He came out today and said some good things on Softy’s show. Aside from everyone hating his hires and believing he overthought or panicked or was too arrogant, he’s been saying the right things about changes to how he’s running the program.
Notes from interview (clipped from Doogman):
Spring Game[/b]
Lake said he saw value in what Petersen did, but he wants to get back to getting the fans excited to see "real" football and who the good young players are and who they should be keeping an eye on for the fall.
Transfer Portal[/b]
The fact that the Huskies were in the conversation for Jamie Newman is a change of pace since the staff has shied away from the portal while working to build their roster and depth through the recruiting process.
Lake noted that he is open to filling in holes in the roster, but admitted it would likely be more for quarterbacks than other positions as they've seen a couple of quarterbacks leave in the last year (Jacob Eason and Colson Yankoff) and that has left Washington with just three quarterbacks on the roster.
Offseason Checklist[/b]
Lake said that after he was named the new head coach and signed his contract the first weekend of December, he had three things he wanted to get done over and above anything else. Keep all 23 of their committed players. Win the bowl game to go into the off-season with the right mentality. Lastly, Lake wanted to keep the staff intact and he was able to do that other than the two coaches he chose to let go -- Jordan Paopao and Bush Hamdan -- and he eventually replaced those coaches with John Donovan and Derham Cato.
He said that the assistant coaches were fielding calls from other schools and even some NFL teams and that they didn't lose them because of the leadership of Jen Cohen in giving them competitive contracts and because this coaching staff is the tightest in the country and they have great relationships with the players as well.
Hiring His New Offensive Coordinator[/b]
Lake said he interviewed quite a few people and that Donovan was the one he chose for several reasons, but the biggest was because of the conversations he had with his numerous NFL contacts and how Donovan's name kept coming up as someone who knows his stuff and would do a great job.
Once he started vetting Donovan, he saw his success at Vanderbilt and how helped build the Penn State roster to the point where they had success after he left.
He said his conversation over the Xs and Os was outstanding and that the two were on the same page in wanting to be aggressive and come after the opposing offense much like Washington's defense did during his time as the defensive backs coach and eventually as the defensive coordinator.
Other Tidbits[/b]
Pete Kwaitkowski will be the play-caller on defense, but Lake will be intimately involved with the game-planning on both sides of the ball.[/b]
Lake said he's looking forward to the spring and being happy when the offense has success because he was always rooting against the offense in practice when he was solely focused on the defensive side of the ball.
Lake said they are hoping to add one or two more names to the 2020 recruiting class over the next couple of weeks.
Lake also noted that a big reason for hiring Terrance Brown was because he had been here for three years and understood their program, their scheme and their culture and that he and Will Harris will make a great tandem as the secondary coaches and both are "up-and-coming" coaches with bright futures.
Lastly, Lake said that being aggressive on offense doesn't always mean throwing the ball. He "loves to run the ball" and that is something you will see them do a lot, but when they do throw the ball, while he said they will do some "east/west stuff" he believes in going "north/south" when you throw it or run it.[/b]
