College Football Coach Suspended After Appearing to Strike a Player on the Sideline

The University of Washington decided to suspend their head football coach Jimmy Lake for one week without pay following an altercation with a player on the sideline.

During Saturday’s 26-16 loss to Oregon, TV cameras caught Lake sprinting over to Huskies linebacker Ruperake Fuavai on the sideline. Lake appeared to take a swing at Fuavai, who was arguing with an opposing player. As Fuavai turned to walk away, Lake then shoved his linebacker in the back.

Jimmy Lake pops Ruperake Fuavai in the helmet and shoves him for getting into it with Jaylon Redd on the sideline pic.twitter.com/7AdSuugGe3

— Ralph Amsden (@ralphamsden) November 7, 2021

Following the loss, Lake claimed he was just attempting to prevent his Fuavai from getting a personal foul penalty.

“The guys were chipping back and forth, and one of our players, [Ruperake], was up in an Oregon defender’s face, and I went in to separate them and push him back,” Lake said. “After that we settled down a little bit. That was our deal all week long, you’ve gotta have poise. We knew this was gonna be a very heated matchup and a lot of trash-talking. When [Ruperake] stepped in there, we were glad a penalty wasn’t thrown on our guys to put us back even further.”

Lake further stated he did not strike any player, he “separated them.” After the clip went viral over the weekend, the school announced they would review the incident. Following a brief investigation, the team announced Monday that Lake would be suspended for the week and would not coach their upcoming game against Arizona State.

“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,” Washington athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement.

“[We] 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,” the AD continued. “We have high expectations of conduct for our coaches, and we will not shy away from those expectations.”

Huskies defensive coordinator Bob Gregory will serve as the team’s acting head coach during Lake’s suspension.