Verdict: Fisch faced the unenviable task of needing to rebuild massive parts of Washington’s roster after the departures for the NFL and movement in the transfer portal decimated some key positions. The lack of depth in certain areas became apparent as Fisch’s first season progressed. The Huskies were awful away from Husky Stadium going 0-6 in games not played on campus – which included a neutral site loss to rival Washington State at Lumen Field. Finishing 6-7, including a win over Michigan and Tuesday’s 35-34 loss to Louisville in the Sun Bowl, seemed an appropriate result to Fisch’s first season.
Farewell: Jake Dickert. On Dec. 18 and the Cougars less than 10 days from playing in a bowl game, Dickert departed Pullman for the chance to take over at Wake Forest. Dickert took the helm at Wazzu midway through the 2021 season when Nick Rolovich was dismissed for refusing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Dickert went 23-20 as the Cougars head coach but lost seven of eight to close 2023 and faded badly in 2024 after an 8-1 start. His departure was another blow to a program that already saw major losses via the transfer portal after the season, including quarterback John Mateer.
Farewell: Mike Hopkins. After seven seasons of mostly mediocre results, Hopkins was fired after going 17-15 in his final seasons in charge of the Huskies. Hopkins’ tenure could not have started much better winning 21 games in his first season and taking the Huskies to a Pac-12 regular-season title and NCAA tournament berth in 2018-19. But his success early rested mostly on the strength of players brought to Washington by former coach Lorenzo Romar and Hopkins never showed the ability to build an elite team despite at times having elite talent.
Verdict: The Kraken entered the Christmas break riding a five-game losing streak and quickly falling out of the playoff picture in the loaded Western Conference. (They’ve since won two straight and sit 17-19-2 with 36 points – on par with last season when they were 12-14-9 with 33 points at the holiday break.) Bylsma’s first three months have been defined by inconsistency and some key injuries. He’s shown a willingness to sit key players if they’re not playing to his standard. That’s not easy for a first-year coach to do. But something must change coming out of the break if the Kraken want to be relevant later in the season.
Verdict: Wilson was hired not as an interim but as the permanent manager, which provided a level of certainty and stability for the final 34 games where he was in charge. Wilson and the front office made Julio Rodríguez happy by finding a way for Edgar Martínez to return to oversee the hitters going into 2025, and keeping Pete Woodworth and the pitching brain trust was a significant victory. But last season was just a small sample for Wilson and the full grind of spring training and the ups and downs of a 162-game campaign will be the real test in 2025.
Hello: David Riley. After appearing to strike out on a few candidates because of Washington State’s conference uncertainty at the time, the Cougars finally settled on Riley, the 36-year-old who was a head coach for only three seasons at Eastern Washington before getting the chance to move down Highway 195. Riley was 62-38 in three seasons with the Eagles.
Verdict: Among midmajor coaches, no name was hotter than Sprinkle when he was hired by the Huskies. The concern was Sprinkle never coached for a Power Four program as an assistant or head coach. He jumped heavily into the transfer portal to rebuild the Huskies roster but the results so far are somewhat underwhelming. Washington is 8-4 and were thumped by UCLA and USC in its first two Big Ten Conference games, and lost to Seattle U for the first time since 1978. The Huskies’ best win was beating Washington State.
Some left voluntarily. Some were told their services were no longer necessary after long and successful tenures with their teams and organizations.
Remember the year 1992 around here? The year of Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and grunge becoming a thing. When “Singles” was a movie about Seattle and you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Baby Got Back” from another Seattle artist, one Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Seahawks

Hello: Jedd Fisch. Within 48 hours of DeBoer’s move to Alabama being finalized, Fisch was lured away from Arizona to take over at Washington. Fisch led a substantial turnaround at Arizona in his first full-time job as a head coach, taking the Wildcats from a one-win team in his first season to 10 wins and a victory in the Alamo Bowl. Fisch’s hiring was viewed as about as good as Washington could do considering the change came in mid-January and in the wake of the chaos from DeBoer’s departure.
Farewell: Pete Carroll. After 14 seasons, the most successful coach in Seahawks history and the only one to deliver a Super Bowl title was told it was time for a change in Renton. Carroll clearly wanted to stay, but ownership handed more control of the franchise to general manager John Schneider and allowed him to lead a different direction for the Seahawks. Carroll left with 137 regular-season wins, four division titles, 10 playoff victories and the admiration of an entire generation of Seahawks fans. But his teams had plateaued and there were questions as to whether his messaging had grown stale.
Hello: Dan Wilson. For now the best catcher in franchise history, Wilson left his role as special assignment coordinator and part-time TV analyst with the franchise for his first chance to be a manager at any level of baseball. The initial results were positive as the M’s closed the season 21-13 under Wilson but still wasn’t good enough to catch Houston in the AL West, or Detroit or Kansas City in the wild-card race.

Mariners

Later that month, a brash coach arrived from Spain as the permanent replacement for K.C. Jones as the head coach of the SuperSonics. His name was George Karl.
Farewell: Kyle Smith. Bringing his self-proclaimed “NerdBall” to the Palouse finally paid off for Smith and the Cougars in 2024 finishing second in the Pac-12 regular-season standings, earning their first NCAA men’s tournament bid since 2008 with a No. 7 seed, and reached the second round before falling to No. 2 seed Iowa State. Smith knew there would be opportunities to make a move from Pullman and jumped at the chance to return to the Bay Area. He was hired at Stanford almost immediately after the Cougars’ NCAA run came to an end.
And it was the year of upheaval among the coaches of the pro sports teams in Seattle.

