OC Bush Hamdan and TE Coach Jordan Paopao Are Out in Staff Shakeup

When Jimmy Lake was announced as the next Washington Huskies head coach there was an expectation that changes would be made elsewhere on the staff. Lake did not waste time after officially taking over following UW’s bowl win over Boise State as Offensive Coordinator Bush Hamdan and Tight Ends Coach Jordan Paopao have not been retained.

Hamdan served as the wide receivers coach for Washington in 2016 before moving on to be the QB coach for the Atlanta Falcons after one season. However when the offensive coordinator job opened up at Washington he came back to re-join Chris Petersen and lead the offense. Per Christian Caple, Hamdan will be paid the $800,000 he was owed for the one remaining year on his contract with any salary he gets in a coaching job during that time being subtracted out of that total. There has been a large amount of criticism over the performance of Washington’s offense the past two seasons and Hamdan as the offensive coordinator has been a lightning rod for fans expressing their displeasure.

Jordan Paopao has been the tight ends coach at Washington since 2013 and was the lone holdover from the Steve Sarkisian staff after Chris Petersen became head coach. He has overseen the development of a number of studs at the position for Washington including Will Dissly, Drew Sample, and Hunter Bryant. His contract was set to run out and it is more accurate to say that Lake decided not to renew his contract rather than let him go.

We will see what direction the Huskies decide to move in over the coming days in order to fill the positions. Since Lake is a defensive guy you would expect that the hire would be a veteran with his own offensive system that can be relied upon to take over on that side of the ball with limited interference. With Washington’s tight end room being relatively stacked you can expect that the Huskies will try to bring in a system that still utilizes the position more than many of the spread approaches prevalent throughout college football.

We’ll have more on this situation as candidates emerge.