Washington coach Jimmy Lake addresses controversial Oregon comments

There’s a big Pac-12 game happening Saturday between No. 4 Oregon and Washington and while tensions were already going to be high for the matchup, they’re going to be even higher now – no matter what Washington coach Jimmy Lake says he meant by the controversial comment he made earlier this week.

During his Monday press conference previewing Washington’s upcoming meeting with Oregon, Lake was asked if he viewed the Ducks as a recruiting rival. Instead of just answering the question with a simple answer, he went on to say that he views Oregon’s recruiting rivals as schools with high “academic prowess.”

“That is way more pumped up than it is,” Lake said. “Our battles are really the schools we go against – that have academic prowess – like the University of Washington, Notre Dame, Stanford, USC. We go with a lot of battles, toe to toe, all the way to the end, with those schools. So I think that’s made up and pumped up in [the media’s] world. In our world, we battle more academically prowess teams.”

Now, Lake is trying to clean up the mess he made.

On his weekly radio show Wednesday night, Lake said he has the “utmost respect” for Oregon “as an academic and athletic institution.” He added that his “academic prowess” comments weren’t a shot at Oregon, but instead about his own program’s recruiting.

On his radio show, Jimmy Lake says he has the “utmost respect” for Oregon “as an academic and athletic institution,” and that his comments were intended to be about his own program’s recruiting and not a dig at UO.

— Christian Caple (@ChristianCaple) November 4, 2021

No matter what Lake was trying to say, his Washington recruiting class for 2022 is ranked far lower than Oregon’s. According to the On3 consensus team rankings for the class, the Ducks come in at No. 11 with one five star and 15 four stars, while the Huskies are at No. 31 with no five-stars and three four-stars.

Oregon coach Mario Cristobal responds to Lake’s comments

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal responded to Washington coach Jimmy Lake’s comments about the Ducks, but didn’t snap back at him. He instead took the high road and made it clear that his primary focus is on one thing right now.

“Every single ounce of our focus is on the game,” Cristobal said, according to Zachary Neel of Ducks Wire.

Oregon and Washington will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Husky Stadium. ABC will be carrying the broadcast.