Trojans Might Pursue Former UW DC Pete Kwiatkowski

The former Petersen and Lake coordinator has been at Texas for three seasons.

Dan Raley | Nov 11, 2023

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Washington Huskies

After putting up 52 points and 572 yards of total offense against USC last weekend, the University of Washington football team's free-wheeling success ultimately forced the Trojans to make a coaching change at defensive coordinator.

Within 24 hours of the 52-42 loss to the UW, Alex Grinch was fired from Lincoln Riley's staff.

Now as USC seeks a high-end replacement, the Huskies could figure into that equation, too.

Six days following Grinch's dismissal, one of the names being floated for the Trojans job is Pete Kwiatkowski, the Texas defensive coordinator and former UW defensive leader, according to the WeAreSC website. He's in his third season in Austin and prior to that spent seven years at the UW working for coaches Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake.

Kwiatkowski has been credited with putting together an extra stingy defense for the once-beaten Longhorns that gives up just 18 points per game, down from 31 in 2022.

Eleven months ago, Kwiatkowski and the UW crossed paths again in the Alamo Bowl, where the Huskies beat Texas 27-20 with its productive Michael Penix Jr.-led offense that generated 445 yards against its former defensive coordinator and built a 17-point lead before surviving a late rush by the Longhorns.

Kwiatkowski, 57, makes $1.7 million per year at Texas, which is slightly lower than what USC was paying Grinch. He also coached at Boise State, Eastern Washington and Montana State. He played defensive tackle for Boise State and was a first-team All-America selection in 1987 in Division 1-AA.

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Published Nov 11, 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.