Wilcox did help drastically improve the Huskies’ defense upon his arrival. Washington ranked 108th among FBS teams in scoring defense in 2011, the year before the program hired Wilcox, and vaulted up to the top 40 nationally in that category each of the next two seasons.

The Huskies’ national rank in total defense also improved from 106th to 31st from 2011 to 2012.

Similar to Aranda, Wilcox prefers to run his base defense in a 3-4 formation but will show multiple fronts.

When hired at USC, Wilcox told the Los Angeles Daily News the Trojans would start everything out of the 3-4 but that he believes in this age of football defenses must have the option to play both three- and four-man fronts.

Defensive line recruit Keldric Preston, a UW commitment, told the State Journal last week he was promised by UW coach Paul Chryst that the defensive scheme would not change from a year ago despite the coaching turnover.

Current UW outside linebackers coach Tim Tibesar was in the mix for the position and interviewed for the job, according to a source.