UW football fires Jimmy Lake in second season after 13 games
Less than two seasons after Jimmy Lake took over the Washington Huskies football program, he has been fired with two games remaining on the regular season schedule, the university announced in a release Sunday afternoon.
Lake’s tenure as the program’s head coach ends after 13 games — UW was 7-6 during that stretch — and one day after the loss to Arizona State, which Lake was not present for for after being suspended for one game following a sideline incident during the Oregon game a week earlier.
Per the release, defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, who was UW’s acting coach against Arizona State, will be the interim coach for the rest of the season.
A national search for the program’s next coach will begin immediately, the release says.
UW athletic director Jen Cohen issued the following statement Sunday:
“Making a head coaching change in any sport is difficult, recognizing that the decision impacts coaches, staff, student-athletes and their families. However, as the steward of UW Athletics, I must always act in the best interests of our student-athletes, our department and our university. No one wanted Jimmy to succeed more than I when I hired him in 2019, but ultimately, this change is necessary for a variety of reasons, both on the field and off. I am grateful for Jimmy’s service to Washington, and we wish him the very best of luck moving forward.”
Cohen said during a video conference with reporters Sunday evening she met with Lake in the afternoon to inform him of the changes, said the conversation was “professional,” and that there was “no one factor” that led to the decision to this decision.
“It was a multitude of things,” she said. “As I do with all of our head coaches, I evaluate our programs holistically. We look at everything to on the field play and results, to the student athlete experience, the student athlete welfare, recruiting, leadership, plans for success, staffing and many other factors. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that we needed a change in leadership for our football program.
“I recognize that terminating a coach after 13 games is unusual, and quite frankly, it certainly goes against my belief as an administrator. However, when I know something is not working or something just isn’t right, I do have an obligation to act. I hired Coach Lake in 2019 full of confidence and had high expectations and did everything that I could to help him be successful. I’m really disappointed, and I’m sad to be here today in his second season.”
UW will honor the terms of Lake’s contract, per the release. Lake’s contract is in the second of five years with $9.9 million remaining over the next three through the end of the 2024 season, but could be reduced based on new compensation.
Lake coached nine games in his second season before the suspension with a 4-5 record.
The Huskies returned much of the group that finished 3-1 and won a Pac-12 North Division title in a shortened four-game season last fall, in Lake’s first season leading the program.
They were projected to again be among the conference’s top teams. The thought was they could again contend for a conference title. They opened the season ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll, and No. 21 in the coaches poll.
More than a decade of consecutive winning seasons on Montlake seemed sure to continue.
Then, the Huskies opened their season in September with a shocking loss to Montana, leading to early questions and criticisms about the program and the offense. On the first drive of that game, the Huskies reached the end zone with ease, but they never scored again.
The loss was the first in program history to an FCS team — and the first defeat of a ranked FBS team by an FCS team in the past five years, per NCAA records.
Not much changed for the Huskies in the weeks that followed. They were run over by Michigan in Ann Arbor the following week, and didn’t score their second touchdown of the season until seven quarters after they scored their first.
In three more losses to Oregon State, UCLA and Oregon before Lake’s suspension ahead of the Arizona State game, two of the unwanted trends the Huskies have endured in most games this season — an inconsistent offense and run defense — continued.
Entering the week, through the nine games Lake coached this season, UW ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 in several offensive categories, including 10th in scoring (22 points per game), first downs (18.7 per game), total offense (332.1 yards per game) and rushing offense (115.3 yards per game). And though they had the conference’s top scoring defense (19.7 points per game allowed) and were allowing the second-fewest yards among Pac-12 teams (336.7 per game), their run defense (195.2 yards per game allowed) ranked 11th, and has factored into each loss.
Before Lake’s suspension, the Huskies did collect the four wins — a rout of Arkansas State, an overtime win over California in their Pac-12 opener, and a pair of close victories over Arizona and Stanford that returned them to .500 at that point — but still often struggled to find consistency from drive to drive.
The four teams UW has topped this season also currently have a combined record of 8-30, and none have a winning record.
Still, the Huskies were in position only a week ago to move into a tie for first place in the Pac-12 North with a rivalry win over Oregon, but the week didn’t end that way.
Following his regular Monday press conference ahead of the game against the Ducks, Lake made headlines with his response to a question about UW and Oregon’s recruiting rivalry.
“I think that is way more pumped up than it is,” Lake said then. “Our battles are really — the schools that we go against are way more, have academic prowess like the University of Washington.
