
“We’ve got alcohol in the stands. We’ve got a whole plethora of things happening right outside the stadium,” Cantwell said. “Keep an eye on us. It’s getting better and better and better every game.”
This post was originally authored and published by Nicholas K. Geranios from Washington State Standard via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
