After a brief tenure as the head coach of Washington Football, Jimmy Lake is out of a job. Who are the top candidates to replace him?
After being hired to replace the legendary Chris Petersen after the 2019 season, Jimmy Lake has already been let go by Washington Football.
Lake was a great defensive coordinator under Peterson but was an odd choice to replace him. Washington is one of the top jobs in the Pac-12 and was coming off an appearance in the college football playoff in 2016 and it was strange to see them hand it to a coach who had no previous head coaching experience.
Even during the COVID shortened season in 2020, it started to seem like this was not going to work out. Lake made a very questionable decision to hire Jim Donovan as his offensive coordinator and Donovan had not had much success at previous stops. Recruiting was also taking a hit. Lake was seen as someone who did not like recruiting and that is just not acceptable if you want to win at the highest level in college football.
Some recent incidents also made this decision easier. Lake has had confrontations with players on the sideline and was suspended for Saturday’s game against Arizona State. This hire seemed like it was heading in the wrong direction and it is probably the right move for Washington to go ahead and make a move now.
There are a lot of job openings coming open in college football and it is fair to wonder how Washington stacks up with the other jobs. This will be an interesting coaching search for one of the most prominent programs in the Pac-12.
Here are three potential replacements for Washington to look at.