“Notre Dame, Stanford, USC — we go with a lot of battles, toe-to-toe all the way to the end with those schools. So, I think that’s made up a lot and pumped up in (the media’s) world. In our world, we battle more academically prowess teams.”
Lake’s comments drew widespread reaction on social media, from national news outlets, and a response from Oregon president Michael Schill.
Lake said on his weekly radio show on Seattle’s SportsRadio 950 KJR two days after his initial comment he has “the utmost respect for the University of Oregon as an academic and athletic institution” and his comments were “focused on our recruiting efforts and what we were doing.”
Oregon has brought in the top class in the Pac-12 during each of the past four recruiting cycles, per 247Sports.com rankings, and has been a top-10 program nationally three times in that span, including the two cycles Lake was UW’s head coach. UW’s 2021 class ranked sixth in the Pac-12 and 36th nationally, while the incoming 2022 class is currently eighth in the conference and 54th in the nation.
The comment seemed to stir the rivalry — which beyond its usual intensity also featured an Oregon team that opened at No. 4 in the College Football Playoff ranking, and a Huskies team looking to upend their rival a year after being replaced by the Ducks in the Pac-12 Championship Game when their season ended early due to COVID-19 issues.
Oregon won, and on the heels of the least productive offensive performance of the season — the Huskies managed only 166 yards of offense and seven first downs against the Ducks — UW announced the next day offensive coordinator John Donovan had been fired.
Lake’s future with the program, already in question, was further clouded following the sideline incident during the Oregon game, when he appeared to push his right hand into the face mask of walk-on linebacker Ruperake Fuavai and then shove him after a special teams play in the first half.
UW announced Monday morning Lake would be suspended for the Arizona State game. Cohen released the following statement:
“Our staff has spent the last 24-plus hours reviewing video of the incident, as well as speaking with Coach Lake, the involved student-athlete and several other student-athletes and members of the staff, and I have made the decision to suspend Coach Lake for next Saturday’s game against Arizona State.
“President (Ana Mari) Cauce, our Faculty Athletics Representative, Alexes Harris, and members of our executive staff are in agreement that while we do not believe that his actions were intentional or deliberate, we can have no tolerance for a coach interacting with a student in the manner Coach Lake did. We have high expectations of conduct for our coaches, and we will not shy away from those expectations.”
Lake was not made available for his Monday press conference, but released a statement on his Twitter account that afternoon.
“I want to apologize to every member of our team, and in particular to Ruperake Fuavai, for my actions during our game on Saturday,” the statement read. “I also want to apologize to President Cauce and Jen Cohen for putting the University in this position. I fully accept the decision that was made. Our team has a right to expect better than what I displayed on Saturday, and I’m committed to doing just that — being better so our program will reflect all that’s good about being a Washington Husky.”
Prior to Saturday’s game, The Seattle Times also reported another alleged incident from the 2019 season, during which Lake allegedly shoving a player during the Arizona game.
The Huskies lost their sixth game Saturday against Arizona State, and now need wins over both Colorado and Washington State in the Apple Cup in the next two weeks to reach a bowl game. UW has not missed out on bowl eligibility since 2009, but if the Huskies are to continue their long trend of postseason play this year, it will be without Lake.
Lake was named the successor to Chris Petersen two years ago, when Petersen stepped down after six seasons.
Last November, when UW took the field amid the COVID-19 pandemic for Lake’s first season, the Huskies opened with consecutive wins over Oregon State, Arizona and Utah with Lake at the helm, before losing what turned out to be their final game of the season to Stanford.
The three early wins were enough to lift the program to the Pac-12 North title, but UW eventually had to opt out of the conference championship game and a bowl appearance due to COVID-19 issues.
This was Lake’s second season leading UW’s program, but ninth coaching in Seattle across two separate stints.
A former defensive back at Eastern Washington, Lake spent five seasons as a graduate assistant and then defensive backs coach at EWU, before joining Keith Gilbertson’s staff at UW in 2004, and then Montana State’s staff the following year.
He then spent five seasons coaching defensive backs in the NFL in Tampa Bay and Detroit.
He joined Petersen’s staff at Boise State in 2012, and followed Petersen back to Seattle two seasons later. He became the Huskies’ co-defensive coordinator in 2016, then their defensive coordinator in 2018.
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 2:14 PM with the headline "UW football fires Jimmy Lake in second season after 13 games."
