Jimmy Lake was hired as the Falcons’ defensive coordinator.
It was announced Monday night that Jimmy Lake has been hired as the defensive coordinator for the Falcons. The deal brings Lake back together with his old coach, Raheem Morris, as the new head coach of the Falcons.
In 2007, Lake worked as Morris’ backup defensive backs coach within Tampa Bay for one season. This was their first professional meeting. Lake was given the job of filling in for Morris as the backfield coach. Lake worked for Morris until 2011.
Lake went back to working for the Buccaneers in 2010 when Morris became head coach. He had been in the Detroit Lions for a year as their d backs coach. Following that, Lake made a name for himself in college football for the next ten years.
From 2012 to 2013, he was in charge of the defensive backs at Boise State. After that, he moved up the coaching ladder at Washington, where he spent the next seven years as the defensive coordinator, then head coach, and finally defensive backs coach.
Lake was the defensive coordinator for the Huskies for many years. According to the Los Angeles Rams team website, his teams were the best in the conference across numerous statistical categories.
It was the best defense in the Pac-12 in 2018 in both total defense (301.8 yards per game) and points allowed (15.5). They were also second to the Pac-12 in passing yards allowed, rushing defense, and pass efficiency.
When Lake worked with Pete Kwiatkowski as co-defensive coordinator for the Huskies from 2016 to 2017, the Washington defense led the conference in both total defense or scoring defense.
In 2017, Washington came in the top 10 in the country in both of those categories. They were also ranked first in the country for the fewest kilometers allowed per completion. In the year previously, they had the most turnovers and takeaways of any FBS team.
In his two years as the coach in charge of the Huskies, 2020–2021, Lake had a 7–6 record. Washington had a 6-4 record in conference play. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lake only played in a few games during his two-season run.
With a 3-1 record, the Huskies did win the North Division. The team did not get to play in the conference championship, though, because COVID-19 spread through the team.
It went back to having nine games the following year. It’s now 4-5 for the Huskies, which puts them fifth within the Pac-12 North Division.
After taking a break from football for the 2022 season, Lake came back as a coach for Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams.
Lake was not paid for two weeks following Washington’s loss to Oregon on November 8, 2021, because of an incident with a player on the sidelines. Six days later, on November 14, 2021, he was fired from his job as head coach.
He was named assistant head coach of the Rams in February 2023. During the most recent season, when the Rams went 10-7 and made it to the NFC White Card round, he worked with Morris.
The Atlanta Falcons hired their coordinators less than a week after hiring their head coach. They chose people who looked a lot like the Los Angeles Rams.
To cut down on costs, the Pac-12 decided to play only seven games during the season.
Jimmy Lake, a former assistant head coach for the Rams, was named defensive coordinator by the Falcons on Monday.
He will work with new offensive assistant Zac Robinson, who also came from the Rams, where he served as the quarterbacks coach and running game coordinator.
They’ll work together again with Raheem Morris, who was hired as head coach of the Falcons last week after being the defensive coordinator for the Rams since 2021.
Lake was the head coach at the University of Washington from 2020 to 2021. Before that, he had been an assistant coach for six years in different roles, including two years as defensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019.