Fast Break

College football

UW lures Holt from Trojans

The Unversity of Washington announced Monday that Nick Holt (pictured) is leaving USC to become the new defensive coordinator at Washington, plucked away by new Huskies head coach Steve Sarkisian, another former Trojans assistant.

Holt replaces Ed Donatell, who was not retained after Sarkisian was hired in early December.

Holt previously was a defensive coordinator and head coach at Idaho. Aside from a 5-18 stint as head coach at Idaho in 2004-05, Holt has been on the staff at USC since 2001.

Part of the reason Holt is believed to be leaving the Trojans is a chance to run the defense himself. Despite being the defensive coordinator at USC, Holt often shared those duties with head coach Pete Carroll.

College football

Cougars add SMU to slate

Washington State has finalized its non-conference football schedule for the fall by adding a home game with Southern Methodist University on Sept. 19.

The Mustangs, 1-11 in coach June Jones’ first year, join Hawaii (Sept. 12 in Seattle) and Notre Dame (Oct. 31 in San Antonio) as the Cougars’ non-conference opponents. The Pac-10 schedule has yet to be approved by the league office, but the Cougars are tentatively scheduled to host Stanford on Sept. 5 to open conference.

SMU, a Conference USA member, and WSU have never played. The Halloween contest with Notre Dame (7-6 in 2008) will be the second between the schools, with the Irish winning 29-26 in South Bend, Ind., in 2003.

The Cougars lost 24-10 at Hawaii (7-7) last season.