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What is Jake Dickert worth to Wake Forest? Ask SMU
Two days after his extension, Wake beat SMU 49–7 on the road. Wake won't say what it pays him. At 18–5 in two seasons, here's what he's worth.
Two days after Wake Forest locked Jake Dickert into a long-term extension, his team went to SMU and led 42–0 at halftime. It won 49–7. If the school wanted a quick answer to what its coach is worth, the Demon Deacons gave it one.
Wake is now 9–1 and 6–1 in the ACC. It is 5–0 on the road, has won seven straight, and was No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings entering the week. In two seasons under Dickert it is 18–5. The two seasons before he arrived, it was 4–8 and 4–8.
The game that made the case
SMU came in 7–2 and 5–2 in the conference (it's now 7–3), one of the teams Wake had to get past to stay in the title-game race. Wake scored 14 in the first quarter and 28 in the second, and SMU didn't score in the first half. "We're not finished with them yet," Dickert said at the break. Wake added one more touchdown after it; SMU's only score was a third-quarter touchdown pass.
Gio Lopez threw for 201 yards and a touchdown and ran for two more. Carlos Hernandez caught six passes for 94 yards and a score, and Ty Clark III ran for 77 yards and a touchdown. Wake gained more than 500 yards to SMU's 275, and won the turnover battle 3–1.
The season so far
SMU wasn't a one-off. Here is Wake's 2026, game by game:
| Date | Opponent | Result | |---|---|---| | Sept. 3 | Akron | W 38–16 | | Sept. 12 | at Purdue | W 38–36 (2OT) | | Sept. 18 | No. 5 Miami | L 20–33 | | Sept. 26 | at No. 16 Louisville | W 30–27 | | Oct. 3 | Stanford | W 57–3 | | Oct. 10 | at NC State | W 38–14 | | Oct. 17 | at California | W 41–7 | | Oct. 31 | Virginia | W 51–7 | | Nov. 7 | Merrimack | W 77–0 | | Nov. 14 | at SMU | W 49–7 |
That's 439 points scored and 150 allowed: about 44 a game for, 15 against. Wake has played one top-25 team in each direction. It lost to Miami at home in September, then went to No. 16 Louisville eight days later and won 30–27, with Hernandez catching nine passes for 194 yards and Clark running for two touchdowns. It hasn't lost since.
The early weeks were closer than the record suggests. Wake needed two overtimes to win at Purdue, and it was unranked into October. It entered the AP poll at No. 21 after winning at NC State, and has moved up since. Every win after Louisville has been by at least 24 points.
The offense runs through Lopez, who has spread the ball. Hernandez has had two games of more than 160 receiving yards, Jack Foley had 156 at NC State, and Dominick Barry caught three touchdowns at California.
Two regular-season games are left: at Georgia Tech, which is 2–7, and at home against Duke.
What Wake pays, and what it gets
Nobody outside Wake Forest knows what Dickert makes. Wake is a private school, so his contract isn't public record, and the school didn't release the terms of the extension. Figures for his pay have circulated, but none has been confirmed.
At public schools, coaches' contracts are public. Here is what five ACC programs are paying their coaches this season, with records entering Saturday:
| Coach, school | 2026 pay | Record | ACC | |---|---|---|---| | Dabo Swinney, Clemson | $11.5M | 6–3 | 4–2 | | Bill Belichick, North Carolina | $10.0M | 5–4 | 2–3 | | Jeff Brohm, Louisville | $6.55M | 6–3 | 5–2 | | James Franklin, Virginia Tech | $6.0M | 6–3 | 3–3 | | Tony Elliott, Virginia | $5.4M | 4–5 | 2–4 |
Wake, at 9–1 after Saturday, has a better record than all five, and two of them lost to it this year: Brohm at home in September, and Elliott by 44 in Winston-Salem. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina pays Bill Belichick $10 million a year. Chapel Bill is 5–4.
The bigger gap may be the roster. Dickert has said Wake's roster spending sits in the lower third of the ACC. It has the smallest enrollment in the Power Four, just over 5,500 undergraduates. Dave Clawson, who went 67–69 over 11 seasons and took Wake to seven straight bowls, said his last two teams "weren't prepared for NIL." Dickert is winning on a budget that, by his own account, still trails most of the league.
Why Wake moved now
Dickert's name was in the coaching carousel, and the carousel this fall has been expensive. Florida State fired Mike Norvell on November 1 at 3–5, with a buyout reported at $46 million to $47 million. NC State fired Dave Doeren in October and hired Philip Rivers on November 13, at $3.25 million to start.
The school said the extension was meant to give the program stability and end the outside speculation. It reportedly comes with more money for staff and resources, too. For a program Wake's size, the cost of losing a coach who wins at this rate is a rebuild, and the last one started from 4–8.
What's still on the table
Wake is second in the ACC. This is the last season of the 12-team playoff before it grows to 24.
Miami is the team ahead of it. The Hurricanes entered Saturday 6–0 in the conference, and their 33–20 win in September is Wake's only loss, so Miami holds the head-to-head edge. Wake can't control Miami, but it can keep winning, and a blowout like Saturday's is how a team with a lower-third budget makes the case to a playoff committee.
So what is he worth?
Wake won't say what it pays him, so the better question is what he would cost someone else. This fall's market gives a range. NC State is starting Philip Rivers, a first-time college head coach, at $3.25 million. Louisville pays Brohm $6.55 million, and his team is 6–3. A coach who is 18–5 at the Power Four's smallest school, and still alive for a conference title, would draw offers well above the first number and probably at or above the second.
That's what Wake bought on November 12: not a salary figure, but the cost of not replacing him. Florida State is paying about $46 million to undo its last bet.
Our read: on this season alone, Dickert is worth at least Brohm money. Wake won 18 games in two years after winning 8 in the two before. This year it is unbeaten away from home, it beat a ranked Louisville on the road, and it beat a seven-win SMU by 42. Whatever Wake is paying him, it's getting more than that back.
The extension's terms are private. The return so far isn't.
