Inside The Huskies

DeBoer Retains 2 UW Coaches, Hires 2 New Ones

The new Husky football leader still has four hires to make, including a defensive coordinator.

Dan Raley

Coaching crossover between the new and old University of Washington football staffs is official.

On Friday, new Husky coach Kalen DeBoer announced he was retaining wide-receivers coach Junior Adams and offensive-line coach Scott Huff from Jimmy Lake's previous staff while hiring a new defensive-line coach Inoke Breckterfield from Vanderbilt and former Indiana offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan as his new tight-ends coach. 

DeBoer still has four hires to make, including a defensive coordinator, an outside-linebackers coach, a second defensive-backs coach and a running-backs coach.

Adams, who served as interim Husky offensive coordinator for the final three games this past season, recently had been spotted in promotional photos and a video during recruiting, leading people to assume he still had a job under DeBoer.

Huff and Adams have been with the Huskies for five and three seasons, respectively, first hired by Chris Petersen, retained by Lake and now on to their third UW coach.

Breckterfield is a key hire, entrusted with fixing a defensive line that has underperformed for two seasons and just had one of its starters in Taki Taimani enter the transfer portal. Typical of the ongoing problem, Taimani, who was once recruited by Alabama and Notre Dame, didn't register a sack in four seasons.

A former Oregon State standout, Breckterfield was a third-team AP All-American, a Morris Trophy winner and a one-time CFL player. He is a Hawaiian native who should be able to maintain that valuable island recruiting connection that was ably handled before by Ikaika Malloe, who wasn't rehired. This new D-line coach had previous stops at Montana, Weber State, UCLA, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, developing NFL standout Aaron Donald at Pitt. In six seasons with the Badgers, his defenses permitted just 107 yards rushing per game. 

"He has consistently recruited and developed defensive linemen at a high level during his coaching career," DeBoer said of Breckterfield. "I am confident that Inoke will continue to be a difference-maker as we build our defense."

Sheridan replaced DeBoer as offensive coordinator at Indiana and was let go last month after the Hoosiers, possibly the Power 5's most disappointing team, bottomed out from a Top 20 entry to an injury-filled 2-10 season. He is a former Michigan quarterback. He helped develop Hoosiers quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who has announced he is transferring to the UW with two seasons of eligibility remaining. 

"He has a great offensive mind and has experience as an offensive coordinator and play-caller, which will continue to enhance our already-productive offensive system," DeBoer said of Sheridan.

Junior Adams may be retained as UW receivers coach.
Junior Adams, retained by Kalen DeBoer as WR coach, is one of four on the staff who has been an offensive coordinator.  :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Similar to Breckterfield, Adams played at Oregon State before he transferred to Montana State. He is a former Western Kentucky offensive coordinator, which gives the Huskies four people on staff who have held that role in new UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who is formerly of Fresno State, Sheridan at Indiana and DeBoer at Fresno State and Indiana.  

"He has a track record of excellence throughout his career," DeBoer said of Adams. "He develops players and has done a great job building our wide receivers room. I'm excited about the talent we have returning and the impact it will have on our team's success."

Scott Huff will return with Kalen DeBoer's staff.
Scott Huff will return for a sixth UW season working for his third coach.  / Dan Raley

Huff gets another chance to show what he can do after his offensive line struggled throughout this past season. He returns two full-time starters in right tackle junior Vic Curne and senior right guard Henry Bainivalu, plus a pair of players who took turns starting at left guard in sophomore Julius Buelow and junior Ulumoo Ale, and yet another player in sophomore Troy Fautanu, who started at left tackle and left guard. 

"I've known Scott for almost 10 years and I've been impressed with the production and success he's had throughout his career," DeBoer said. "He has built strong bonds with his players here at UW and I'm excited to see that continue and grow."

Besides Malloe, UW assistant coaches who apparently won't be back are defensive coordinator Bob Gregory, running-backs coach Keith Bhonapha, tight-ends coach Derham Cato, defensive-line coach Rip Rowan, defensive-backs coaches Will Harris and Terrence Brown and, of course, offensive coordinator John Donovan, who was fired in-season. 


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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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