Former Alabama Coach Named Candidate For Washington State

The Washington State football program will begin its coaching search on Tuesday following the departure of head coach Nick Rolovich on Monday evening.

Already, a possible candidate has emerged.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS, “one name to watch” in the Cougars’ upcoming search process is current Texas assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks.

Banks, 46, just joined the Longhorns this past year but he has a connection to the Washington State program, having played on special teams for the Cougars in 1996 and 1997. He then joined the coaching staff as a grad assistant for the next two seasons.

Since then, Banks has gone on to have quite a productive career as an assistant coach around the FBS level. He’s made stops at Idaho State, UTEP, Virginia and Texas A&M, gaining ample experience as a coordinator.

Prior to joining Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas this past offseason, Banks was an important member of Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama, where he served as the tight ends coach and the special teams coordinator from 2018-2020.

Washington State has just begun its search for a new head coach after firing Rolovich with cause on Monday. The decision to do so came after he was unable to secure a religious exemption to the state of Washington’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Rolovich and other Washington State assistants had their contracts terminated with cause, which will lead to a massive midseason shake-up in Pullman. Rolovich will end his tenure with a record of 5-6, in a little over one season at the helm.

The Cougars are 4-3 so far in 2021 and fresh off a 34-31 victory over Stanford this past weekend. With a game against BYU approaching this Saturday, defensive coordinator Jake Dickert will take over the coaching responsibilities on an interim basis.

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