No Beating Around the Bush: Hamdan, Paopao Out at UW

Lake fires two assistants within hours of winning Las Vegas Bowl

Dan Raley | Dec 22, 2019

No Beating Around the Bush: Hamdan, Paopao Out at UW /

Jimmy Lake didn't waste any time customizing Washington football to his liking.

Sixteen hours following the conclusion of the Las Vegas Bowl, and a rousing 38-7 victory over Boise State, school officials on Sunday announced that the new Huskies coach had fired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan and tight ends coach Jordan Paopao.

Hamdan was widely blamed for the shortcomings that surrounded the UW offense this season, even with a veteran line and an NFL-style quarterback to work with, and he wasn't long for his job.

“These decisions are extremely difficult, but I believe it’s in the best interest of our program to make these changes to align with the vision we have for our team moving forward," Lake said in a statement. "I wish them both nothing but the best.”

Hamdan, a former Boise State quarterback, spent the past two seasons as the Huskies offensive coordinator, following earlier stints as UW quality control coach in 2015 and wide receivers coach in 2016. He left for the NFL, to become the Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach, and came right back a year later.

On Hamdan's watch, quarterback Jake Browning's performance fell off as a senior and Georgia transfer Jacob Eason's play was up and down this season, bringing a severe fan backlash.

There's no indication if this move will have any effect on Eason's coming decision on whether to pass up his senior season and enter the NFL draft early.

In the accompanying video, taken at midseason, Hamdan spoke of accepting the challenge of trying to right a season gone wrong.

Paopao spent the past seven seasons as the Huskies tight ends coach, first hired by Steve Sarkisian and inherited by Chris Petersen. With the program delivering NFL prospect after prospect at this position, he didn't necessarily have obvious coaching shortcomings. But Paopao apparently didn't fit Lake's plans.

With Petersen's departure and these two abrupt changes, the Huskies are in the market to add three new coaches to their staff of 11.

Published Dec 22, 2019

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.