BREAKING: Washington suspends head coach Jimmy Lake

The Washington Huskies have suspended head football coach Jimmy Lake has been suspended without pay for this weekend’s game against Arizona State. Lake was seen having a sideline altercation with one of his players during Saturday night’s game against Oregon. Washington athletic director Jen Cohen released a statement on Lake’s suspension Monday afternoon.

“Our staff has spent the last 24-plus hours reviewing video of the incident, as well as speaking with Coach Lake, the involved student athlete and several other student athletes and members of the staff, and I have made the decision to suspend Coach Lake for next Saturday’s game against Arizona State,” Cohen said via Athlon Sports’ Bryan Fischer.

“President Cauce, our Faculty Athletics Representative, Alexes Harris, and members of our executive staff are in agreement that while we do not believe that his actions were intentional or deliberate, we can have no tolerance for a coach interacting with a student in the manner Coach Lake did. We have high expectations of conduct for our coaches, and we will not shy away from those expectations.”

Lake denied any wrongdoing after Washington’s loss

When Lake was asked about the incident following the game, he denied striking a Washington player. Instead, Lake said that he separated two players.

“I separated them,” Lake said. “I didn’t strike him, I separated them.”

In video of the incident, Lake can be seen hitting redshirt freshman linebacker Ruperake Fuavai on the helmet. Lake then shoves him back onto the sideline after Fuavai was getting into it with Oregon wide receiver Jaylon Redd.

At the time of the incident, Cohen released a statement saying that the university was working to gather more information.

“We are aware of an interaction between Head Coach Jimmy Lake and a student-athlete during the first half of Saturday’s game,” Cohen’s statement read, according to a tweet posted by Christian Caple of The Athletic. “We have high expectations of the conduct of our coaches and we are working to gather more information on this matter.”

Lake took over as Washington’s head coach after six years as an assistant. He replaced Chris Peterson in 2020, two years after he became the team’s defensive coordinator. Washington started last year 3-0 before suffering a home loss against Stanford. While the Huskies entered the year with high expectations, they are just 4-5 through ten weeks. Lake’s head coaching record with Washington is now 7-6.

Washington fired offensive coordinator John Donovan on Sunday. The Huskies face off against Arizona State at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. Washington will then travel to take on Colorado next week before wrapping up the year at home against Washington State.