Washington suspends Lake one week for altercation with player

Washington Huskies head coach Jimmy Lake Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Washington suspends HC Jimmy Lake one week after altercation with player

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 11/8/21

The University of Washington suspended Huskies football coach Jimmy Lake for one week after he got into a physical altercation with a player, athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement Monday via the Seattle Times.

The incident in question occurred on the sidelines Saturday. Lake was caught on camera shoving linebacker Ruperake Fuavai in the facemask and then shoving him from behind as he tried to break up a scrum on the sidelines. UW lost that game to the rival Oregon Ducks 26-16.

Lake will not be available to speak to the media this week and will miss next weekend's matchup with Arizona State.

"President (Ana Mari) 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," Cohen said in the statement.

Lake's second campaign as UW coach was already off to a rocky start. The Huskies opened the season with a 13-7 loss to Montana and a 31-10 loss to Michigan. They are 4-5 overall on the season and seated fourth in the Pac-12 with a 3-3 conference record.

The one bright spot during Lake's tenure was leading the Huskies to a 3-1 record during the truncated 2020 season, however the team was not allowed to participate in the Pac-12 Championship Game due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

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