Kraken

The turnover was the most significant seen in these parts in a generation. And they unquestionably charted a new course for the franchises and schools in this area moving forward.
Verdict: The Seahawks are 9-7, but they kicked away their chance at the playoffs. From one standpoint, it’s a successful first season at not taking a step back and keeping the franchise competitive right away. But it’s been a wildly inconsistent season with the Seahawks starting 3-0, losing five of the next six, winning four straight then losing consecutive home games with the playoffs at stake. They beat the bad teams they should, but their clear deficiencies have been exposed against the higher caliber teams they’ve faced. And the Seahawks went just 3-6 at home. How Macdonald adjusts in the offseason will be one of the major questions hanging over the franchise.
It started with the Seahawks and Tom Flores, who was already the general manager, hiring himself as the new head coach replacing Chuck Knox in early January 1992.

UW football

And in November came the capper. A baseball team with arguably the best position player in the game in center field and a dominant lefty on the mound brought in a manager with gravitas to replace Bill Plummer. Welcome to Seattle, Lou Piniella.
Hello: Jimmy Rogers. There were plenty of rumors floating about who would take over, including rumors centered on Missouri offensive coordinator and Prosser native Kirby Moore, former WSU assistant Jeff Choate, Montana State coach Brent Vigen and former Seahawks coach Jim Mora. The Cougars instead hired Rogers, who won an FCS title at South Dakota State in 2023 in his first year as head coach before finishing 12-3 in 2024.
Farewell: Kalen DeBoer. On Jan. 8, 2024, Washington lost to Michigan 34-13 in the College Football Playoff championship game. Four days later, DeBoer was announced as the new head coach at Alabama. The unexpected retirement of Nick Saban led to a chain reaction throughout college football that eventually made its way to Montlake when the Crimson Tide crested with an offer that sent DeBoer to the SEC and triggered a massive fallout for the Huskies in the wake of the championship game loss.

WSU football

Hello: Dan Bylsma. The coach of the Kraken’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley was brought north and handed control of an NHL franchise for the first time since 2016-17 season with Buffalo. Bylsma took Coachella Valley to back-to-back Calder Cup final appearances in the first two years of the Firebirds and has the pedigree of winning a Stanley Cup from his time as head coach in Pittsburgh.
Hello: Danny Sprinkle. After just one season at Utah State that included a Mountain West regular-season title and NCAA bid, Sprinkle was hired to take over at the school where his dad played football in the late 1960s. The built-in family connection certainly helped sell the hire, and between his work at Montana State and Utah State previously, Sprinkle has shown he can find success quickly.
Here’s a look back at the past year, who left their post, who was hired and what the overall result has been.

UW men’s basketball

Farewell: Dave Hakstol. The first coach in franchise history, Hakstol was dumped after the third season for the Kraken was a backslide toward the bottom of the Western Conference standings. The Kraken suffered a 19-point regression from year two when the team unexpectedly earned 101 points and made the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Kraken also played a bland style of hockey under Hakstol, which didn’t help create any entertainment value while watching a struggling team. GM Ron Francis didn’t want to dismiss Hakstol after three seasons, but it seemed a necessary move for the team’s future.
Hello: Mike Macdonald. Hired as the youngest head coach in the NFL at age 37, Macdonald joined the Seahawks after two seasons as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore. Macdonald was one of the hottest young commodities on the coaching market last season and Schneider latched part of his legacy to choosing Macdonald to lead the next chapter of the Seahawks. He brought on board a trio of first-time coordinators at the NFL level in Ryan Grubb (offensive), Aden Durdee (defensive) and Jay Harbaugh (special teams), and hired veteran coach Leslie Frazier as assistant head coach to round out the key spots on his coaching staff.
Verdict: Riley did a good job of rebuilding the roster after some significant departures in the transfer portal and so far, the Cougars have been pretty good. They are 12-3 including wins at Nevada and Boise State. The Cougars are dealing with injuries, including losing Cedric Coward for the season to a shoulder injury, but Riley is showing the acumen to make his team competitive considering the circumstances.

WSU men’s basketball

It took 32 years for a trifecta of coaching change to hit Seattle’s pro teams again. But in 2024, it didn’t just impact the Seahawks, Mariners and now the Kraken. The coaching chaos was even more volatile, including the football and men’s basketball programs at both Washington and Washington State. Even the athletic directors at both schools changed.
Verdict: Dickert leaving continued to highlight the difficult predicament Washington State football faces for at least one more year. Without a conference and without the financial means of major Power Four programs, the Cougars are stuck in a challenging purgatory of being good enough to deserve national recognition and consideration, but still lacking the resources and cache to keep from being raided in the current climate of college football. Rogers will have to navigate one more season as essentially an independent program before the rebuilt Pac-12 comes to life in 2026.
Farewell: Scott Servais. The second-longest tenure for a manager in franchise history came to an end when Servais was fired in August with the Mariners in the midst of a summer malaise. The M’s were 64-64 when Servais was fired in the middle of his ninth season and finished his tenure with a 680-642 record. Servais went through a teardown and rebuild, won 90 games twice and will forever be remembered as the manager that ended the 21-year playoff drought in 2022. Only Piniella had a longer tenure as manager of the M’s.