Inside The Huskies

Vinnie Sunseri Leaves UW Defense in Rapid Turnover for New Job

The safeties coach will become Jacksonville State's defensive coordinator.

Dan Raley

Vinnie Sunseri offers direction to his Husky safeties.
Vinnie Sunseri offers direction to his Husky safeties. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Rampant change continues to consume the University of Washington football defensive unit with safeties coach Vinnie Sunseri named on Thursday as the new defensive coordinator for Jacksonville State of Conference USA.

Sunseri, 33, accepts this job after spending just one season in Montlake on Jedd Fisch's staff, with Husky defensive coordinator Steve Belichick expected to leave soon and join his father in some capacity at North Carolina.

The Huskies closed out the 35-34 Sun Bowl loss to Louisville on New Year's Eve by starting six seniors on defense, with a seventh first-teamer, redshirt freshman nickelback Jordan Shaw, declaring on Wednesday he would enter the transfer portal.

So coming out of El Paso that leaves the Huskies likely needing to replace two of its five defensive coaches and all but three of its 11 starters on this unit.

Sunseri, who came to the UW after spending four seasons with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, will head to Alabama and join the new Jacksonville State coaching staff headed up by Charles Kelly, who replaced Rich Rodriguez after the latter left the Gamecocks for West Virginia.

Kelly formerly was the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Auburn. With Sunseri playing his college ball at Alabama, it's not surprising these two have or made a connection.

Jacksonville State, which went 9-5 this past season and played and lost to Ohio 30-27 on Dec. 20 in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida, was one of four schools that joined Conference USA before this past season, along with Liberty, New Mexico State and Sam Houston, elevating each from FCS to the FBS level.

From a coaching family, Sunseri's new job comes three weeks after his older brother, Tino, left as Indiana co-offensive coordinator to take the UCLA OC position.

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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