Sources: Utah State’s Sprinkle accepts UW job

Utah State‘s Danny Sprinkle has accepted the head coaching job at Washington, sources told ESPN.

Sprinkle had emerged as one of the hottest candidates on the carousel this spring after leading Utah State to its first-ever outright Mountain West regular-season title in his first season with the program. He also led the Aggies to their first NCAA tournament win since 2001, beating TCU on Friday, 88-72.

Utah State’s season ended Sunday with a 106-67 loss to top-seeded Purdue.

When Sprinkle took over at Utah State last spring, he returned zero players who scored a point for the Aggies last season. He brought starters Great Osobor and Darius Brown II with him from Montana State, and then hit the transfer portal to round out the rest of his roster. After being picked ninth in the preseason Mountain West poll, Utah State started the season 16-1 and won the Mountain West at 14-4 in league play.

He was named Mountain West Coach of the Year award earlier this month.

Prior to taking over in Logan, Sprinkle was the head coach at Montana State for four seasons, leading the Bobcats to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. They won the Big Sky regular-season and conference tournament titles in 2022, then finished second in 2023 before winning their second straight conference tournament. The 2022 regular-season championship was the program’s first title since 2002.

Sprinkle also spent time as an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Montana State.

Sprinkle, whose father played football at Washington in the 1960s, is replacing Mike Hopkins. Hopkins was let go earlier this month after seven seasons in Seattle, leading the Huskies to an NCAA tournament appearance in 2019.