No matter who you ask about Washington Huskies linebackers coach Robert Bala, they’re going to give you a glowing review. After filling the same role for legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban last season, Bala became the final hire on Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff ahead of his first year at Washington and it hasn’t taken long for him to find success.
On the field, Bala has quickly endeared himself to Washington’s veteran group of linebackers, led by in-state products Carson Bruener, Alphonzo Tuputala, and Drew Fowler.
“Coach Bala’s awesome,” Fowler said on Wednesday. “If you want to go down the rabbit hole and talk football with him, he’s like a dictionary. He’s one of those football junkies, football bulldogs.”
“We always try to have a really high standard in our room as linebackers and he’s taken that and run with it. We get coached really hard, but he loves us at the same time and builds us up. Having that kind of football mind in your room is invaluable, he says that he wants to be the sharpest tool in our shed, and from a standpoint of getting us ready to play, he’s awesome.”
Bala has also shown to be a great relationship builder on the recruiting trail, where he’s secured commitments from the top two players in Washington, four-star linebackers Zaydrius Rainey-Sale and Jonathan Epperson. He’s even made a lasting impact on players who ended up committing elsewhere.
“Two linebackers that I played with in high school also played for coach Bala when he was the defensive coordinator at Southern Utah University,” four-star Utah commit Christian Thatcher told Huskies Wire in March. “When I asked about him, I was told that he’s the real deal as a coach and more importantly as a human and that they still talk with him all the time.”
As for his future, Fowler seems to think his position coach is going to find a lot of success.
“This guy is a future all-star defensive coordinator somewhere down the road.”
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