DawgmanRadio: An exclusive conversation with Jen Cohen

It feels counterintuitive, but there’s usually more going on during the off-season than during the season. And when it comes to Washington Football, that certainly seems to be true right now. Now only are the Huskies in the middle of a search to replace their defensive coordinator, Pete Kwiatkowski, who left to do the same job at Texas, but it’s all being done at the same time the news came down that Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott would be leaving his post at the end of June. In this exclusive conversation with Washington Athletic Director Jen Cohen, Dawgman.com’s Kim Grinolds asks Cohen for her take on the timing of the news, whether she would ever be interested in becoming Pac-12 Commissioner, and whether or not she could see former UW Head Coach Chris Petersen in the same post. Talk then turned to Kwiatkowski and what the Huskies can do financially to attract a top assistant to replace arguably one of the best defensive coordinators in the country. The 2020 season was a short one for the Huskies. They finished 3-1 in Jimmy Lake’s first year as UW’s head coach. Cohen talked about her take on the season and then gave her two cents - and a lot more - on the transfer portal, players dealing with the coronavirus bubble on campus, homesickness, and how all of that can take a toll on student-athletes. In the next segment of the conversation, Grinolds moves the talk to basketball and whether or not Men’s Head Coach Mike Hopkins is on the hot seat. Cohen gives an emphatic answer to that question. She also goes into some detail into not only the new basketball operations building, which will be built where the old swimming pool is on the east end of Hec Edmundson Pavilion, but also the new Softball Performance Center, which will be next to the Dempsey Indoor Facility. For the final segment of the conversation, Grinolds goes back to football to ask about whether or not Cohen envisions fans being in the stands for the 2021 season, and talk then turns to when the Michigan game will be replayed, future scheduling thoughts, and also information on some “virtual” events for Signing Day and Spring Football that will engage fans, despite not being able to attend due to the coronavirus.