Washington has suspended second-year coach Jimmy Lake for one week following a home loss to rival Oregon that capped an embarrassing week for the program and the embattled coach. Lake, just 7-6 as the coach of the Huskies, shoved and smacked a player in the helmet with a play sheet during the game.
He will miss Washington’s game this Saturday against Arizona State.
“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. [We] 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,” said Washington athletic director Jen Cohen in a statement.
Losing to Oregon was expected, but the way in which Washington fell was infuriating to its fans. Lake decided to punt down eight points with under 2 minutes to go in the game. Compounding the situation was an errant snap that launched through the end zone for a safety, essentially eliminating any possibility of a comeback. Lake was also caught on camera striking redshirt freshman linebacker Ruperake Fuavai in the face in an attempt to break up an altercation with Oregon players.
Lake later released a statement on Twitter apologizing for the incident and affirming the university’s decision to suspend him.
“I want to apologize to every member of our team, and in particular to Ruperake Fuavai, for my actions during our game…
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