Tag: Jimmy Lake

Marcus Freeman needs to avoid the Jimmy Lake timeline at Notre Dame

.@IrishWireND is preparing for a Notre Dame vs #Pac12 game, but Washington — not Cal — is the Pac-12 team the Irish need to be studying right now. We explain.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are preparing for a Pac-12 team this week, when the California Golden Bears come to South Bend, but the Irish need to look at another Pac-12 team to learn more about their present situation.

The Washington Huskies have a new coach who seems to understand how to run a program. We will see if the Huskies are for real this coming weekend against Michigan State, but even though their two wins have come against weak opponents, Kalen DeBoer is demonstrating noticeable competence on the job in Seattle.

The relevant comparison between Notre Dame and Washington refers to the coach DeBoer replaced: Jimmy Lake.

What got Lake fired at Washington? In an immediate sense, he shoved an Oregon player at the end of a loss to the Ducks. He got enmeshed in some non-football controversies which represented a tipping point. However, on a deeper level, the root cause of Lake’s implosion as Washington head coach — the reason why his tenure lasted only two years, one of them the truncated 2020 pandemic season — is that he made a terrible hire on the opposite side of the ball.

Pac-12 fans know this. Notre Dame fans need to know this. Lake was elevated from his defensive coordinator position to succeed Chris Petersen. Athletic director Jen Cohen clearly did not vet Lake’s offensive philosophy (at least not enough). She allowed him to hire John Donovan as offensive coordinator even though there was no marketplace, no outside demand, for his services. Donovan was a total disaster, and he dragged down Lake and the UW program.

Translated: Lake did not seek the best of the best on offense. He is a brilliant defensive tactician, but he dramatically underestimated the value of having a strong, top-tier coordinator on the offensive side of the ball. Head coaches with expertise on one side of the ball have to hire a top-shelf coordinator on the opposite side.

This is the connection between Jimmy Lake and Marcus Freeman.

Look, we know Tommy Rees can recruit, and that Notre Dame’s staff is an excellent recruiting staff. There are lots of things Freeman understands about the business … but at the coordinator level, you can’t do things on the cheap. You need a star play-caller. Tommy Rees could be a quarterback coach, but the keys to the offense needed to be handed to a master chess player.

Barring a remarkable turnaround, Notre Dame needs a better offensive coordinator to launch the Freeman Era in 2023 and beyond. I know this is a USC site, so giving some friendly advice to Notre Dame might seem weird, but hey: We want Notre Dame to be good so that wins over the Irish carry maximum College Football Playoff benefits. We know our friends at Fighting Irish Wire feel the same way about us.

Get an elite OC if you know what’s good for you, Marcus Freeman. Don’t become the next Jimmy Lake.

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Willie Taggart, several Pac-12 coaches named among worst coaching hires in past decade

When it comes to some of the worst head coaching hires over the past decade, the Pac-12 unfortunately comes up a lot.

The past decade or so has not been a banner time for the Pac-12 when it comes to football.

There have been some high moments, such as Oregon and Washington making it to the College Football Playoff, but there have been multiple low moments as well. USC — an historically great program — was an afterthought for several years, and the teams at the bottom of the conference floundered season after season.

Even the Ducks struggled mightily for a few seasons while they tried to find the right coach to replace Chip Kelly before landing on Mario Cristobal and then Dan Lanning.

Of course, football is about much more than just coaching, but the guy making the calls on the sideline usually has a major hand to play in whether a team is successful or not. This past week, 247Sports put out a ranking of some of the worst coaching hires over the past decade.

It feels fitting that a handful of Pac-12 coaches were on there, as well as one man with close ties to the Ducks. Here’s how Pac-12 coaches fared in the rankings:

College football head coaching tracker

Rank these jobs from best to worst and give us a reason why…

It’s already been a busy off-season of coaching changes in college football and we’re still two weeks from the regular season actually drawing to a close.  With Justin Fuente’s announced firing from Virginia Tech there have now already been 12 head college football coaches fired since the season began.

