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Inside The Huskies

Lake Accepts Responsibility for Embarrassing Loss

The Husky coach was contrite after he looked at what went wrong against Montana.
Dan Raley|
Lake Accepts Responsibility for Embarrassing Loss
Lake Accepts Responsibility for Embarrassing Loss

Jimmy Lake, after having a day and a half to digest the embarrassing loss to Montana, an FCS school that pushed aside an eight-touchdown beatdown in 2017 to win 13-7 on Saturday night, bore full responsibility for the outcome.

Multiple times, the University of Washington football coach looked out at a room full of reporters and pointed a finger at himself, something fans and former players wished he had done immediately following the season opener.

"It starts with me," Lake said at his Monday morning briefing. "We've got to be better prepared. We've got to have a better plan, and we didn't execute a good plan. It all starts with the coaching first, and it starts with me."

Over and over, the second-year coach was asked why the Huskies' adjustments didn't work against the FCS school, why his touted offensive line didn't dominate and why quarterback Dylan Morris didn't play better. 

He was quizzed about his late-night reaction to what took place, about whether he slept, got mad or just had the disappointment sink in, and the coach said all of the above qualified.

"We didn't respond the way we should have and it starts with me — that's on me," Lake said. "I'll take all the blame there. It's up to us to get it corrected and that's what we're working on now, is to get that corrected, because it's unacceptable. And it should not have happened."

While long on accepting responsibility for what transpired, Lake didn't offer any definitive answers for why his team didn't play with more energy or why he and his staff didn't come better prepared.

He understood if people wanted to continue to rail against his team's performance, but said he, his coaching staff and the Huskies have moved on to the Michigan preparation.

"We're going to get it changed," the coach said. "We should not have played the way we played on Saturday night. That's why I feel bad for our fans and for our supporters. They should be disappointed. They should be pissed. Just like we are. All we can do now is move forward and make amends."

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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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