UW fires offensive coordinator John Donovan following Oregon loss
Washington Huskies offensive coordinator John Donovan, nine games into in his second season with the program, has been fired, per a release from the university Sunday afternoon.
The move came one day after UW, which has often had trouble finding offensive consistency this season, turned in its least productive performance of the season in the 26-16 loss to rival Oregon on Saturday night in Seattle.
The Huskies posted season-lows in total offense (166 yards), passing yards (111), rushing yards (65) and first downs (seven) in the loss.
UW is currently near the bottom of the Pac-12 in several offensive categories, including ranking 10th in scoring (22 points per game), first downs (18.7 per game), total offense (332.1 yards per game) and rushing offense (115.3).
Before the season opened in September, it seemed the Huskies’ offense — with a veteran offensive line, a quarterback with four games of starting experience, and talented playmakers in the backfield and in the receivers group — was on track for success, but that hasn’t been the case.
The Huskies scored only two touchdowns the first two weeks in losses to Montana — the program’s first loss to an FCS program in its history — which led to widespread criticism of Donovan’s system.
The Huskies scored 30-plus points in their next two games — in a rout of an Arkansas State team that has allowed the second-most points to opponents in the FBS, and an overtime win in their Pac-12 opener against California — but haven’t since.
They lost consecutive games to Oregon State and UCLA, then needed a fourth quarter comeback to edge out Arizona, which was winless at that point, before edging Stanford despite scoring only one touchdown for the third game this season.
Donovan departs after coaching in 13 games the past two seasons as the Huskies’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Prior to UW, he held stints as the offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt (2011-13) and Penn State (2014-15) before joining the Jacksonville Jaguars as an offensive assistant for four seasons (2016-19).
For the rest of the 2021 season — the Huskies have three games remaining against Arizona State, Colorado and Washington State on their schedule, and likely need to win two to advance to a bowl game — wide receivers coach Junior Adams will take over play calling, per the release, while offensive quality control analyst Payton McCollum will be the quarterbacks coach.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 3:43 PM.
