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Inside The Huskies

Kevin Cummings' Coaching Reputation Begins to Spread

The UW receivers leader turns up No. 5 on a national Top 10 list.
Dan Raley|
Kevin Cummings is shown huddling with Jedd Fisch during the Spring Game.
Kevin Cummings is shown huddling with Jedd Fisch during the Spring Game. | Dave Sizer photo

Coaching reputations often begin with a random list somewhere to get the conversation started.

Oh yeah, that guy.

Before you know it, the name keeps popping up around the college football ranks after it's been shared, digested and reposted.

Such is the case for University of Washington receivers coach Kevin Cummings, who's been following in the position leadership footsteps of JaMarcus Shephard, who likewise became a talking point while working in Montlake for Kalen DeBoer and following that man to Alabama, and he's now the Oregon State head coach.

On Saturday, Cummings turned up on a Top 10 list of FBS wide receiver coaches, settling in at No. 5, courtesy of a group called Roc Boys Football.

Cummings, praised by coach Jedd Fisch during spring football practice for getting a bunch of young receivers ready to play, likewise has been on a hot streak.

A year ago, he was responsible for bringing freshmen Dezmen Roebuck, Raiden Vines-Bright, Marcus Harris and Deji Ajose to the UW and turning the first two into starters.

This spring, Cummings welcomed Mason James, Trez Davis, Jordan Clay and Blaise LaVista to spring practice and the first three looked like possible starting material while LaVista continued his recovery from knee surgery.

Cummings, similar to Shephard, seems like he could be head-coaching material some day. He has an easy and thoughtful manner, which can be replaced by a raise in his voice and impatience when someone is not responding to the way things need to be done.

A Los Angeles native, he was a wide receiver for Oregon State in 2010-13, starting parts of three seasons, and he had a free-agent trial with the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos.

Turning to coaching, he has been a full-time hire for a decade, spending four seasons with San Jose State, three with Fisch at Arizona and now three at the UW.

On the aforementioned list, Cummings trails only USC's Dennis Simmons, Indiana's Mike Shanahan, Ohio State's Cortez Hankton and Miami's Kevin Beard in high regard.

Beard, a former BYU linebacker, has 20 years of coaching mostly receivers at USC, Oklahoma, Washington State, Texas Tech and Cornell. He spent three seasons in Pullman with Mike Leach in 2012-14.

Shanahan, a Curt Cignetti disiciple, has nearly a decade of coaching as a receivers coach and an offensive coordinator at Indiana, James Madison, Elon and UIP.

Hankton, who joined Ohio State this offseason, has 14 seasons of experience coaching receivers and other for LSU, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Darthmouth.

Finallly, Beard has as decade of experience coaching receivers at Miami, Georgia and Toledo.

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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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