Updated: Washington has fired head coach Jimmy Lake
Updated: Washington has fired head coach Jimmy Lake
Lake's once-heralded tenure atop Washington has come to an end.
Update: It’s official. Tedford-era defensive coordinator Bob Gregory (2002–2009) will serve as their interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Original: The University of Washington is reportedly “expected” to cut ties with Jimmy Lake after just two seasons and buy out the remainder of the contract.
Lake first came to Washington as defensive backs coach of Chris Petersen’s first staff in 2014—though the two had been working together since the 2012 season at Boise State—and Lake worked his way up to defensive coordinator and unofficial head-coach-in-waiting. Petersen stepped down and Lake took over just a few months before the coronavirus shut the country down, but Lake was able to capitalize on the crazy COVID season by leading his team to a 3–1 season and the Pac-12 North Championship. In his second year, the team suddenly fell short of expectations with a 4–6 record (3–4 Pac-12)—including a loss to an FCS team. He ends his tenure at Washington with a career record of 7–7 (6–5 Pac-12) and was 1–0 against California.
This is the third Pac-12 program that will be looking for a new head coach during the offseason—with all three being part of California’s annual schedule. USC fired Clay Helton two games into the season and Washington State was forced to part with Nick Rolovich following mandates to get one of three safe and tested vaccines. There are whispers and rumors that Washington may be targeting Justin Wilcox as Lake’s successor.
I’m seeing a pretty good amount of Wilcox-defending on this thread, and man, I just do not get it. I think he’s a good guy, runs a clean program, graduates players, etc., but don’t we pay him $3 million + per year to win? Is 13-23 (or whatever we’re currently sitting at) in conference not replaceable? And this comes at a time when the pac 12 is a flaming bag of dogs*#%. Am I hallucinating when I see our stadium looking like a ghost town and sounding like a freaking library on gamedays? And where the hell are the students? There is absolutely no enthusiasm around the program. I’ll be skipping big game at the furd to instead take my wife (sac state alum) to the causeway classic to watch Troy Taylor lead a team that he’s take from perennial doormat to perennial contender. It can be done. If you told me someone like Washington was gonna pay us a buyout to steal Wilcox, holy hell how do we not take that deal and laugh all the way to the bank? And people are worried about recruiting? We’ve already lost our top three recruits this year and I’m just waiting for the class to finally completely implode. Like I said, I just do not get it.
Unrelated but Cam Bynum is having a great game against the bolts.