Tony Washington - Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach - Football Coaches

Tony Washington

Title:
Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach
Email:
lufootball@liberty.edu
Start Date:
01/01/2023

Tony Washington helped Liberty to unprecedented heights during his first season on the Mountain at Passing Game Coordinator and Wide Receivers Coach in 2023.

Liberty entered bowl season with a perfect 13-0 record and was one of four undefeated teams in the country, joining Florida State, Washington and eventual national champion Michigan.

Washington helped the Flames to an unblemished 8-0 regular season record in Conference USA and a 49-35 win over New Mexico State in the CUSA Football Championship game.

The team’s success positioned the Flames to receive their first-ever invitation to play in a New Year’s Six bowl game. Liberty squared off against No. 8 Oregon in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on January 1 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

The Flames’ spread option offense allowed Liberty to finish the 2023 season ranked No. 1 in the country in rushing, averaging 293.3 yards per game. Liberty finished the year rushing for a program-record 4,106 yards and 39 touchdowns.

Additionally, Liberty ranked No. 1 in tackles for a loss allowed (2.64 per game), No. 2 in sacks allowed (0.64 per game), No. 2 in passing yards per completion (16.19), No. 3 in winning percentage (92.9), No. 4 in total offense (499.1 yards per game), No. 4 in first down offense (348), No. 8 in time of possession (33:04) and No. 9 scoring offense (38.3 points per game).

Washington’s wide receivers played a vital role in the Flames setting a school record with 32 receiving touchdowns. Conference USA second-team all-conference wide receiver CJ Daniels led the Flames in receiving with 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns. Daniels became the 10^th Flame in program history to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a season.

Washington rejoined Jamey Chadwell’s staff at Liberty after spending the 2022 season on the sidelines in Morgantown, W.Va. with the Mountaineers of West Virginia.

Washington helped coach Bryce Ford-Wheaton to All-Big 12 second-team honors where he finished the 2022 season with 62 receptions for 675 yards and seven touchdowns.

In total, Washington had three wide receivers finish the 2022 season with 500+ receiving yards. In addition to Ford-Wheaton’s numbers, Sam James finished the year with 745 receiving yards with six touchdowns and Kaden Prather added 501 yards and three touchdowns. His wide receivers had a combined 20 receiving touchdowns.

During his first stint as a part of Chadwell’s staff, Washington helped Coastal Carolina post a combined 22-3 record during the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

The Chanticleers made the program’s first two bowl game appearances in 2020 and 2021, including a win over Northern Illinois, 47-41, in the 2021 Tailgreeter Cure Bowl.

In 2021, the Chanticleers’ offense was one of the most explosive units in the nation, ranking among the top FBS teams in a variety of categories.

Washington’s receivers were a vital part of the Chanticleer’s high-powered offense, as Jaivon Heiligh led the squad with 66 catches for 1,128 yards and seven touchdowns. Heiligh earned honorable mention All-America honors and All-Sun Belt Conference honors for the second straight year.

In his first season at the beach in 2020, the Chanticleers won the program’s first-ever Sun Belt Conference title, posted an 11-1 overall mark, including an 8-0 Sun Belt Conference record, and played in the program’s first-ever FBS postseason bowl game.

The 2020 season marked Coastal Carolina’s first-ever undefeated regular season and the first time that the Chanticleers were ranked in either the Associated Press Top 25 Poll or the Amway Coaches Poll presented by USA Today Sports.

The Chanticleers posted two wins over FBS top 25 nationally-ranked opponents, the first two such victories in program history, four wins over top 50 opponents, and was ranked as high as No. 9 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and No. 11 in the Amway Coaches Poll, both Sun Belt Conference records. The Chanticleers were also ranked as high as No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings, also a Sun Belt record.

Overall, the offense in 2020 led the conference in scoring offense (37.2 points per game), third-down conversion percentage (52.3 percent), fourth-down conversion percentage (76.5 percent), time of possession (33:50), completion percentage (66.6 percent), fewest interceptions thrown (5), and team passing efficiency (177.72).

Coastal Carolina was second in the league for the year in red-zone offense (88.3 percent), and second in both sacks allowed per game (1.17) and tackles-for-loss allowed per game (4.33) on the year. The Chants also ranked third in the conference in total offense (449.8 yards per game) and rushing offense (218.3 yards per game), both of which ranked in the top 25 nationally.

Washington saw junior Jaivon Heiligh and redshirt senior Greg Latushko, along with veterans Kameron Brown and Sam Denmark, emerge as vital weapons on the outside for the Chanticleers in a season that saw the wide receivers corps. ravaged with multiple season-ending injuries.

Heiligh, who picked up first-team All-Sun Belt honors, led the offense with a team-high 65 receptions for 998 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. He averaged 15.4 yards per catch and 83.2 yards per game on his way to becoming just the 12th Chanticleer in program history to eclipse 1,000-career receiving yards. He also became just the sixth Chanticleer in program history to record over 100 pass receptions.

Heiligh, who was named to the 2020 Biletnikoff Award watch list, not only led the team in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in 2020, but he did it in record-setting fashion by setting a new CCU single-game record with 13 receptions, breaking his own record of 12 set in 2019, and recorded a new career-high of 178 receiving yards at the FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl versus No. 23 Liberty (Dec. 26, 2020). Both his receptions and receiving yards versus the Flames were also new Cure Bowl records.

After putting together an outstanding collegiate resume at Appalachian State from 2009-13, Washington spent the majority of his NFL professional career with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Indianapolis Colts in 2014, Washington was picked up by the Jaguars later that summer before being acquired by the New England Patriots in 2017.

Washington was a multiple All-Southern Conference pick while at App State earning all-conference accolades in both 2012 and 2013, and was chosen to play in the NFLPA Collegiate Senior Bowl.

His name is still etched in the Appalachian State record book, ranking in the top 10 in most pass receptions in a game (10), most pass receptions in a season (64), and most career receiving yards (1,837).

Washington also ranks in the top 10 in the Mountaineers’ record books in several special teams categories including most kickoff return yards in a season (654), most kickoff return yards in a career (1,289), most kickoff returns in a season (31), most kickoff returns in a career (55), most yards per kickoff return in a season (27.3), most yards per kickoff return in a career (23.4), and the longest kickoff return (99).

Washington earned several accolades for his performance in the classroom, including SoCon All-Academic, Capital One All-District Academic, and ADA FCS All-Star Academic honors, along with being the 2013 recipient of the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Award & Scholarship. Washington was a Dean’s List student who also captured the school’s Science Building Most Outstanding Student Award.

In the community, Washington has served in mentorship and coaching roles for the Cheryl Littlejohn Kids Camp, Danny O’Brien Elite High School Football Academy, and the Jacksonville Jaguars Community Outreach Program. In 2015, he served as a special guest speaker and receivers coach for the Nike Opening Orlando event.

Washington, who prepped at T. Wingate Andrews High School in High Point, N.C., earned dual bachelor’s degrees in architecture & design technology and construction management from Appalachian State in 2013. He graduated with a 3.83 grade point average.

Washington and his wife, Tiffany, have two children – TJ and Langston.

Washington at a Glance
Coaching Experience:

2023-24 – Liberty (WR)
2022 – West Virginia (WR)
2020-21 – Coastal Carolina (WR)
2019 – Louisville (GA)

Education: Bachelor's degree in architecture & design technology and construction management (Appalachian State, '13)
Wife: Tiffany
Children: TJ and Langston
Hometown: High Point, N.C.