Bruce Feldman paints bleak picture for Jimmy Lake at Washington

At one point last season, it looked like Jimmy Lake was headed towards a long, successful tenure with the Washington Huskies. Since then, seemingly everything has gone wrong for Lake and the Huskies.

Now, Lake’s future with Washington is more than murky. Today on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff, Bruce Feldman joined the show to paint a bleak picture for the Huskies coach.

“I’m hearing that it’s Jimmy Lake that’s in the most danger,” Feldman said. “Lake is suspended this week for an incident with a player that happened in last week’s game.

“From what I understand, there is mounting frustration with how he has handled several situations there .. There’s real concern that Jimmy Lake has lost that team.”

Lake is suspended without pay for this weekend’s game against Arizona State. It stemmed from the Washington coach being seen having a sideline altercation with one of his players during Saturday night’s game against Oregon — a game the Huskies lost 26-16.

Moreover, Lake is in his second season as Washington head coach after six years as a defensive assistant. It was a great story, as he worked his way up from defensive backs coach to defensive coordinator in 2018. The Huskies are 7-6 overall since he took the top job, including a 4-5 record so far this season.

Unfortunately, it looks like Jimmy Lake’s tenure at Washington will end up being a quick one.

Jimmy Lake, Washington AD release statements about suspension

Lake denied any wrongdoing, but Washington athletic director Jen Cohen addressed the incident in a statement.

“Our staff has spent the last 24-plus hours reviewing video of the incident, as well as speaking with Coach Lake, the involved student athlete and several other student athletes and members of the staff, and I have made the decision to suspend Coach Lake for next Saturday’s game against Arizona State,” Cohen said, according to Athlon Sports’ Bryan Fischer.

“President Cauce, our Faculty Athletics Representative, Alexes Harris, and members of our executive staff are in agreement that while we do not believe that his actions were intentional or deliberate, we can have no tolerance for a coach interacting with a student in the manner Coach Lake did. We have high expectations of conduct for our coaches, and we will not shy away from those expectations.”

Lake released a statement of his own on Twitter, apologizing for his actions and accepting his suspension.

“I want to apologize to every member of our team, and in particular to Ruperake Fuavai, for my actions during our game on Saturday,” Lake wrote in a statement on Twitter. “I also want to apologize to president Cauce and Jen Cohen for putting the university in this position .. fully accept the decision that was made. Our team has a right to expect better than what I displayed on Saturday. And I’m committed to doing just that. Being better so our program will reflect all that’s good about being a Washington Husky.”