Kalen DeBoer to Alabama: 5 replacements for outgoing Washington head coach

1. Ryan Grubb is the most obvious choice to be promoted from within

This is the most logical move for Dannen to make. He should promote Grubb from within. Grubb was a candidate for other job openings this offseason, most notably Indiana and Oregon State. He is one of DeBoer's greatest proteges, one that could potentially sustain excellence at Washington. Although Washington has a bad history of promoting coordinators from within, Dannen could get a mulligan...

If Grubb were to fail like Jimmy Lake did after Chris Petersen decided to retire, Dannen should be afforded the opportunity to go completely off the board like his predecessor Jennifer Cohen did with DeBoer. Her hiring of DeBoer played a huge part in her getting the opportunity to replace Mike Bohn at USC. Dannen will not be punished too badly if he were to promote Grubb from within and he stinks.

While venturing outside of the Washington family has served the Huskies historically, I am not yet willing to let Grubb walk away just yet. This move does not reek of Jim Lambright, but I certainly feel a lot better about it than Oregon State replacing Jonathan Smith from within with Trent Bray. There are other quality candidates out there, but promoting Grubb from within makes the most logical sense.

We don't know if Grubb is going to be a great head coach, but Washington can afford to roll the dice.