Washington State Football: Top 3 candidates to replace Nick Rolovich

Washington State football is now in the market for a new head coach, and it will have to be someone who has taken the COVID vaccine.

On Monday, Washington State football announced that head coach Nick Rolovich and some of his assistant coaches have been terminated as head coach. This comes due to his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine, which was mandated for state employees by Washington Governor Jay Inslee in a recent proclamation.

Rolovich was only in his second season as the Cougar head coach and did not even get to coach 12 games. He finishes with a 5-6 record and was 4-3 (3-2 in Pac-12 play) this year.

Before he took the Washington State job, Rolovich was the head coach of Hawaii football for four seasons, amassing a 28-27 record and taking the Warriors to bowl games in three out of the four years he coached there.

Though WSU has been playing since 1894, they have not historically been a dominant college football program compared to fellow Pac-12 teams such as in-state rival Washington, USC, and UCLA. They have not won a national championship, and their last conference title win was in 2002.

Thanks to the great recruiting along the West Coast, the Washington State job might attract some candidates (at least those who have been vaccinated).

Here are a few potential names that might be thrown around.