Interim football coaches face a multitude of challenges amid chaotic situations

Jake Dickert didn't have a whole lot of time to collect his thoughts, all of 30 minutes.

He had been called into a meeting with school administrators and asked to take over the Washington State football program seven games into the 2021 season. It was an appointment that drew a lot of attention nationwide because it came after coach Nick Rolovich was fired for not complying with the state's COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

Rolovich had a date for which he had to comply or be fired. A change was expected but Dickert, previously the defensive coordinator, really didn't get a heads-up that he would be the guy to take over.

"The first thing you really have to do is put your own interests, family, whatever, on the back burner," he said, in an exclusive phone interview earlier this week. "It's about those players and what is in their best interest. They're going to have questions and be unsure about the future and you have to take care of them, be there for them and put their minds at ease."

Dickert knows the challenges Shaun Aguano and Mike Sanford are facing. Aguano, previously the running backs coach, was appointed interim coach at Arizona State three games into the season when the Sun Devil administration decided to part ways with Herm Edwards after an embarrassing non-conference loss to Eastern Michigan.

Colorado pulled the plug on Karl Dorrell after an 0-5 start and put the program in the hands of offensive coordinator Mike Sanford.

This week Pac-12 play will feature a showdown between ASU (2-5, 1-3) and Colorado (1-6, 1-3) — two teams currently led by interim coaches. Kickoff at Folsom Field is at 4:30 p.m. with the game on ESPNU.

There have been other interesting scenarios involving interim coaches in the conference recently. Last season USC's Clay Helton was fired two games into the season after an abysmal 42-28 home loss to Stanford. The program was handed over to Donte Williams and the Trojans went 2-7 the rest of the season. The job eventually went to Lincoln Riley, then at Oklahoma but Williams, who was regarded as a good recruiter, remained on staff as defensive backs coach.

A request to talk to Williams was turned down by USC officials, who said Riley does not make his assistants available to the media.

Jimmy Lake was let go at Washington after last season's 35-30 loss to Arizona State, although he did not coach that game, having been suspended for a shoving incident with a player the previous week. Then-defensive coordinator Bob Gregory took over. He's now an analyst at Oregon.

Dickert's situation was even harder than most because not only was Rolovich terminated, so were five other position coaches. Dickert hired quarterback and offensive line coaches the Friday before a game against BYU, which the Cougars only ended up losing 21-19.

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Dickert's first win as a head coach came the following week against Arizona State in Tempe, 34-21. That game that really ended up being the beginning of the end for Edwards.

"I had to draw upon my days coaching Division II and III where you have a small staff and don't have a lot of resources," he said. "You have to manage a lot of things."

Both Aguano and Sanford have stressed a "family" atmosphere in taking over and practices at both places have been energized, according to media reports from both camps.

Aguano had a tough go at first with his opening games against conference powers Utah and USC. His first win came in the third try — a 45-38 upset of then-No 21 Washington.

Colorado was a 20-13 overtime winner against Cal in Sanford's debut, aided by a bye week to regroup heading into that game. That was a luxury Aguano didn't have. The Buffaloes were dealt a 42-9 loss by Oregon State last week in a game that bore a closer resemblance to other games this season as their average margin of defeat this season has been 32 points.

"Just as a head coach in general, interim or not, you have to oversee all 180 humans that are involved in your organization and the support staff. My first three weeks were all about just moving everybody in a direction together and unifying everybody in every corner of the building," Sanford told Colorado media this week. "The challenge of that is when it happens so quickly, those types of conversations and discussions are really done in putting your staff together. Those are also done when you kind of set the clear expectations of how we're going to do business. Those had to happen, instead of in seven months leading up to a season, it had to happen two weeks or 10 days in the case of the opening game after the bye week."

All recognize the interim tag as a job audition.

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When Edwards was let go, ASU athletic director Ray Anderson said Aguano would be given every opportunity to win the job although it would be a reach for the school to give the permanent job to a coach who was at the high school level five years ago and had not even been a coordinator in the college ranks.

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Dickert, 39, tried not to put too much pressure on himself. The Cougars ended up 7-6 and went to the Sun Bowl in 2021. His cause was strengthened by a 40-13 win over Washington in the season-ending rivalry game, the Apple Cup. It was the largest margin of victory by a team in that heralded series. The school didn't leave him hanging long, lifting the interim label the next day.

"I was really at peace, content, with what we had done," Dickert said. "I felt like I did everything I could do. If they gave me the job that was great and if they didn't, well it was a great experience and I learned a lot of things that would help me in my career moving forward."

Of course, ASU's situation is complicated by the ongoing NCAA investigation that has crippled its recruiting efforts. Aguano has focused on his ties to this state and emphasized that he wants to bring in the best local talent. He is proceeding like he will be part of the equation moving forward.

"You always going to fight the question, ‘Coach, wonder if you're not there, what's going to happen? We want to come here, but we don't know what's going to happen.’ And those are the questions and the legitimate questions that they're going to face," Aguano said. "I told them that we're recruiting as if I'm here and how that plays out, you know, it might be a thing where they wait until that decision is made and then make that decision. We're happy with what we have gotten in response to guys that are very interested in coming here. It'll probably be a wait and see a little bit on their part and I'm comfortable with that, especially with the parents and those talks I've been having with the parents.”

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Reach the reporter at Michelle.Gardner@gannett.com or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State-Colorado: Battle of Pac-12 interim football coaches