{"id":757743,"date":"2026-02-17T07:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757743\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T07:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:27:15","slug":"lsu-assistant-has-change-of-heart-about-joining-commanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757743\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU assistant has change of heart about joining Commanders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, it appeared that new <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/washington-commanders\/363\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Washington Commanders;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Washington Commanders<\/a> defensive coordinator Daronte Jones <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/commanders-hire-lsu-assistant-defensive-030006795.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:added a name to his coaching staff;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">added a name to his coaching staff<\/a> with whom he&#8217;d had a prior connection. LSU safeties coach Jake Olsen had reportedly agreed to a role on Washington&#8217;s staff.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it appears Olsen has had a change of heart, according to Pete Nakos on On3. Matt Zenitz initially reported that Olsen &#8220;was set to leave&#8221; LSU for Washington, but that it was not official.<\/p>\n<p>Zenitz said new LSU head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mzenitz\/status\/2023583504357851392\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lane Kiffin worked hard;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Lane Kiffin worked hard<\/a> to keep Olsen after he initially agreed to leave for Washington. Olsen has been LSU&#8217;s safeties coach for the past two seasons and also served as a defensive analyst at LSU in 2021, when Jones was the defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Olsen wasn&#8217;t heading to the Commanders to become the safeties coach, as Tommy Donatell holds that position. It wasn&#8217;t reported what his job title would be, but he could&#8217;ve been an assistant defensive backs coach or a quality control assistant.<\/p>\n<p>One of the players Olsen coached at LSU last season, safety A.J. Haulcy, is expected to be selected sometime on Day 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Olsen began coaching in 2013 at Valley City State, working his way up the ladder and spending the past five seasons in the SEC, including two at Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/commanderswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/commanders\/2026\/02\/16\/washington-commanders-lsu-assistant-change-of-heart\/88713243007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Washington Commanders: LSU assistant will remain in college;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Washington Commanders: LSU assistant will remain in college<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the weekend, it appeared that new Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Daronte Jones added a name to his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,93687,2792,7,107670,978,6,13159,37557,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-757743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-daronte-jones","10":"tag-defensive-coordinator","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jake-olsen","13":"tag-lsu","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pete-nakos","16":"tag-safeties-coach","17":"tag-washington","18":"tag-washington-commanders","19":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116084791438694026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}