Inside The Huskies

Ex-UW Assistant Sheridan Reportedly Joining Big Ten Team

He'll split from Kalen DeBoer after a long coaching connection at three schools.
Dan Raley|
Nick Sheridan was the UW tight-ends coach when the Huskies played Michigan in the 2024 CFP title game.
Nick Sheridan was the UW tight-ends coach when the Huskies played Michigan in the 2024 CFP title game. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Nick Sheridan apparently will go it alone without Kalen DeBoer.

After those two coached together at Indiana, Washington and Alabama, Sheridan reportedly will branch out on his own and become the Michigan State offensive coordinator for Pat Fitzgerald's new staff, according to multiple online outlets.

The former Huskies' tight-ends coach in 2022-23 stands to leave an Alabama team at some point that is coming off a first-round playoff victory over Oklahoma.

Sheridan, 37, was the Crimson Tide offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2024 and currently carries the title of co-OC, though Ryan Grubb clearly is DeBoer's offensive mastermind this season.

DeBoer brought Sheridan to the UW in 2022 after the latter was fired as the Indiana offensive coordinator following his two years on the job, and helped reinvigorate his coaching career.

Sheridan coached with DeBoer in Indiana in 2019 when DeBoer was the offensive coordinator, Sherdian was the tight-ends coach and Michael Penix Jr. was the Hoosiers' hard-luck quarterback continually getting injured.

Once DeBoer became the Fresno State head coach in 2020-21, Sheridan took over his Indiana OC responsibilities. He was fired after a 2-10 season.

The three of them -- DeBoer, Sheridan and Penix -- turned up in Montlake together and shared in the Huskies 25-3 success over two seasons and their run to the College Football Playoff championship game.

Things got a little confusing for Sheridan in Alabama with Grubb initially identified as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator before taking the same job with the Seattle Seahawks.

Sheridan and JaMarcus Shephard next were named Crimson Tide co-offensive coordinators for 2024, with Sheridan handling the play-calling.

Once Grubb came back this season after the Seahawks fired him, Sheridan and Shephard each saw their roles diminish some.

Shephard, of course, recently became Oregon State's head coach.

For Sheridan, he'll possibly head to Michigan State with a lengthy Big Ten background. Besides coaching at Indiana, he was a Michigan quarterback in 2006-10, coming to the Wolverines as a walk-on and the great underdog, earning a scholarship and briefly becoming a starter.

He is the son of Bill Sheridan, a well-known defensive-minded coach throughout all levels of football who now is an analyst for the Jacksonville Jaguars and previously coached with the New York Giants, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins.

Over a 45-year coaching career, the elder Sheridan also has worked on the football staffs at Michigan and Notre Dame and, in 1998-2000, as the linebackers coach for Michigan State for Nick Saban and Bobby Williams.

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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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