SEATTLE –Jimmy Lake has proven to be one of the best assistant coaches in college football since coming to Washington four years ago.

One of the first hires made by Chris Petersen after he accepted the head coaching position in December 2013, Lake has grown from a defensive backs coach into a full-fledged coordinator, taking over the defensive play-calling duties from Pete Kwiatkowski this past off-season at his predecessors’ behest.

Under Kwiatkowski, the defense improved its scoring defense average each year from 24.8 points per game in 2014 (T-No. 40) to 16.1 last season, fifth best in the country. The task for Lake this season is to continue the upward trend, while adding his own unique touch on the defense.

“There’s still a lot of our grove calls that are very similar. But I think coach Lake has done a really good job of kind of bringing his own flavor to it for sure,” senior linebacker Tevis Bartlett said after Friday’s practice.

“I’m sure you guys will be able to see that in the first game.”