Brock Huard: Huskies have good reasons to give Jonathan Smith a co-offensive coordinator
Feb 23, 2017, 3:52 PM | Updated: 4:45 pm
The Huskies had a much improved offense under offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith in 2016. (AP)
(AP)
Credit for Washington’s strong 2016 season had as much to do with an improved offense that ranked eighth in the country in scoring as anything. So when the Huskies announced Wednesday that their new wide receivers coach, Matt Lubick, would also share offensive coordinator duties with Jonathan Smith, it was a bit of a head-scratcher.
Brock Huard of 710 ESPN Seattle sees several possible reasons why Washington made the move, though, and one of the more notable ones may have to do with Smith’s success at UW, which could land him a head coaching job in the near future.
“If something were to happen to Jonathan Smith after the season, if he again he has tremendous success and interviews like he did this last offseason,” Huard said, “you’ve found a guy in transition that you brought in to possibly take that job in-house, which is often a good move.”
The other head-scratching part of Lubick’s addition is why he joined the staff after he’d already signed on with two separate programs in recent months since being let go as offensive coordinator at Oregon.
The fact that Oregon cut ties with him shouldn’t be looked at as too much of a negative, however, as the Ducks cleaned house following a 4-8 year, putting an end to the Mark Helfrich era in Eugene. Lubick was obviously in demand, too, considering he went to Ole Miss, then jumped to Baylor after seeing the disarray Hugh Freeze’s staff was heading into. And Baylor, of course, is trying to move on from a scandal of its own, so it makes plenty of sense that Lubick would jump at an opportunity to join the Huskies.
Huard said it also speaks to the state of Chris Petersen’s program at UW that Lubick landed in Montlake.
“To me, it showed the demand for that job,” Huard said. “Here’s Matt Lubick, who gets fired from Oregon, goes to an SEC job as wide receivers coach job at Ole Miss, quickly I think realizes the place is on fire, then goes down with a new staff with Matt Rhule at Baylor to build that program back as co-offensive coordinator there, then turns around and leaves that job. He’s not doing that for a whole lot of other wide receivers coach and co-OC positions. I think he sees the direction of this program, and I think he felt it in the thumping the Ducks took last season to Washington.”
Huard was able to meet Lubick last season through his work as an ESPN college football analyst, and he believes the Huskies have simply added another strong piece to their staff.
“I think it’s an excellent move of a good recruiter, of a very accomplished coach,” Huard said. “What I ran into is an incredibly organized guy, a thoughtful guy. … You just see a real fit for Chris Petersen. If you think of Chris Petersen and how organized he is … Matt Lubick could be like his younger brother.”
