October 27, 2008

Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

With Tyrone Willingham on the way out at Washington, speculation now begins as to his replacement. The first two calls Washington president Mark Emmert should make are to Seattle Seahawks secondary coach Jim Mora and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel.

Mora is the coach-in-waiting for the Seahawks, but he's also a Washington alum who played defensive back for the school from 1980-83. His dad of the same name was a Washington assistant from 1975-77, and the younger Mora also attended junior high and high school in the Seattle area.

After his days as a Huskies defensive back, Mora was a graduate assistant for Washington in 1984 before beginning his NFL coaching career in 1985.

In 2006, while in his third season as coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Mora told a Seattle radio station that he would be interested in the Huskies' coaching job ? going so far as to say he would take the job even if the Falcons were in a playoff run. He later claimed he was joking, but it engendered some bad feelings with the Falcons' ownership and front office and he was fired after the season.

Mora was hired by the Seahawks in January of this season, and a few weeks later, the Seahawks announced he would take over as coach for the 2009 season.

Pinkel, meanwhile, was an assistant from 1979-90 for the Huskies under Don James, serving as wide receivers coach from 1979-83 and as offensive coordinator for the rest of his tenure. He was coach at Toledo from 1991-2000, when he was hired at Mizzou.

While Pinkel has a good thing going in Columbia, you have to wonder if this is as good as it will get for him at Mizzou. If Pinkel can't get the program over the hump this year with the best quarterback, tight end and wide receiver in school history, it probably never is going to happen. The college football cognoscenti know Washington is a better job than the one he has.

Montana's Bobby Hauck could be a factor at Washington, too. He has continued to build a strong resume in Missoula and is primed for a move to the FBS (i.e., Division I-A) ranks. Hauck almost got the Stanford job that went to Jim Harbaugh.

? RELATED: Willingham out at Washington

Tom Dienhart is a national senior writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dienhart@yahoo-inc.com.