By Theo Lawson
The Spokesman-Review
A quick and concise search to find the next football coach at Washington State apparently ended Monday night.
Earlier in the week, a Spokesman-Review source indicated the Cougars had been targeting Nick Rolovich, to replace Mike Leach after eight seasons and WSU finalized a deal with the successful Hawaii coach on Monday, making him the 33rd coach in program history.
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported Rolovich’s hire minutes after the national championship game concluded between LSU and Clemson.
Rolovich is in line for a substantial pay raise in the Pac-12. The coach has signed a five-year deal that’s set to pay him $3 million annually, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports. Rolovich made $600,000 in his final season at Hawaii.
WSU hadn’t made a formal announcement by press time, but Director of Athletics Pat Chun hinted at his arrival, tweeting a photo of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — the future of the Pac-12 football championship game — with a caption reading, “The future is here! #GoCougs”
Rolovich was thought by many to be a candidate to replace Leach, who left for Mississippi State last week, and the coach’s name began gaining traction on social media over the last few days leading up to tonight’s news. Other candidates for the job included former WSU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin, though sources suggested Grinch wasn’t interested in a return to the Palouse and it’s unclear if Chun met with Harsin.
The fourth-year Hawaii coach is set to become a Power Five coach for the first time in his career and comes off his best season in Honolulu, leading the Rainbow Warriors to 10 wins and a divisional title in the Mountain West Conference. Hawaii dropped the MWC title game to Boise State, but clinched its 10th win, beating BYU 38-34 in the Hawaii Bowl.
As Rolovich takes over for Leach, the Run-and-Shoot offense is set to replace the Air Raid, which gave the Cougars bounds of offensive success the last eight seasons. Both offenses are rooted in throwing the football, which should make for an easier transition over the next seven months as the Cougars prepare for the 2020 season and Rolovich’s first game at WSU, against old Mountain West foe Utah State on Sept. 5 in Logan.
Last season, Hawaii ranked 13th in total offense, at 471 yards per game, and 24th in scoring offense, at 33.9 points per game.
While the Run-and-Shoot is primarily a passing offense, the Rainbow Warriors managed to strike a decent balance and didn’t necessarily abandon the run game. Hawaii’s 635 pass attempts ranked second nationally, behind only WSU, but the Rainbow Warriors still finished 100th in rushing offense at 133 yards per game on 421 attempts while the Cougars were last with 210 rushing attempts and second-to-last at 68.1 yards per game.
The 40-year-old Rolovich spent four years at Hawaii as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, mentoring 5,000-yard passer Bryant Moniz in his first stint, and moved within the Mountain West in 2012 to become an OC and QB coach at Nevada under Chris Ault.
The Run-and-Shoot offense Rolovich employs is the same one that’s used at Honolulu’s Saint Louis High School, which recently won a state championship with WSU QB signee Jayden de Laura. Rolovich and the Rainbow Warriors were the first FBS school to offer de Laura, who eventually signed with WSU over Ohio State, USC and others.
Rolovich also has strong connections to City College of San Francisco and should be able to maintain WSU’s pipeline to the California junior college. Rolovich was a two-time JC All-American QB for the Rams and returned to coach the position at CCSF in 2006-07. Anthony Gordon, Easop Winston Jr, Robert Valencia, Derrick Langford, Robert Taylor and Shalom Luani all played at CCSF before joining the Cougars.
A native of Daly City, California, Rolovich is married to Analea, his college sweetheart, and has four children.
