SEATTLE — Chris Petersen stayed within the program to hire the Washington Huskies’ new receivers coach, and augmented the job titles of two other Huskies assistants.
The school announced on Tuesday that Bush Hamdan, who spent the 2015 season as an offensive quality control coach at UW, has been promoted to full-time receivers coach and pass-game coordinator. He takes over for Brent Pease, who was fired Dec. 4 after two seasons at UW. Hamdan had been coaching UW’s receivers in the interim.
Additionally, Jimmy Lake, the team’s second-year defensive backs coach, has been promoted to co-defensive coordinator along with current defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, and linebackers coach Bob Gregory has taken on the title of special-teams coordinator, a position left vacant by the departure of Jeff Choate to Montana State (though Choate is staying at UW through the bowl game).
Lake bolstered his resume this season when two of UW’s defensive backs, Sidney Jones and Budda Baker, were named first-team All-Pac-12. The Huskies allowed only nine passing touchdowns this season and intercepted 15 passes.
Hamdan, a 2008 graduate of Boise State, has already worked at six different schools. He was a backup quarterback at Boise State under Petersen from 2006-08, then held an offensive intern position at Maryland in 2010 before coaching tight ends at Sacramento State in 2011.
He coached receivers at Florida in 2012 (while Pease was Florida’s offensive coordinator) before becoming the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arkansas State in 2013 (under former Petersen assistant and current Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin), then took a job as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Davidson in 2014 before rejoining Petersen at UW for the 2015 season.
Petersen said after Pease’s firing that he made the move in search of a “new vision” for the Huskies’ receivers.
Lake and Gregory are each longtime Petersen assistants who worked for him at Boise State and accompanied him to UW upon his hire in December 2013. No new salary information was immediately available for Hamdan, Lake or Gregory.
UW still has one assistant coaching position to fill. With Choate leaving, the Huskies do not currently have a defensive line coach on staff for the 2016 season.
The rest of UW’s assistant coach contracts expire on Jan. 31, but there has been no indication that any other changes are imminent. Extensions will likely be announced in the coming weeks.
2016 schedule announced
The Pac-12 announced its 2016 football schedule on Tuesday, and Washington will play two Friday games next season, including the Apple Cup.
UW begins the season Sept. 3 at home against Rutgers, then hosts Idaho and Portland State the next two weeks before beginning Pac-12 play at Arizona on Sept. 24.
The Huskies then host Stanford on Friday, Sept. 30, before playing at Oregon the following week. After a bye, UW hosts Oregon State, plays at Utah, plays at California, hosts USC, hosts Arizona State and finishes the regular season at Washington State on Friday, Nov. 25.
Kickoff times and TV information will be announced at a later date.
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