CARSON, Calif. – When Jimmy Lake came out of North Central High School in 1994 his name didn’t carry the pedigree it does now, almost two decades since he began his coaching career.
After serving as an assistant coach at both the college and professional level Lake is now one of the best defensive coordinators in college football. His three-year contract extension signed during the offseason, which increased his annual salary to $1.1 million, affirmed that.
“When I was being recruited? Oh boy. It wasn’t like this that’s for sure,” Lake said earlier in December, when asked if there was a story behind his recruitment. “I had a lot of academic institutions going after me. My biggest offer was Eastern Washington and they offered me at the last second and I went to Eastern Washington.”
With a relaxed laugh, Lake added “So I was easy to recruit. I was easily persuaded.”
One of six assistant coaches brought from Boise State over to Washington by Chris Petersen after he was named head coach in December 2013, Lake has transformed the secondary into the premier program for high school recruits over the past five seasons.
During the early signing period from Dec. 19-21 three more defensive backs joined the program; four-star Camarillo (Calif.) Westlake cornerback Kamren Fabiculanan, four-star Westminster (Calif.) St. John Bosco athlete Trent McDuffie and three-star Bakersfield (Calif.) safety Cameron Williams.
With the additions of Fabiculanan and McDuffie, who attended practice Thursday and Friday respectively at the StubHub Center, Lake has signed an even dozen four-star DB prospects total at UW.
However, Lake hasn’t built the Huskies secondary on landing the perceived best recruits. Instead he’s done it by finding the players who fit what Petersen is looking for on and off the field, who may be overlooked by other programs for a variety of reasons.
His first recruiting class at UW draws a direct correlation to that assertion. UW signed only one four-star DB in 2014, Bellevue (Wash.) safety Budda Baker, along with six three-stars. Baker was one of three Huskies selected in the second-round of the 2017 NFL Draft, but not the first.
The four-star was sandwiched in between two former three-star recruits, Kevin King (No. 33 overall to the Green Bay Packers) and Sidney Jones (No. 43 overall to the Philadelphia Eagles).
King signed with UW under former head coach Steve Sarkisian in 2013 as a three-star safety out of Bishop O'Dowd High School (Oakland, Calif.)
Baker was selected No. 36 overall by the Arizona Cardinals, who also signed Ezekiel Turner as an undrafted free agent the following draft class. Turner, the only junior college prospect Lake has signed at UW, was a standout tackler on special teams in 2018 for the Cardinals.
With the potential for two more headed to the NFL after the Rose Bowl, redshirt sophomore CB Bryon Murphy and junior safety Taylor Rapp, Lake could have six players drafted in five years.
Murphy, a former four-star from Saguaro High School (Scottsdale, Arizona), is considered to be the first major recruiting coup for Lake at UW. The Huskies beat out in-state favorite Arizona State for his signature in 2016, and since then seven four-stars have followed his path north to Seattle.
“The vibe was we’re the best team in the Pac-12 and we’re going to the Rose Bowl. That was the vibe,” Lake said prior to the early signing period on the response from recruits following a three-loss regular season in 2018.
“The vibe is we’ve won two out of the last three Pac-12 Championship Games. The vibe was we’re going to three big huge bowl games in a row. We’ve had more players drafted in the NFL than anybody else out here out west, and we’re about to have another big draft class coming up here in the spring.
“Guys know they can come here and develop in all three phases of their life. Football, school, and football after life. That’s what I think the vibe is.”
Key Ambassador Behind the Scene
Lake gets most, if not all, of the credit for constructing the Huskies Death Row secondary over the past five years. But there has been one name mentioned time after time by recruits over the last two recruiting classes that deserves recognition.
Justin Glenn.
The former UW safety from 2008-12 returned to his alma mater in June 2014, only after Petersen created a position for him in the recruiting department. Glenn held the title of program assistant, which included checking to make sure players were going to class and a little bit of help in recruiting.
