Washington Huskies promote Jimmie Dougherty to offensive coordinator

If someone told Jimmie Dougherty that — one day — he’d be the offensive coordinator at the University of Washington, he isn’t sure he would have believed them.
Back in 2009, Dougherty arrived at UW to become Steve Sarkisian’s wide receivers coach. It was a breakthrough moment for Dougherty, his first FBS job after seven seasons working his way through Division III and FCS football.
Nearly a decade and a half later, Dougherty will assume the title he never imagined holding.
“To think now I have this opportunity to be the offensive coordinator is beyond my wildest dreams, really,” Dougherty said. “It’s a huge honor, one that I take very seriously.”
Dougherty, who spent the past season as UW’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, was announced as Washington’s new offensive coordinator by coach Jedd Fisch on Monday. He replaces Brennan Carroll, who departed to become the offensive line coach for the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday morning.
“Having Jimmie as our offensive coordinator means a great deal to me,” Fisch said.
Dougherty endured a long journey back to Washington and an offensive coordinator title.
His first stint with the Huskies was reasonably successful. Jermaine Kearse racked up a majority of his 2,871 career yards while under Dougherty’s tutelage, and he also helped UW sign Kasen Williams and Jaydon Mickens.
Dougherty departed UW after the 2012 season, coinciding with Sarkisian’s exit to become the coach at USC. But unlike Justin Wilcox, Peter Sirmon, Johnny Nansen and Keith Heyward, Dougherty didn’t follow Sarkisian to Southern California.
Instead, he became the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at San Jose State, reuniting with former San Diego coach Ron Caragher. Dougherty went back to coaching wide receivers in 2015 before becoming an offensive analyst at Michigan for another former San Diego coach he’d previously worked for, Jim Harbaugh, in 2016.
At Michigan, Dougherty connected with Fisch, who was coaching wide receivers and quarterbacks. Fisch said he considered Dougherty a “fantastic” football coach during their time together with the Wolverines, so he made sure to bring Dougherty with him to UCLA a year later.
While Fisch only spent one season with the Bruins before moving on to the NFL, Dougherty spent four seasons at UCLA coaching wide receivers including future first-team All-Pac-12 receiver Kyle Phillips and Chase Cota.
Fisch said Dougherty was the first person he asked to join the staff at Arizona after Fisch was hired by the Wildcats before the 2021 season. When Fisch accepted the coaching job at UW before the 2024 campaign, Dougherty was “the first person on the plane” to Seattle.
“Certainly excited about the opportunity to have him lead the offense as we move forward,” Fisch said.
The UW coach isn’t the only one happy to endorse Dougherty as the Huskies’ new offensive coordinator. Tight ends coach Jordan Paopao, who was recruited by Dougherty to San Diego as a player, said his trust in Dougherty is “unwavering,” especially after spending the past three seasons coaching alongside him at Arizona and now UW.
“Very seldomly do you get a chance to work with guys that you trust, that you love, that you’ve grown with over the better part of a decade,” Paopao said, “and that’s what we have.”
Added quarterback Demond Williams Jr.: “I feel like Jimmie D’s the type of guy that’s going to be the same person every day, regardless of his role or what he has going on. That’s what I love about him.”
Dougherty, like Paopao, believes internal promotions will help with offensive cohesion entering 2025.
Paopao, running backs coach Scottie Graham and wide receivers coach Kevin Cummings have been with Dougherty and Fisch since 2021. Newly promoted offensive line coach Michael Switzer first joined Fisch’s staff as a senior offensive analyst in 2022.
“There’s confidence when you’ve done it together, when you’ve been through a rebuild together,” Dougherty said. “You started from the bottom and took it to a certain height. We know what it looks like. We know what it takes.”
While Dougherty’s role won’t change too drastically with the promotion — Fisch will continue to be the team’s offensive play caller — the newly anointed offensive coordinator said he’s excited to take a larger role in guiding the offense and translating Fisch’s offensive ideas onto the gridiron.
Dougherty also admitted the Huskies fell short of their offensive expectations in 2024. UW averaged 23.4 points per game a season ago, 12th among Big Ten teams, despite their 390.5 total yards per game ranking sixth in the conference.
And while Washington will have a full season with Williams under center, the Huskies and Dougherty have to replace important skill-position players like receivers Giles Jackson and Jeremiah Hunter and tight end Keleki Latu, along with navigating a highly scrutinized offensive line.
“Our offense was not what we envisioned last year in terms of production,” he said. “We know there’s things we have to be better at, and we will be better at. We know this process works.”