Washington Husky head coach Ty Willingham is expected to upgrade his defense next season by recently hiring Ed Donatell, a veteran NFL defensive coordinator with the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons.

Washington’s pathetic and inept excuse for a defense last year needed to be cleaned up and improved by about 20 points.

The Huskies ranked 94th nationally last year in scoring defense (giving up 31+ points per game), 99th in pass defense (261+ yards per game and 27 touchdowns) and pass efficiency defense, and ranked 102nd in total defense. These rankings were among the 119 teams in NCAA Division 1A. In other words, the Huskies had no defense. They lacked speed, talent and experience. I said last year that Washington’s defensive secondary couldn’t cover my grandmother on her best day. she was not kidding

Donatell is to be congratulated for being willing to try to clean up this sorry mess. It is possible that he can turn it around based on his experience and performance. This is:

1) As defensive backs coach to Denver’s Mike Shanahan, he helped the Broncos win back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998 by taking over a secondary that ranked last in the NFL and led them to a Top 10 ranking of 5 in a row. years.

2) As defensive coordinator for Green Bay’s Mike Sherman for 4 years, Donatell’s leadership helped the Packers defense lead the NFL with 144 takeaways, averaging 36 per season, and lead the league with 2.25 forced turnovers per game.

3) As defensive coordinator for 3 years for Atlanta’s Jim Mora (a University of Washington grad and new designated coach of the Seattle Seahawks when Mike Holmgren retired after the 2008 season), Donatell racked up more success.

His 2004 Falcon unit led the NFL in holding opponents to a league-low 30% on third-down conversions. His Falcons also led the league in sacks for the first time in team history, and in 2005 his defense ranked third in the NFL with just 28 passes allowed of 20 or more yards. In addition, Atlanta won the club’s third division title and advanced to the NFC championship game.

Donatell also had ties to Washington before he arrived. In addition to coaching Jim Mora, he was a graduate assistant to Don James, the legendary Dawgfather and Washington’s top coach. Donatell was also the defensive backs coach for 3 years at Idaho under former Washington coach Keith Gilbertson.

Donatell said his defensive style will be “based on speed and explosion, a lot of energy, enthusiasm, (an) attacking style.” Damn, I like the guy already. So Donatell can’t just talk about a good game, he can back it up.

I remember another guy named Jim Lambright whose legendary defenses were fast, furious, and swarm; he also experienced quite a bit of success, such as a 1991 national championship as a defensive coordinator. The 1991 Huskies were second in the nation in rushing defense (67.1), total defense (237.1), scoring defense (9.2), and margin of loss (+1.73); they led the Pac-10 in virtually every defensive category.

Let’s hope Ty Willingham and Ed Donatell have great success next year and for years to come. What Willingham and Donatell will have to do is start winning and keep winning. When they do, they’re going to have to line up behind a couple of other guys with really big hitting records like Huskies: Don James and Jim Lambright.

For the record, Don James won a national title, went to 6 Rose Bowls (4-2 record), won an Orange Bowl title, and appeared in 15 bowl games (10-5 record) in 18 years. Oh yeah, James went 153-57-2 (72%), including a record 99 wins in Pac-10 conference play, and Washington won 22 straight games from 1990 to 1992.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley