Marques Tuiasosopo will become Washington’s quarterbacks coach, the school announced Saturday. Contract negotiations are not yet finalized, but UCLA’s Y receivers coach will head back to his alma mater, where he will likely double his pay.
Tuiasosopo is a Husky legend who led Washington its last Rose Bowl win and was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year in 2000. He was also the first player in NCAA history to pass for 300 yards and run for 200 in the same game.
He made $100,000 at UCLA (via USA Today). The two assistants who recently left Washington, running backs coach Joel Thomas and wide receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty, each made just over $190,000 this year.
His father, Manu, was an all-conference defensive lineman for the Bruins in the late 1970s. Too long out of college to qualify as a graduate assistant, Tuiasosopo served as an intern under Rick Neuheisel last year. He was promoted to quarterbacks coach for the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
“I’m very excited to come back home to coach where I played and to help Coach Sarkisian continue to bring the Huskies back to where we belong: at the top of the Pac-12, in the Rose Bowl and competing for championships,” Tuiasosopo said in Washington’s official release. “I’m also happy to be coaching the position I love.”
“I’m very grateful to Jim Mora and UCLA for giving me the opportunity to get my first full-time coaching job.”
Tuiasosopo’s departure could affect the commitment of Bellevue’s outside linebacker Myles Jack. Rated four stars by Rivals and three stars by both Scout and ESPN, Jack said the coach had recruited him since “Day 1.”
“It has a big impact on me, because he recruited me. … I understand college football is a business and you’ve got to go where you’ve got to go,” he told ESPN after the news. “It is what it is. You can’t really pick your school off of coaches. Coaches are a big part, but you know coaches are going to come and go.”
Perhaps working in UCLA’s continued favor is that Jack attends the same high school as Jim Mora’s son. As a note, Mora had hired defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin away from Washington a year ago.