Let 'Er Rip: A Moment with Rowan, the New UW Defensive-line Coach
Elwyn "Rip" Rowan enters the room and plops down in a chair. He's personable, still a little wide-eyed as the new University of Washington defensive-line coach. For the next 15 minutes, he tells his story, offering humorous and heartfelt details.
Rowan's father and grandfather were coaches, natural influences. Nicknamed after his grandfather, he honestly doesn't know where that moniker came from. They're just Rip, both of them. Georgia homespun.
His other grandfather was an NFL scout who used to take Rowan and his brother to football games, sit everyone in the nose-bleed seats and pull out his binoculars and start taking notes.
"I was like, 'Granddad, we can't see anything. Can we sit a little closer?' " Rowan recalled, laughing at the thought.
Since February, this Southern native and former Austin Peay defensive tackle and linebacker has been front and center. Enthusiastically in the face and ear of players such as Husky D-Line starters Tuli Letuligasenoa and Taki Taimani, entrusted with getting more out of their play and that of their teammates.
From a quality-control defensive coach, Rowan was elevated when defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski left for Texas and Huskies coach Jimmy Lake shuffled staff responsibilities internally rather than go outside to find another coach.
That moment, too, will forever be etched in this man's mind. It was emotional.
"It was a Friday afternoon, we had a half day and I was jogging around Lake Union," Rowan said. "He called me and I almost hit my knees, man, and I was speechless. I was holding back tears. It was awesome. It was an unreal experience."
Now this is no Rudy story, though we could see Rip sleeping on that extra cot set aside for stadium personnel and volunteering himself for all sorts of menial tasks.
No, Rowan came highly recommended to the Huskies from respected old-school coaches Monte Kiffin and Lovie Smith, who encountered him as a graduate assistant along the way at Florida Atlantic and Illinois, and they thought he was worth elevating and said so.
"These guys were offering him up and said you have to hire him," Lake said. "He's high energy, energetic, knows technique inside and out, and loves football."
Said Rowan of Kiffin, Lane's somewhat legendary defensive-minded father, "I still talk to him to this day. Every week. He's asking me how it's going and if I'm teaching them the right things."
Rowan has been tasked with getting more out of the Husky defensive line, one that went through a lot of change in a hurry last fall and was vulnerable to the rush. Possible first-rounder Levi Onwuzurike opted out to pursue the NFL draft. Letuligasenoa was his replacement and missed most of the short season with injuries. A lot of yards were given away.
"They need to have consistency," Rowan said of the players in his charge now. "They've put good things on tape, but not consistently."
It will be up to Rowan, who was a four-year letterman and played at 6-foot-1 and 236 pounds a decade ago, to bring these Husky defensive lineman to another level, a closer level where everyone can see their results, which shouldn't be all that hard.
Beginning with his grandfather in those upper rows of the stadium so long ago, that's what the man called Rip has done. Get a better look at things. He couldn't be any closer to big-time football now.
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