Husky Coach Review: Sheridan Is One of UW's Comeback Stories

He came to Montlake after getting fired at Indiana.

Dan Raley | Jul 23, 2023

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Washington Huskies

To cope with adversity, University of Washington football players can turn to tight-ends coach Nick Sheridan for advice should things begin to go a little sideways for them. He's experienced it all.

As a college quarterback himself, Sheridan went from a Michigan walk-on quarterback to the starter and back to Cinderella without the fancy gown and the horse-drawn carriage.

As an Indiana offensive coordinator, he took bows after the Hoosiers went 6-2 and played in the 2021 Outback Bowl against Mississippi, even after losing a quarterback named Michael Penix Jr. to a season-ending injury. He got fired the following season as a result of a 2-10 meltdown, 0-9 in Big Ten play, after Penix went down once more.

Just 35, Sheridan is the tight-ends coach for the Huskies, overseeing a position chalk full of quality players in sixth-year seniors Devin Culp and Jack Westover, one-time JC transfer Quentin Moore, legacy player Ryan Otton and promising Cal Poly transfer Josh Cuevas.

He's in a good spot. Having a bunch of high-level players healthy and available to him such as this situation can make you look good as a coach and that's half the battle — as the snake-bit Penix situation demonstrated.

While everyone else on the staff accompanied Kalen DeBoer from a bowl-bound Fresno State team or left steady work in the SEC or Big Ten to come here, Sheridan arrived in Montlake hoping to jumpstart his coaching career after getting terminated by Indiana and he's done that. He was out of work for just 16 days.

"Facts are facts, and I was a 2-10 offensive coordinator last year,'' Sheridan told the Indiana FanNation at SI website in 2022. "I was a 6-2 coordinator the year before, but I was a 2-10 coordinator last year and, like they say, you are what your record says you are."

Going through the coaching staff, Sheridan is next up in a series of profiles about each of the Huskies' coordinators and assistant coaches, summing up their time spent in Montlake so far and surmising what might come next for them.

MEETING OF THE MINDS / Skylar Lin Visuals

Nick Sheridan gives marching orders to tight ends Devin Culp (83), Quentin (88), Josh Cuevas (85) and John Frazier (91).

HOOSIERS, THE SEQUEL / Skylar Lin Visuals

Tight-ends coach Nick Sheridan and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. both came to Washington from Indiana.

Nick Sheridan and tight ends Josh Cuevas (85) and Quentin Moore (88) watch while punter Jack McCallister launches one in spring ball.

Nick Sheridan's father, Bill, has coached defense for nearly 40 years at the college and NFL levels and is now with the XFL's Arlington Renegades.

Kalen DeBoer, Michael Penix Jr. and Nick Sheridan were all at Indiana together in 2019 before coming to the UW last year.

A fresh-faced Nick Sheridan was a graduate assistant coach at Tennessee from 2014-16.

WOLVERINE IN TROUBLE :: Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

Nick Sheridan as the Michigan quarterback starter tries to scramble out of trouble in 42-7 loss at Ohio State in 2008, the same year the UW went winless.

A Michigan native, Sheridan took on the unenviable task of walking on as a quarterback at the University of Michigan, earning a scholarship and briefly becoming the starter during his 2006-2010 time in Ann Arbor.

He opened and closed the 2008 season as the No. 1 signal-caller for a 3-9 Wolverines team. He started five times, beating Minnesota 29-6 with an 18-for-30, 203-yard, 1-touchdown passing performance and was on the losing end as the starter against Utah, Toledo, Northwestern and Ohio State, and that was it.

He coached at Western Kentucky and South Florida before becoming what they now call a quality coach at Tennessee before Indiana welcomed him.

Today, he is one of four members of DeBoer's staff who was once a college offensive coordinator, which brings a lot of ideas to the table. He replaced DeBoer as the offensive coordinator at Indiana and they're joined by current Husky OC Ryan Grubb and wide-receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard, who was co-offensive coordinator at Purdue for four seasons.

"Grubb sets the vision and we contribute as we see fit," Sheridan said. "Grubb is open to ideas and suggestions."

Getting dismissed happens to a lot college football coaches somewhere along the way, especially when entire staffs turn over as much as they do, though Kalen DeBoer himself has avoided that football indignity in his 20-plus years of job movement.

Sheridan's father, Bill, is a 37-year college and NFL assistant coach currently guiding the linebackers for the XFL's Arlington Renegades.

He's had a glorious run, coaching for Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Army, Air Force and Maine, plus in the pros for the Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The older Sheridan alternately has been hailed as a defensive genius and fired a half-dozen times. Air Force let him go for allegedly hosting improper recruiting visits during the trying times of COVID, and he resigned a new job with Wisconsin last year because news of the Air Force situation surfaced.

Yet the deep-rooted family trait for the Sheridans, for Bill and Nick, is to keep battling back against all challenges and don't stay down for long.

NICK SHERIDAN FILE

Background: Sheridan was a Michigan quarterback in 2006-2010, 1-4 as the Wolverines starter.

Big Fix: Ryan Otton had his first UW season basically scrubbed because of a groin injury and a family death, and Sheridan needs to get him back on track to be a productive Husky tight end as soon as he can.

Special Project: Sheridan should make sure veterans Devin Culp and Jack Westover share enough time at tight end and play well enough that maybe both of them get drafted by NFL teams.

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Published Jul 23, 2023

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.