Petersen announces coaching staff at Washington
SEATTLE — Chris Petersen announced his first coaching staff at Washington on Monday with most of his Boise State staff joining him in Seattle.
Eight coaches who worked with Petersen at some point in his tenure at Boise State will be with him at Washington.
“I'm thrilled to welcome this talented group of coaches to Washington,” Petersen said in a statement from the school. “They bring with them both a wealth of experience, and an understanding of what we want to accomplish here and how to get it done.”
Pete Kwiatkowski will be the defensive coordinator after serving in that role under Petersen at Boise State. He'll be joined on that side of the ball by Bob Gregory, who was Boise State's interim coach for its bowl game loss to Oregon State. Gregory will be the Huskies linebackers coach/assistant head coach.
Jimmy Lake will coach defensive backs and Jeff Choate will be the special teams coordinator and defensive line coach.
On the offensive side, Jonathan Smith will be promoted from his role at Boise State and be the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Smith, a former quarterback at Oregon State, spent the past two seasons as the Broncos' quarterbacks coach.
Brent Pease will rejoin Petersen's staff as the wide receivers coach after he was recently fired as Florida's offensive coordinator. Pease was with the Gators for one season. Keith Bhonapha will be in charge of running backs and will be the Huskies recruiting coordinator and Chris Strausser will be the offensive line coach.
Petersen is expected to hire a tight ends coach in the coming days.
The staff will not include Tosh Lupoi, the defensive line coach under previous coach Steve Sarkisian. Washington is looking into allegations of recruiting violations against Lupoi, first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The school said Lupoi is being reassigned within the athletic department, but gave no details on what his duties will be.
Petersen also is bringing Tim Socha from Boise State as the strength and conditioning coach. Rich Rasmussen will be the director of player personnel and Mike McHugh is leaving Fresno State to be the director of football operations.
Damon Huard will remain chief administrative officer for the football program.