With 'heart' at Boise State, Dickey looks to take athletic department to next step

BOISE — When Jeramiah Dickey took the Boise State Athletic Director job in January 2021, he did so sight unseen. With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, Boise State was not flying out candidates for in-person interviews.

So, when Dickey, his wife and children arrived in Boise on a snowy day just 24 hours before his introductory press conference, it was the first time any of them had stepped foot in Idaho.

Three years later he said his heart is in Boise, and despite reportedly being connected to the same position at the University of Houston, he and his family have decided to stay in the place that has become home to them.

“My heart’s here,” Dickey said Friday in his first press conference since it was first reported he had agreed to a contract extension . “I love this place, I love this community, I love this state and maybe more importantly, I love our people. When something like that happens, and it happens quite a bit in our industry and there’s a lot of change, it’s humbling to have your name out there. But my feet were here and my heart is here.”

Dickey didn’t get into the exact details of the contract, which will go to the State Board of Review in October. He said that there are still certain details being ironed out, but hopes that it can become public “sooner rather than later.” ESPN’s Pete Thamel previously reported that the contract runs through the 2028-29 school year.

The extension ended speculation that Dickey, who was still on his original contract he signed when hired, might be tempted to bolt for Houston, where he had worked for seven years. Dickey said he had the conversation with his family and they unanimously said they wanted to stay in Boise, something that he called “a relief.”

“I believe in what we’re building,” Dickey said. “I believe it, I’m going to sign my name on the dotted line, I’ve already committed. If I felt like we had reached our ceiling, if I felt there wasn’t more to be had for our team and for our community and what Bronco Nation means to us, maybe that’s a different decision. But I’m bullish on our future, I’m bullish on who we are today and who we’re going to be tomorrow.”

He said he has a vision of the Athletic Department doing what he called “epic things” among all of its varsity sports.

“I envision us competing like football has. Why can’t we do that in 18 sports programs?” Dickey said. “That’s important to me. Since the day I’ve got here, it’s never been football and everyone else. Football is important, I understand that. But we have 18 sport programs and I’m responsible for 350-plus student-athletes in Bronco Nation. I want to be elite in every sport. I want to get to a place where every sport is competing for a championship year in and year out. Some may say that’s unrealistic, but I don’t care. That’s what drives us. I’m a competitor and I believe anything is possible if you put your mind to it and have the right attitude and work ethic and that’s something that our team has.”

That attitude isn’t strictly tied to on-the-field success. He talked Friday about continued improvements he wants to make to athletic facilities and the fundraising efforts needed to get there. On Thursday, the school announced a $1 million gift given by a donor who wished to remain anonymous, to support the football program. It’s the 15th gift of $1 million or more the athletic department has received since the launch of the Lyle Smith Society in 2020.

“We’re not going to stop,” Dickey said of the fundraising efforts. “A big part of that are the relationships that we have and there’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit in this community. That’s our lifeblood and we’re going to continue to do that. We have to, we have no other choice and that makes it easy. Asking for money is not easy, it’s uncomfortable, but at the end of the day we need it to continue to invest in our staff and our student-athletes and supporters and tie into the vision that we have moving forward.”