Just a year after Jake Dickert left Washington State for Wake Forest, Wazzu needs yet another head coach.
Jimmy Rogers, who led the Cougars to a 6-6 overall record and bowl-eligibility in 2025, will become the next head coach at Iowa State.
The following are some names the Cougars may consider. Some of these coaches have recently signed contract extensions or have reaffirmed that they want to stay where they are amidst the 2025 coaching carousel.
But these are coaches that I think the Cougars should call first:
Montana State Head Coach Brent Vigen
Vigen was in the mix for Washington State’s head coaching vacancy last year. Maybe now is the right time for him depending on how much Wazzu is willing to pay him and his theoretical staff.
Vigen has been Montana State’s head coach since 2021. That first year, he led the Bobcats to their first national championship appearance since 1984. The year after that, Montana State reached the national semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, South Dakota State.
And in 2024, the Bobcats went undefeated during the regular season – including a victory at New Mexico – and returned to the FCS national championship.
Vigen also was an offensive coordinator at Wyoming under head coach Craig Bohl from 2014-20, most notably coaching now-NFL star quarterback Josh Allen, and was an assistant at North Dakota State before that.
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North Dakota State Head Coach Tim Polasek
Polasek could be yet another North Dakota State head coach who then takes over at an FBS program.
Polasek is in his second season as the head coach at NDSU. He led the Bison to a 14-2 overall record and an FCS national championship in 2024. The Bison are 12-0 overall and are the No. 1 seed in this year’s FCS playoffs.
Polasek does have experience in the western part of the country. He was Wyoming’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2021-23. He’s also coached in the Power Four, as he was also an offensive line coach at Iowa from 2017-20. He was a tight ends/fullbacks coach at Northern Illinois in 2013 as well.
Polasek has spent the majority of his career at NDSU, though. He was the offensive coordinator and running backs coach there from 2014-16 and coached running backs from 2007-12 while working with tight ends and fullbacks as well from 2010-12.
He was a graduate assistant at NDSU in 2006 after coaching defensive backs (2005) and wide receivers/tight ends (2003-04) at Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
USC Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn
Among Power Four coordinators in the region, Lynn stands out to me.
Lynn helped USC make massive strides in his first year there, going from 34.4 points per game allowed in 2023 to 24.1 in 2024. The Trojans were solid on that side of the ball again in 2025, ranking in the top 50 in the country in total defense and scoring defense.
Lynn’s regarded as a rising star in the coaching profession. He was previously the defensive coordinator at UCLA in 2023. The Bruins were top 10 in the country in total defense (301.5 yards per game allowed) and 14th in scoring defense (18.4 points per game allowed). UCLA allowed the second-fewest rushing yards per game in the nation with 80.8.
Previously, Lynn was a safeties coach with the Baltimore Ravens and worked with the Houston Texas’ secondaries before that. He was also an assistant for the Los Angeles Chargers when his father, Anthony Lynn, was the head coach there and focused primarily on linebackers. He’s also worked for the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets in the past.
Western Kentucky Head Coach Tyson Helton
Helton has a good amount of experience all over the country, including the West Coast.
Helton is 56-36 as WKU’s head coach. His background primarily involves offense. He began his coaching career at Hawaii as a graduate assistant in 2000 and worked with special teams the following three years.
He then coached tight ends and special teams at Memphis from 2004-06. The next five seasons, he coached quarterbacks at UAB and then focused on running backs there in 2012.
In 2013, he was a tight ends and special teams coach at Cincinnati. He coached at WKU for the first time from 2014-15 as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
He was also a QBs coach and a passing game coordinator at USC from 2016-17. He then became the offensive coordinator and a quarterbacks coach at Tennessee for one year before going back to WKU to be a head coach.
Oregon Assistant Head Coach Ra’Shaad Samples
Samples is currently coaching running backs at Oregon and has been an assistant head coach at three different FBS schools.
Samples is in his second season with the Ducks, and before this he was a wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Arizona State. Before that, he was the Los Angeles Rams’ running backs coach in 2022, which is when he was the youngest position coach in the NFL.
He was also an assistant head coach and running backs coach at TCU in 2021. He was an assistant at SMU for three years before that, first as an offensive assistant with an emphasis on recruiting before he was a running backs coach and recruiting coordinator and eventually an assistant head coach.
A former wide receiver at Oklahoma State and Houston, Samples began his coaching career as an assistant at Houston from 2016-17. He then was an offensive assistant and on-campus recruiting coordinator in 2018 at Texas.