“At the time I was just a passionate guy who just got done playing, who could talk to the recruits and relate,” Glenn told TheDawgReport.com in March. “Coach Pete told me that ‘the more you get on your plate, if you handle it, the more that you will continue to get on your plate’.”
He has since been promoted to Director of High School Relations for the program, the position Glenn currently holds, after serving as assistant director of player personnel from April 2015 to March 2016.
When Julius Irvin, then a junior at Servite High School in Anaheim, Calif., made his first unofficial visit to UW the first person he met was Glenn. His father LeRoy Irvin, an 11-year NFL veteran with the Los Angeles Rams (1980-89) and Detroit Lions (1990), joined him on the trip.
“Justin, he started it all off. We went on a visit there and Justin he, man, he did a great job showing us around,” the elder Irvin told TheDawgReport.com after Julius signed with UW.
“Just professional man. I think it started off with Justin because we didn’t know what to expect up there. But when we went on that recruiting trip and Justin showed us around and took care of us. It was first class and a lot of credit needs go him as well.”
Able to relate with high school recruits as a relatively recent student-athlete himself, speaking about the program and the university is something that Glenn doesn’t have to pitch.
It’s woven into his DNA.
“Well I think he believes in the University of Washington first and foremost. He believes in what we’re doing,” Petersen told TheDawgReport.com on Wednesday, when asked about the decision to bring Glenn back to UW.
“He’s kind of more into the life skill part of things. He’s very involved when our kids come on campus. But I think he’s a great ambassador because he knows what we’re doing with the kids once they get on campus.’
No Reason to Expect Different in the Coming Years
Similar to Glenn and almost every person involved in the UW football program, Lake has grown his role since first being hired as DB coach ahead of the 2014 season. He became the full-time defensive coordinator in 2018 after serving as co-DC with Pete Kwiatkowski the previous two seasons.
The decision to elevate Lake wasn’t his, nor was it Petersen’s. It was Kwiatkowski who approached the Huskies head coach with the idea to make Lake the permanent coordinator, in order to keep one of the rising assistant coaches in the sport at UW.
“From my standpoint I’ve done this a time and been with a lot of different staffs and there’s a lot that goes into being successful,” Kwiatkowski told TheDawgReport.com back in March on the decision to step back and hand the reigns over to Lake.
“With that comes, if you want to be around good guys, have that good working environment, and win games. Sacrifice comes with that. I guess I’m sacrificing something for the better of the whole. I just feel like I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think he could do it. He deserves it.”
Their relationship dates back to when Lake was still playing safety at Eastern Washington from 1995-98. Over the last 19 years the two have mirrored the divorce rate in the United States, only to reconnect time and time again.
Lake became a graduate assistant for the Eagles in 1999 before becoming the full-time DB coach the following year. By then Kwiatkowski had departed EWU for Montana State, where Lake followed in 2005 after one season at UW in 2004.
“Then he joined us at Montana State for a year, and then we separated again,” Kwiatkowski said, detailing their history together. “He went to the NFL and learned a lot. Really a lot. When he was at Tampa Bay and Detroit, and then we were able to hook back up at Boise. So yeah, the growth has been awesome.”
With Lake and Kwiatkowski signed through Jan. 31, 2021 there appears to be no slowing down the Huskies defense. For senior linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, who signed in 2015 as a three-star recruit out of Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, Calif., he’s seen first hand just how good they are.
Since 2015 when UW allowed 18.8 points per game on defense the number has decreased steadily, down to 15.5 in 2018. With the caliber of recruits that the Huskies have signed of late, combined with the staff remaining together, Burr-Kirven said he doesn’t see why the number won’t continue to dwindle.
“Honestly it’s funny I look at the kids we’re recruiting now verses you know what my class was when we were kind of an afterthought,” he said. “And now we’re getting all these guys that fit obviously the personalities that Pete wants, but also all of a sudden he’s getting these guys that are the No. 1 at their position on the West Coast that kind of stuff.
“So I’m excited to see and I think that number is going to keep going down the more years the guys spend here. And hopefully the staff will stick together, because if they do I don’t see any reason why we can’t get better on defense.”
