Inside The Huskies

From the Rumor Mill, Another Possible Name to Replace Belichick

Fired Purdue coach Ryan Walters has had his name floated for the expected vacancy.

Dan Raley

Former Purdue coach Ryan Walters doesn't look happy as his team loses to Penn State 49-10.
Former Purdue coach Ryan Walters doesn't look happy as his team loses to Penn State 49-10. / Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Steve Belichick still hasn't publicly revealed he's leaving his job as University of Washington defensive coordinator and joining his father's North Carolina coaching staff -- yes, it's a forgone conclusion -- yet meantime people are doing their best to hire his replacement.

Last week, someone suggested that UW linebackers coach Robert Bala would be elevated and take over the younger Belichick's role ion Jedd Fisch's staff n Montlake.

On Thursday, while Belichick and the Huskies were flying to Texas for the Sun Bowl, On3 identified fired Purdue head coach Ryan Walters as a possible candidate for the UW defensive coordinator job -- should it open up, of course.

However, Walters, 38, has some coaching baggage that he carries. On Dec.1, he was fired from his Big Ten post following a miserable two-year run as the Boilermakers leader, with his teams finishing 4-8 and 1-11. He earlier dismissed his offensive coordinator, Graham Harrell, four games into the season, but things never righted themselves.

Trying to connect the dots on why this makes sense is Walters, it was pointed out, enjoyed reasonable success as a defensive coordinator at Missouri and more recently at Illinois.

Walters joined Missouri in 2015 as the safeties coach for Gary Pinkel, the long-time UW assistant coach for legendary coach Don James before Pinkel became a highly successful coach himself.

A former Colorado safety and the son of a one-time Buffaloes quarterback, he also coached at Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Texas and Memphis.

Demonstrating college football's continual six degrees of separation, Walters was hired by Purdue in 2022 to replace Jeff Brohm, who left for Louisville and whose ACC team will face the Huskies in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve.

Brohm's co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach for the Boilermakers was JaMarcus Shephard, who moved to the UW for two seasons before following Kalen DeBoer to Alabama for the current campaign.

Showing how truly inbred the college game is, Walters coached cornerbacks for defensive coordinator Barry Odom at Memphis, followed Odom to Missouri, with both men serving in similar coaching capacities, and he stayed with Odom once the latter was promoted to head coach as a replacement for the retiring Pinkel in 2016. Walters coached with Odom until the other man was fired by Missouri in 2019.

Odom, of course, recently was named as the new Purdue head coach ... replacing Walters.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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