Posted on September 27, 2021
|
In the eight games of the Jimmy Lake Era, the Dawgs are 5-3. Respectable as far as it goes, but the three losses were consecutive (including a loss to FCS Montana, a team that had not beaten the Huskies in 101 years) and revealed notable deficiencies in the UW offense. Â
Between Montana and Michigan, for example, the Huskies went scoreless for more than six straight quarters.Â
The scoring explosion against Arkansas State gave hope that the offensive troubles might be in the rear view mirror, but those problems reappeared against Cal. Â
After leading 24-10 midway through the third quarter, the Huskies failed to score again during regulation, allowing the Golden Bears to take the game to OT.
When things don’t go well, it is natural for fans to question the coaching, so Head Coach Jimmy Lake and Offensive Coordinator John Donovan have come in for their share of criticism. Â
But coaching performance takes place within the framework of athletic department management, which has changed materially over the years.
Tracing the evolution of major UW sports through the lens of Husky athletic director leadership provides useful context for assessing the state of affairs in Montlake.
Phase I: Focus on Football
The modern era of the UW Athletic Department can be dated to the introduction of unlimited substitution in college football in 1964.At that time, most teams began using separate teams for offense, defense and special teams. Previously, many if not most players were on the field nearly all the time.
In 1964, Jim Owens was the UW Athletic Director (AD), a position in which he served in from 1960 until 1969. Owens was also head football coach from 1957-74, so it would be fair to say that football ruled the roost during the Owens era.
Owens’ rise at Washington came about as the Huskies established themselves as a national football power, posting back-to-back 10-1 seasons in 1959 and 1960, winning the Rose Bowl both years, and the national championship in 1960.
But with the onset of unlimited substitution, Owens did not enjoy the same success he had previously, and in 1969 he decided to return to coaching full-time.
At that point, he handed over the Athletic Director reins to one of his assistant football coaches, Joe Kearney. That choice made clear that football experience remained the dominant factor in the Athletic Department.
In 1974, after Owens retired, Kearney hired Don James, a relative unknown from Kent State, to serve as head football coach.
(Long-time Husky fans will remember that Kearney was also credited with recruiting the highly regarded Marv Harshman as UW men’s basketball coach.)
In 1976, Kearney left to take the AD position at Michigan State, where he compiled an outstanding record before finishing his career as Commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference.
When Kearney left UW, he encouraged Don James to join him at MSU, but Coach James chose to remain at Washington. Consequently, James urged the UW Board of Regents to interview Mike Lude for the AD role at UW.
Lude had hired Don James to his first head coaching gig at Kent State, so there were strong personal and institutional ties between the athletic director and the head football coach during that period.
This combination laid the groundwork for the unprecedented success of the James Era at Washington.
Phase II: Upper Campus Asserts Itself
In 1991, Lude left to take the AD job at Auburn and Barbara Hedges came up from USC to take the AD position at UW.
Hedges had served as a director of men’s and women’s sports at USC, which is a lower level than AD. Most significantly, Hedges did not have a football background (Lude, by comparison, had been a coach for 33 years before becoming Kent State AD).
Don James reportedly stated that President Gerberding thought he was overly independent and needed to be brought to heel.
Some accounts indicate that Gerberding might have resented the clout Coach James had on campus, a reverence he supposedly believed unmerited in a mere football coach.
When Hedges came in, she was soon confronted with the Billy Joe Hobert scandal ($50k loan from a fan) and a series of newspaper reports alleging recruiting irregularities.
There were no findings that James or his staff had broken major rules, and James was known to consider the matters minor, unfair, and unsubstantiated.
Nonetheless, Hedges and Gerberding decided to ask the Pac-10 to determine penalties for the UW, with the University not putting up any defense.
The conference hit UW with major penalties that had the effect of bringing down the football team, while sparing the other programs in the athletic department.
In protest, James resigned on August 22, 1993, just before the season was to begin. Coach James did this strategically, knowing that he would lose his own job, while his assistant coaches would be spared, out of necessity, due to the timing of his departure.
