SEATTLE — Tyrone Willingham will return next season as the head football coach at the University of Washington but some of his staff won’t.
Willingham announced during a staff meeting Monday that oft-criticized defensive coordinator Kent Baer, a 13-year assistant of Willingham’s dating to their days at Stanford and Notre Dame, will not return in 2008. Neither will Bob Simmons, the special-teams and tight ends coach and former head coach at Oklahoma State.
Washington’s defense gave up an average of 446.4 yards per game in 2007, easily the worst in Huskies’ history. The defense was largely responsible for many of the team’s meltdowns in the second half of games en route to a 4-9 season.
“I consider Kent Baer and Bob Simmons excellent coaches and consummate professionals,” Willingham said in a statement released by the school. “Making change such as this is never easy, nor is it done without careful thought and consideration.
“I believe we are continuing to build this football program into a national contender and I truly appreciate the contribution Kent and Bob have made toward our progress both on and off the field.”
With running backs coach Trent Miles already having left to take the head-coaching job at Indiana State, Willingham will now begin an outside search to fill three spots on his staff following another losing year, which made Willingham the first UW football coach to produce three consecutive losing seasons.
Baer, 56, has been a defensive coordinator every year since 1983, when he began a three-year stint in that role at Utah State. In 2002, his and Willingham’s first season at Notre Dame, Baer, a native of Logan, Utah, won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant.
Simmons, 59, just finished his third season at Washington after following Willingham to Notre Dame from 2002-04. The native of East Cleveland, Ohio, was 30-38 as Oklahoma State’s head coach from 1995-2000. He was Big 12 coach of the year for the 1997 season for leading the Cowboys to the Alamo Bowl.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
