Washington State head coach Kylie Smith is going into the fifth year of a six-year contract that he signed with WSU following the departure of Ernie Kent. The Cougars have done well and improved under Smith’s leadership, after enduring five seasons of abject badness under Kent.
While Smith also appeared to be in the same boat as Kent in his first two seasons, with the Cougars occupying the bottom part of the Pac-12 standings (11th place and 10th place), the past two seasons have seen Wazzu pick up their game and they tied for 5th place in the 21-22 and 22-23 seasons.