Ben Roberts and the Making of a Red Raider Dynasty

MIAMI, Fla. – It was the summer of 2021 and most of the Washington State football staff was in Dallas for a mega camp at SMU. Marco Regalado, who was the Director of Recruiting at the time, was one of the few staff members left behind on campus in Pullman, Wash. and his job that day was to look up any of the players that the staff attending the camp in Dallas were impressed by. 

One of the calls he received that day was from then defensive coordinator Jake Dickert, who is now the head coach at Wake Forest. Dickert was impressed by one of the linebacker prospects he watched run a 40-yard dash and needed Regalado to find out more about him beyond what number he was wearing at the camp. Regalado didn’t need to look the player up; he knew him. And unfortunately for Dickert and the Cougars, he was off limits.