Washington athletic director Jen Cohen issued a statement in the aftermath of a sideline incident in which coach Jimmy Lake appeared to make physical contact with redshirt freshman linebacker Ruperake Fuavai during the team's 26—16 loss to Oregon.
"We are aware of an interaction between head coach Jimmy Lake and a student-athlete during the first half of Saturday's game," Cohen said in a statement. "We have high expectations of the conduct of our coaches and we are working to gather more information on this matter."
In the first half, Lake rushed to break up a skirmish between Washington and Oregon players and in doing so appeared to hit Fuavai in the facemask. Then, after Fuavai backed away from an opposing player, Lake pushed Fuavai toward the bench.
When asked if he regretted striking Fuavai during a postgame interview, Lake said: “I separated them. I didn’t strike him. I separated them.”
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"I went in to separate them and push them back. After that, we settled down a little bit," Lake added. "That was our deal all week long was, 'We got to have poise.' We knew this was going to be a very heated matchup and there was going to be a lot of trash talking. And when we stepped in there, we were glad that a penalty wasn't thrown on our guys to put us back even further on that kickoff return."
Lake, 44, has been with the university since 2014, serving in a number of roles including as the team's defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. He has been the head coach since the start of last season.
With the win, Oregon moved to 8—1 on the season. Washington dropped to 4—5 with the loss.
