Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky DC Kwiatkowski Let Go By Texas

He spent seven seasons leading the UW defense before leaving for the Longhorns.
Dan Raley|
Pete Kwiatkowski, former UW defensive coordinator, has been fired by Texas.
Pete Kwiatkowski, former UW defensive coordinator, has been fired by Texas. | Ricardo B. Brazziell / USA TODAY NETWORK

The first signs of trouble in Jimmy Lake's University of Washington coaching tenure came when Pete Kwiatkowski bailed on him as his defensive coordinator after just one season in 2020 and headed for Texas.

Granted the Longhorns offer far exceeded what the UW was paying him, but still everyone felt Kwiatkowski was getting out because he didn't particularly like what he saw after working one season for Lake, who would be fired midway through the next campaign.

Kwiatkowski was considered a tough-minded leader who built the Huskies into defensive prominence over six years of working for Chris Petersen and in four years of doing the same for Petersen at Boise State.

Yet on Thursday, Kwiatkowski's star had dimmed some after his five-year run with the Longhorns ended abruptly with his firing and immediate replacement in favor of Will Muschamp, previously the South Carolina and Florida head coach and a Texas defensive coordinator in 2008-10.

Pete Kwiatkowski coached at the UW in 2014-20.
Pete Kwiatkowski coached at the UW in 2014-20. | UW

Kwiatkowski was not the only Husky-related dismissal of the day in Austin either, with former UW quarterback Duane Akina let go as defensive passing-game coordinator by Steve Sarkisian, who of course twas he one-time Husky head coach in 2009-2013.

This apparently is what happens when Texas goes 9-3 and misses out on the 12-team College Football Playoff. The Longhorns still have a game to play, facing Michigan, which has its own set of problems, on Dec. 31 in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

Ironically, Kwiatkowski found himself facing the Huskies in bowl games in two of his first three years after leaving them -- and lost both outings.

In 2022, he had to game-plan for a rejuvenated Michael Penix Jr., who led the UW into the Alamo Bowl against Texas, and the Huskies won that one 27-20 in San Antonio.

A year later, these teams met again in the CFP semifinals in the Sugar Bowl and Penix and the Huskies emerged from another point-filled battle with a 37-31 victory in New Orleans.

Kwiatkowski apparently became expendable after the Longhorns gave up 31 or more points in four of their final five regular-season games.

Opposing teams averaged 335 yards of total offense per game over the season, again likely too much for Texas standards.

Kwiatkowski, 59, was an All-American honorable-mention defensive tackle for Boise State in 1986, the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year in 1987 and a Broncos Hall of Fame inductee.

If he's still amenable to coaching longer, he should have no trouble finding another defensive coordinator job.

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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.

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