Oklahoma football: The skinny on OU WR Coach L’Damian Washington

Cale Gundy has been a part of the Oklahoma football coaching staff since 1999.

His resignation shook Sooner Nation on Sunday evening, which carried strong emotional debates among fans, an outpouring of support from high-profile players such as Joe Mixon, Adrian Peterson, Dede Westbrook, and more.

Cale had been a jack of all trades guy for the Sooners, filling in different roles over the years, wherever he was needed. Oklahoma fans should always appreciate Cale for what he has done, and time will heal these wounds caused by the incident that led to his resignation.

On his way out the door, Cale left Sooner Nation with one more gift to help propel the Sooners as he hand-picked interim WR coach L’Damian Washington, who I believe will not have that interim tag for long.

Who is L’Damian Washington?

Washington is 31 and one of four brothers who grew up together in Shreveport, Louisiana. Washington spent six seasons chasing his dream of playing professional football, bouncing around the NFL, and having stints in the Canadian Football League, AAF, and the XFL. Ultimately with XFL suspending football operations, L’Damian decided to take his passion for football into the coaching arena.

He played his collegiate career at Missouri under Tiger head coach Gary Pinkel and had an outstanding senior season. He racked up nearly 900 receiving yards on 50 catches which included ten touchdowns. He was named a captain on that team, as they went on to win the SEC East Division and ended with a 12-2 record.

Washington’s path to this point was never easy, as he had as hard of a road as you could imagine. When he was just six years old, his father was murdered, and at 15, his mother had a stroke during one of his basketball games, which resulted in her untimely passing. In the same year, he lost his best friend to another homicide case, and his brother, just 19 at the time, assumed custody for his final three years of youth.

Washington, of course, would end up at Missouri, where he would battle some injuries but eventually break out as a senior and earn his degree in psychology.

Before coming to Oklahoma, he worked as an analyst at Missouri and Southern. He was the head coach at West Middle School in Columbia, Missouri, and spent time as a public speaker. Washington has dealt with unprecedented adversity but still shows a kind heart and the drive to help others; he is truly a remarkable young man.

What does L’Damian Washington bring to the table?

It’s no secret that there was no plan to hire Washington for this role anytime soon. He is a young and new coach who was supposed to be an offensive analyst and then eventually get an opportunity either at Oklahoma or elsewhere down the line. Getting an on-field position this quickly is not something that was anticipated. Still, his level of maturity and life experiences certainly make him prime to excel in the opportunity he has been afforded.

Washington is very well respected already among the players in the position group; he has slid right in. While many players love Cale Gundy and will miss him, they have taken to Washington, who, by all reports, did a great job in his first practice running things on his own for the room.

He is exceptionally bright from an Xs and Os and technique standpoint. After all, attention to detail continued to lead to several opportunities to play pro football, do public speaking, and be thought of as an up-and-comer in the coaching ranks. He is an excellent communicator, which should translate well as a teacher.

Washington also brings a precious component to Oklahoma; he is highly respected in coaching circles in the state of Missouri. Oklahoma regularly recruits in Kansas City and St Louis, among other places in the state. Washington opens more doors for the Sooners in that state, which will be a big deal, as we saw five-star Luther Burden flip his commitment from Oklahoma to Missouri last fall. With Washington in place, would such a flip have happened? Perhaps, but the Sooners’ chances go up in that scenario.

Will there be fallout from this situation?

It may be too early to have a definitive answer, but it appears to be trending in the right direction for the Sooners. Jaquaize Pettaway sent an alarming tweet the other night but has not pulled the trigger on a decommitment, perhaps largely due to his relationship with five-star QB commit Jackson Arnold. Things still appear to be trending the Sooner’s way for Evans, and Brown remains strong. OU is closing this class out most likely with one more commitment, so a bullet may be dodged there when it comes to any immediate consequence.

On the field of play, we will have to wait and see. Still, Washington was a captain for an SEC division champion at Missouri. Cale Gundy played QB at Oklahoma and was the RB coach for over a decade before transitioning to an inside WR role in 2015. While Cale has vastly more experience coaching and was a proven top performer as an assistant, one could argue that L’Damian Washington can bring something to the table that Gundy could not due to his play experience. A drop-off on the field for WR play is not anticipated or expected for Oklahoma.

If things do not go as planned for L’Damian and Oklahoma, next offseason, you could see the Sooners go after Malcolm Kelly, among other candidates. Kelly is one of the most respected WR coaches in the country, and TCU would undoubtedly fight tooth and nail to keep the Sooner alumn. However, the plan appears that Oklahoma will give L’Damian a go.

If he does a great job and continues to build strong relationships with his players, Washington should have the inside path to a permanent position. Washington knows a thing or two about handling challenging life situations and adversity; he will be asked to shoulder a tough burden. I would bet on success after all this is the man Cale Gundy himself hand-picked to be his right-hand man.