Hedges then hired Jim Lambright, an Owens player and James protégé, to be Washington’s new head coach.
“Lambo” went 44-25-1 under the burden of the sanctions that Hedges and Gerberding had brought about, but when he finished 6-6 in 1998, Hedges fired him and went looking for greener pastures.
In 1999, Hedges hired Rick Neuheisel as the new Huskies head coach, selecting him over the likes of former UW assistant Gary Pinkel, who was then at Toledo. Neuheisel had been a good, but not great, coach in his time at Colorado, going 47-33 in 4 years.
Hedges had conducted a national job search and greased Neuheisel to the tune of $1 million per year, making him one of the highest-paid football coaches in the NCAA at the time—far in excess of what Lambright had been paid.
Neuheisel had had some success with Lambright’s recruits, most notably Marques Tuiasosopo, but his teams lacked discipline, were often ill-prepared for big games, and Neuheisel did not prioritize recruiting of the offensive or defensive lines.
On June 16, 2003, Neuheisel was fired for a series of alleged improprieties and later settled out of court for $3 million. Once again, the firing took place on the eve of the next football season, and Hedges had to make another emergency hire.
This time Keith Gilbertson drew the short straw, and was named interim head coach.
After Hedges retired under a cloud, President Mark Emmert hired Todd Turner as Washington’s new AD.
Turner was a career AD with stints at UConn and Vanderbilt—schools not known for football success—but he had a record for improving academic performance and raising money.
At UW, Turner distinguished himself by hiring the worst football coach in Washington history, Tyrone Willingham, about which no further comment is necessary.
Suffice to say a record of 0-12 trumps better academic performance.
Phase III: Postmodern Montlake
This was a continuation of the role Woodward had played with Emmert at LSU. Woodward made two very good football coaching hires in Sarkisian and Petersen before he decamped for Texas A&M, and he currently remains with his alma mater at LSU.
Jen Cohen stepped into the top job in 2016, after serving in the UW athletic department since 1998. Cohen has been an excellent fundraiser at UW; donors like her, and she has the support of Carol James, the wife of the late Don James.
She has come under scrutiny recently due to the hires she has made for the top three revenue sports on campus: specifically, in football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball.
Cohen’s first hire was that of Mike Hopkins to lead the men’s basketball program, and he enjoyed immediate success with the recruits of his predecessor, Lorenzo Romar.
The last two seasons, however, leave something to be desired; it is assumed that “Hoppy” has one year to right the ship for men’s hoops or he will get a pink slip.
Cohen’s second hire was mere weeks after Hopkins, when she tabbed Jody Wynn to lead the women’s basketball team, fresh off a Sweet 16 and Final Four.
Wynn’s conference record in four years was the worst in program history, and Jen Cohen was forced to make a corrective hire in spring of 2021, snatching Tina Langley away from Rice.
It appears the decision to hire Jimmy Lake after Chris Petersen’s departure was reached behind closed doors without a formal hiring search. The hire was announced in December 2019.
Unlike so many of Hedges’ moves, this was not a self-inflicted emergency. The hiring of Lake was long expected and was seemingly supported by Chris Petersen.
Still, Cohen had time if she wanted to take it, and simply elected not to conduct a search for the cash cow of UW’s athletic department.Â
Jennifer Cohen has been a loyal fan and excellent fundraiser for UW football for 20+ years. But if the Huskies’ problems persist during conference play, the process for hiring the head football coach for Husky football, a move once widely cheered, will come in for heated debate.
Hence, the current upheaval in Huskyville.
—More from Leah Brown—
- Brown: Is AD Jen Cohen in Over Her Head at UW? - October 26, 2021
- Brown: Husky ADs and the Rise & Fall of UW Sports - September 27, 2021
-
Brown: Meet Tina Langley, the New Dawg in the Pac
Langley exudes a positivity that has been missing from women’s basketball at Washington - April 10, 2021