Until the AD gets completely binned…hard to see the trajectory changing
This.
Jen wanted to keep Lake after his rained blows upon poor Ruperake, despite the fact that everyone knew he was the worst coach in the Pac-12. That's just inexcusable to want to keep such an incompetent coach around.
She doesn't have the awareness, vision, or leadership to support an FBS program.
She should be fired but they knew they needed a good/great season this year and Lake was already in the division cellar and local recruits knew he was an asshole.
The ruperake thing was the excuse they needed to try and just get it done now instead of spending the offseason mulling over school politics, being late to the hiring process, etc.
A couple of areas where I feel you miss
There is journalistic evidence out there that shows that Jen wanted to retain Jimmy even after the suspension (opinion shared by both the AD and President) … Jimmy only has Jimmy to blame for not being at UW still
Jen’s left Hopkins in dead man walking territory to the point that it’s pretty much assured at this point that Hop will coach out his contract and not be renewed … that is honestly staggering mismanagement by an AD if your driving light is being focused on program success … the actions of Jen are completely consistent with someone that who prioritizes penny pinching and bottom lines
Jen’s own comments in the last week on NIL are staggeringly bad, have a high likelihood of being a flawed approach, and are comments that can torpedo them efforts of her existing coaches faster than their own lack of recruiting chips are showing
In my opinion you’re massively underestimating how much a culture shift and reset is needed on Montlake … Jen isn’t the complete cause but she’s the easiest person to point to that would be readily replaceable