SEATTLE – Year five at the helm of the Washington Huskies football program is only five months and four days for Chris Petersen.
That is 157 days, from Wednesday, as the team begins spring practices before gearing up to travel cross-country for a meeting Sept. 1 against the Auburn Tigers from the Southeastern Conference.
UW is coming off consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time in two decades, replacing the only quarterbacks coach Jake Browning has known in his three seasons as the Huskies starter, and entering the next phase in the Petersen era.
Easing any potential cause for concern is who the Huskies head coach tabbed to replace Jonathan Smith, who left to take over at his alma mater, Oregon State, before the Huskies 35-28 loss to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl in last December.
Bush Hamdan, a former backup quarterback under Petersen at Boise State and UW’s wide receivers coach / passing game coordinator in 2016, returns to the program after spending last season as the Atlanta Falcons QB coach.
Two of the three 2018 WR signees, four-star recruits Marquis Spiker and Austin Osborne, were recruited by Hamdan before he left in February 2017 for the NFL. Osborne, a 6’2, 188-pound freshman from Mission Viejo (Mission Viejo, California), is one of three early enrollees in the latest recruiting class and the only addition this spring.
He joins Jacob Sirmon (Bothell HS/Bothell, Washington) and Colson Yankoff (Coeur d’Alene HS/Coeur d’Alene, Idaho), both four-star QB signees, who enrolled in January. UW also added former five-star Lake Stevens signal-caller Jacob Eason this spring, the sophomore choosing to return home after playing two seasons at Georgia.
However, arguably the biggest change this offseason could be the unorthodox, incredible gesture by Pete Kwiatkowski to hand over the full-time play calling duties to Jimmy Lake. Last season the two shared duties, the former holding the DC title while Lake, 41, continued to learn all the facets of the position.
"Why are we so surprised when everything that is a part of Chris Petersen is reflective, not only in his players but in his staff," said Pac-12 Network analyst Yogi Roth in an interview with Rivals on National Signing Day in February.
"I don’t have a quote on it but I would imagine that Pete Kwiatkowski said, ‘we lose Jimmy Lake it’s going to hurt our team. And if I can continue to help and develop him into a play-caller on the defensive side. Wow. We get to keep him, and we’re going to be great, and no sweat of my back so I don’t have to call plays’.
"He’s been doing that for a long time now. At least that’s how I perceive it. So I thought it was great. I really thought it was a selfless act. Think about that. That happens at near the top of your program. That resonates dramatically throughout the entire program.”
UW is the fourth school that Kwiatkowski and Lake have both served on the same staff. When the latter was still a senior playing for Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash., Kwiatkowski was an assistant coach in 1998 before both held coaching titles in 1999.
The two worked together again at Montana State in 2005, rejoining under Petersen at Boise State before making the move to UW in 2014.
For the first time this spring, Kwiatkowski is now listed as co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach on the official UW athletics website. In addition, Bob Gregory is now listed as assistant head coach and special teams coach, taking the other half of and coaching inside linebackers.
Lake still holds the title of defensive backs coach with his new DC title. UW also hired former USC safety, San Jose State assistant Will Harris as the first-ever 10th assistant coach in program history.
Harris signed a one-year contract that runs through January 31, 2019 with an annual guaranteed compensation of $200,000, according to a memorandum of understanding between UW and the coach obtained by Rivals.
Hamdan is guaranteed to earn $700,000 annually over his contract that runs through January 31, 2021.