Some are staying on to finish the year while others technically resigned, but the the fact remains there will be at least 12 different head coaches in college football’s FBS when the 2022 season begins late next summer.

Here at Fighting Irish Wire we’re certainly not expecting Brian Kelly to be exiting anytime soon, even if Kirk Herbstreit has him on a plane to Southern California, but we certainly would be curious about a Kelly assistant getting a chance at a head coaching job.

Below is our tracker of all FBS coaching changes that will be updated through the fall and into the early parts of 2022.

Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate linked to Washington coaching search

Bruce Feldman’s likely candidates for the Washington head coach job include Texas’ Jeff Choate.

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The Washington Huskies chose to part ways with head coach Jimmy Lake in just his second season with the program. Continue reading “Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate linked to Washington coaching search”

Report: Washington Huskies’ coach Jimmy Lake expected to be fired after controversy vs. Oregon Ducks

Jimmy Lake’s time with the Huskies has officially come to an end. It’s been a rough past couple of weeks for Washington.

Washington Huskies head coach Jimmy Lake is reportedly being fired this week, according to a report from Pete Thamel.

Lake was recently suspended without pay for  his conduct during the Huskies’ most recent game against the Oregon Ducks. Lake was seen on the sideline striking a player and shoving him in the back after a scuffle with an Oregon player.

Washington fired offensive coordinator John Donovan following the loss to the Ducks, but waited until this weekend to make a further decision on Lake.

According to Thamel, Washington will not fire Lake for cause, but will rather pay out the remainder of his buyout.

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Washington’s head coach Jimmy Lake suspended without pay after conduct vs. Oregon Ducks

Washington’s head coach Jimmy Lake has been suspended for a week after conduct that he showed on the sideline against the Oregon Ducks.

The conduct that Washington Huskies’ head coach Jimmy Lake showed against the Oregon Ducks throughout the past week must not have sat well with the decision-makers up in Seattle, as Lake has reportedly been suspended for a week without pay, according to Seattle Times’ Mike Vorel. 

A video of Lake striking a player and pushing him in the back on Saturday’s game against Oregon circulated online, and the Washington Athletic Director made a statement after the game that they are looking into the incident. It is clear now that Lake was suspended in part due to that altercation. 

After the game, Lake remarked that he did not strike the player, but separated him on the sideline. 

It is unclear whether or not that was the sole reason why Lake was suspended, or if it had anything to do with how he handled the rivalry week leading up to the game.

Lake made comments about Oregon’s “athletic prowess” and recruiting abilities early in the week, and was continually in national headlines as the game drew near. Of course, his team was unable to do anything very well on the field against the Ducks, losing 26-16 and largely being able to muster any momentum on offense. 

Washington’s offensive coordinator, John Donovan, was fired on Sunday evening. 

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Making Grades: Oregon shows tremendous prowess in defeating Washington

The Ducks should be happy with this report card. They got the job done on the field and avoided embarrassing themselves off of it.

The scoreboard won’t tell the entire story of this game. Oregon defeated Washington by a mere 10 points, 26-16, but it wasn’t even that close. Once the Ducks found themselves down 9-3 in the first quarter, they had enough juice to get going and thoroughly beat their rivals up north despite the rainstorm.

Travis Dye outgained the Dawgs all by himself with 211 yards on the ground. Washington’s ground game of 55 yards was non-existent and one could say Oregon gave the Huskies most of their points. They had one legitimate drive against the Ducks, with the others coming from a 6-yard TD and a safety.

In the midst of Oregon’s win, frustrations boiled over on the Huskies’ sidelines with head coach Jimmy Lake striking and shoving a walk-on player, and then on Sunday, Washington fired offensive coordinator John Donovan.

But on the other sideline, Oregon kept to themselves and eventually got the last laugh. The Ducks are No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-12 North.

Here’s how the Ducks graded out with the big win in Seattle.

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

QUARTERBACK

Grade: Pass/Incomplete

Giving Anthony Brown a “pass” for his grade isn’t a cop-out, but we just feel giving him a letter grade wouldn’t be appropriate. The passing game was severely hampered because of the weather and as the game played out, Oregon saw that Brown’s arm just wasn’t needed to be on display as much.

