NEW ORLEANS — Within a private room inside one of the most lavish crew facilities in all of college sports, a crowded room of donors supporting Washington Huskies athletics gathered around their new football coach in a welcome reception — a traditional meeting they held after the hiring of each new coach dating back decades.
Suddenly, and without much warning, one man rose from his seat and threw his raised arms into the air as if signaling a made field goal. The man next to him immediately followed, then the next and next and so on until this chain reaction made its way completely around the room.