Inside The Huskies

Bush Hamdan, Former Husky OC, Takes NFL Job

He coached twice at the UW for Chris Petersen but was let go by Jimmy Lake.
Dan Raley|
Former UW offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan coaches at Kentucky in 2024.
Former UW offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan coaches at Kentucky in 2024. | Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Looking back on it, probably the worst thing Jimmy Lake did in terms of putting together a University of Washington football coaching staff six years ago was fire Bush Hamdan and hire John Donovan.

It might have been the best thing for Hamdan.

Within hours of the Huskies beating Boise State 38-7 in the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl in Chris Petersen's final game as coach, Lake took over and immediately dismissed Hamdan as the offensive coordinator, as well as Jordan Paopao as the tight-ends coach.

Lake and Donovan lasted barely a season and a half together before both were fired separately by the UW with the 2021 schedule still playing out.

Hamdan avoided all of that drama. In fact, he hasn't done too badly for himself professionally since leaving Montlake.

On Friday, multiple reports surfaced indicating the former Huskies OC was joining the Miami Dolphins as their quarterbacks coach, a sign he is well regarded across football.

Hamdan is now off to his fifth job in six seasons after he was jettisoned by Lake, moving from Missouri to Boise State, Kentucky, and Mississippi State and back to the NFL.

He last coached at the pro football level in 2017, when he was the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons before Petersen convinced him to come be his Husky offensive coordinator and QB coach the following season.

Hamdan and Petersen had been quarterback and coach together at Boise State.

This marked Hamdan's second UW coaching stint, too. In 2015 and 2016, he served as an offensive quaiity control coach for Petersen.

To be fair, Hamdan heard a lot of outside criticism as the Huskies' offensive coordinator. On his watch, quarterback Jake Browning's performance fell off as a senior and Georgia transfer Jacob Eason's play was up and down during the 2019 season, bringing considerable fan backlash. 

To his credit, Hamdan spoke of accepting the challenge to right a season gone wrong in 2019 when the Huskies finished 8-5 after so much more was expected with a veteran line and an NFL-style quarterback to work with.

The offense certainly seemed high-powered in Las Vegas to close the season, yet Lake clearly had his mind made up a change needed to made.

It should be noted that Paopao, who also was let go by Lake, returned to the UW with the Jedd Fisch coaching staff and is thriving with the Huskies.

A little-known fact about Hamdan and football in Seattle is this: His brother Gibran was in training camp with the Seahawks in 2005 and 2006 as an aspiring quarterback from Indiana who spent time on the practice squad and active roster, but never played in a game..

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football