Nick Rolovich

Nicholas Robert Rolovich (born February 16, 1979) is an American football coach and former player.

He was most recently the head football coach at Washington State University (WSU).

Rolovich majored in economics at the University of Hawaii, and received a master's degree at New Mexico Highlands University.

He was a quarterback with the Las Vegas Gladiators in the Arena Football League (AFL).

In October 2021, after being denied a religious exemption to Washington's requirement for state employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Rolovich was terminated by WSU.

Rolovich alleges that athletic director Patrick Chun asked him to receive the vaccine on the stadium 50 yard line in front of the entire football team.

He has since sued the university for $25 million.

Rolovich grew up in Novato, California.

He attended Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, California, and won varsity letters in football and baseball.

In football, he led his teams to two league championships.

Rolovich was a two-time junior college All-American (1998–99) at City College of San Francisco, where he led the Rams to a national championship in 1999.

Rolovich was a two-year letterman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he replaced starter and eventual all-time NCAA career passing leader Timmy Chang early in the 2001 season, leading the team to an 8–1 record.

During those nine games, Rolovich threw for 3,361 yards and 34 touchdowns on 233-of-405 passing.

He ended his college career with three straight 500-yard passing games.

He also tossed school single-game records of 8 touchdowns and 543 yards in a 72–45 win over BYU on December 8, 2001.

Those numbers helped him place tenth in the nation in pass efficiency (105.5) while breaking 19 school passing records and eight total offense records.

Rolovich participated in and was named one of the two MVPs from the 2002 Hula Bowl college all-star game.

Rolovich signed with the Denver Broncos on May 18, 2002 after an impressive mini-camp.

He rejoined the team in the following season before being allocated to the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe.

He became the first San Jose QB other than Grieb to throw a pass in a game since the 2002 season.

In 2003, Rolovich completed 87-of-149 passes while leading the Fire to World Bowl XI.

He connected on 14-of-19 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown in their 35–16 loss to the Frankfurt Galaxy in the championship game.

In 2004 and 2005, Rolovich signed with the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League where he served as Mark Grieb's backup.

Rolovich signed with the Arizona Rattlers on October 31, 2006.

Rolovich was released by both the Chicago Rush and Arizona Rattlers (after injuring his shoulder on January 16, 2006 in a non-contact scrimmage against Las Vegas, within a week he was waived) in 2006.

On April 10, 2007, Rolovich was signed by the Las Vegas Gladiators.

While still playing in the AFL, Rolovich served as quarterback coach for his JC alma mater, the City College of San Francisco Rams for two years.

Rolovich coached future quarterbacks Zac Lee and Jeremiah Masoli, who later went on to careers at Nebraska and Oregon, respectively.

In 2008, he retired from pro-football and joined the coaching staff of his other alma mater, the Hawaii Warriors, as a full-time quarterback coach.

In 2010, he was promoted to become Hawaii's offensive coordinator.

In Rolovich's first season, Hawaii finished the regular season 6–7, but had their first bowl invitation since 2010 to the Hawaii Bowl, where they beat Middle Tennessee 52–35.

In 2012, he was hired by Nevada to be their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after not being retained by new Warriors head coach Norm Chow.

In 2013, Rolovich was set to be the offensive coordinator at Temple on Matt Rhule's inaugural staff before backing out on January 9, 2013, after Nevada doubled his salary to $240,000.

On November 27, 2015, Rolovich was hired as the new head football coach at the University of Hawaii replacing Chow and interim head coach Chris Naeole.

In 2017, Hawaii suffered a setback with injuries to John Ursua among other players, finishing the season 3–9 while losing their last 5 games.

In 2018, Rolovich opted to change from a balanced spread offense to the pass-oriented run and shoot offense that June Jones successfully ran while Rolovich was a player at Hawaii.

In their first year under the run and shoot, Rolovich and Hawaii finished 8–6 while losing to Louisiana Tech in the Hawaii Bowl 31–14.

In 2019, Hawaii opened the season with wins against Pac-12 opponents Arizona and Oregon State before losing to No. 23 Washington.

They clinched a berth in the Mountain West Championship Game with a 14–11 win over San Diego State on November 23, 2019.

He was named Mountain West Coach of Year in 2019 after leading Hawaii to a 10-win season and division title.