After a rough start that saw an interception returned to the Washington 6-yard line, Brown played well. He gave the Ducks the lead for good with a nice 31-yard touchdown pass to Devon Williams. We’re confident Brown’s talents will be on display more this week against Washington State.

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Washington Huskies fire offensive coordinator after disastrous game vs. Oregon Ducks

After netting just 166 total yards vs. Oregon, the Huskies have decided to fire their offensive coordinator. Jimmy Lake stays standing.

The Washington Huskies weren’t particularly great in any aspect of the game against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night, but the offense was downright abysmal.

With a total of 166 yards, 7 punts, and 7 first downs, the Huskies announced on Sunday that offensive coordinator John Donovan was fired. According to the report from Brett McMurphy, WR coach Junior Adams is assuming play-calling duties for the rest of the season.

There was some turmoil that stemmed from the game on the Husky side of things, especially after a video of Jimmy Lake hitting and pushing a player on the sideline surfaced online. The Washington AD said they were aware of the situation, and there was word that a decision about the team would be made on Sunday afternoon.

Some believed that Lake might lose his job, but it appears that just the OC is gone for now.

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Oregon Ducks ignore style points, pick up gritty win over Washington Huskies

They didn’t gain any style points, but Oregon got a gritty win over the Huskies and kept their CFP hopes alive.

With 10 seconds remaining and the ball placed on the 1-yard line, the Oregon Ducks had an easy chance to punch it in for one final score and make it look like a blowout took place in Seattle on Saturday night.

Mario Cristobal could have twisted the knife into the side of Jimmy Lake after a week full of one-sided talking led to an emotional game on the field.

Instead of running a play, the Ducks ignored the opportunity for style points, and instead chose to run the clock out.

It makes sense, because anyone watching the four quarters before that play know that there was nothing stylish about this victory for the Ducks. For a good portion of it, the outcome was in doubt thanks to an abysmal start from Anthony Brown and the offense.

On the very first drive of the game, Brown kicked things off with an interception that Washington took down to the 6-yard-line. A couple of plays later, they punched it in for a touchdown. Later in that quarter, the Ducks were tackled in the endzone for a safety, giving Washington a 9-0 lead. It was ugly to start.

Fortunately, the offense would ultimately get clicking, taking a 10-9 lead into the half, and then a different story started. In the second half, the running game was all the Ducks needed, riding Travis Dye to a career-high 211 yards and a touchdown. It wasn’t flashy, but it was effective.

On a day where the No. 3 team in the nation, Michigan State, lost to Purdue, and the No. 2 team Alabama got tested by LSU, it looked for a moment like Oregon would be the latest top-ranked school to suffer an upset and see their College Football Playoff dreams fade away. They quickly turned that page and found a way to win.

The playoff committee may not have been impressed, but a win is a win, and that’s more than some teams got on the day.

There will be other opportunities for style points down the road, but it wasn’t necessary today. Saturday was about beating a hated rival and reminding them who the better team is.

Mission accomplished.

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WATCH: Fight nearly breaks out after Oregon win over Washington

A fight nearly broke out after the Oregon Ducks defeated the Washington Huskies, 26-16, on Saturday evening.

Seconds after the Oregon Ducks defeated the Washington Huskies, 26-16, in Seattle on Saturday, a fight nearly broke out between the two squads.

A :30 second video posted by Mike Vorel of the Seattle Times on Twitter showed players on both sides jawing at each other, before coaches and other players ran over to prevent the situation from escalating.

It’s unclear what started the chatter, but after both teams had begun jogging toward their respective locker rooms a Husky player was chasing after them before teammates came and pulled him away.

A game that didn’t take place last year was bound to be a bit chippy, even before comments earlier in the week from Jimmy Lake aimed at the “academic prowess” of Oregon’s football recruits.

The Ducks ultimately secured the victory, moving to 8-1 on the year and strengthening their odds of making an appearance in the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2015.

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