Inside The Huskies

Lee Marks Latest With UW Coaching Connection to Join Oregon State

Four former Kalen DeBoer running-backs coach has moved from Memphis to Corvallis.
Dan Raley|
Running backs coach Lee Marks is shown at the CFP national championship game between the UW and Michigan.
Running backs coach Lee Marks is shown at the CFP national championship game between the UW and Michigan. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

When Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama, one of the negatives for that University of Washington coaching staff was not everyone got to go with him.

The Crimson Tide dictated that DeBoer had to hire certain people as assistants so only 40 percent of the guys responsible for the UW winning 25 of 28 games over two years eventually ended up in Tuscaloosa, scattering everyone else to the wind.

JaMarcus Shephard, hired as the new Oregon State coach, is doing his best to reunite the strays.

Over the weekend, Shephard hired Lee Marks as his running-backs coach -- bringing the total of former DeBoer assistant coaches at the UW, counting himself, to four in Corvallis, joining defensive-line coach Inoke Breckterfield and offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen, with the latter serving as a quality control coach in Montlake.

Add to them Cort Dennison, never a UW coach but an accomplished Husky linebacker, and the Husky theme continues to expand at Oregon State.

The cerebral Marks clearly was a loyal soldier to DeBoer, staying behind at Fresno State initially after the DeBoer left for the UW, to serve as interim coach and guide the Mountain West team to a New Mexico bowl victory.

Joining the Huskies, he coached Dillon Johnson to a 1,195-yard, 16-touchdown rushing season, Cam Davis to a 13-TD season and Wayne Taulapapa to an 887-yard, 12-touchdown season.

Yet when it was time to go to Alabama, Marks was left to fend for himself and ended up at Memphis the past two seasons.

Shephard gave the California native a chance to return to the West Coast.

Marks twice was an all-conference running back when he played at Boise State in 2001 to 2005, where he answered to Dan Hawkins' coaching staff, which included Chris Petersen as the offensive coordinator.

He later worked at Boise State as the running backs coach for five seasons and the strength and conditioning coach for one year.

At Alabama, DeBoer currently employs just three of his former Husky assistant coaches in offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan and linebackers coach Chuck Morrell.

Former UW offensive-line coach Scott Huff is now the Los Angeles Rams' tight-ends coach.

One-time edge-rusher coach Eric Schmidt is the head coach at North Dakota.

William Inge, who served as co-defensive coordinator with Morrell in Montlake, coaches linebackers at Tennessee.

Julius "Juice" Brown is the cornerbacks for TCU, handling the same job he had the UW.

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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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