Husky Football Blog

Times reporter Bob Condotta keeps the news coming about the Montlake Dawgs.

E-mail Bob| Husky Football forum | Subscribe | Blog Home

January 3, 2008 4:41 PM

Some defensive coordinator thoughts

So with DeWayne Walker off the board, I see a lot of people again throwing out some of the wish-list names to take over as UW's new defensive coordinator --- Jon Tenuta, Mike Singletary, Mark Banker.

One thing to keep in mind is that UW is far from the only school needing a new DC. Here's a partial list of schools with DC openings you'd figure are better jobs than UW's --- Michigan, Miami, Texas, LSU. So the really big names are going to have options.

As for Banker, he said last month he had no desire to leave Oregon State, so while things obviously change quickly in this business, he seemed pretty adamant. Singletary is going to be interviewed for NFL head coaching jobs, so dropping down to college coordinator seems unlikely. Tenuta is being mentioned at LSU.

It's worthwhile to remember the downside to this job --- the prospect of coming to work for a coach on a short leash, being entrusted to take over what was one of the worst major college defenses in the nation this year and that has to rebuild its defensive line. It may pay pretty well as evidenced by the deal being offered Walker, and some coaches might look at it as a real opportunity --- it could be argued the defense can only get better and whoever is the coordinator will get major plaudits for turning it around.

But most coaches are big on security.

There are some rumblings Willingham may now be looking at NFL assistants, and here's one name mentioned to me by a source --- Don Martindale, who has been the linebackers coach for the Oakland Raiders the last four years but also has a lengthy college history, including at Notre Dame under Lou Holtz and Cincinnati. Martindale was sought after by Stanford last year to be the DC but decided to stay with the Raiders.

As I passed along last night, I've also heard the name of Jaguars assistant Tom Williams, also a former assistant at UW (under Rick Neuheisel) and Stanford.

Digg | Newsvine