Demitri Washington: The Book Guy
Former Boise State EDGE rusher joined the Boise State coaching staff after his playing career was over. But he quickly filled a unique role in the program.
Chris Kutz
Demitri Washington sits at his desk in the defensive coaches meeting room at 5:15 a.m., earbuds in, surrounded by spreadsheets and color-coded charts. But instead of studying in silence, he’s blasting a variety of fight songs available through a Spotify playlist while working through fourth-down scenarios.
Washington is a Boise State graduate. He is also not a university marching band aficionado. The unusual soundtrack for analytics works is essential to his preparation.
By title, Washington is the assistant EDGE coach. He is in his second year on the coaching staff after playing six seasons as a Bronco. The Solana Beach, Calif. product played in 42 career games for Boise State and was a five-time Academic All-Mountain West honoree off the field.
But his role with Boise State is one-of-one on the coaching staff. He’s known as the “Book Guy.”
The “book” that Washington is responsible for is a binder of analytics. He is the keeper of the “book” – which is actually a three-inch, three-ring binder.
The “book” is produced by Championship Analytics, Inc. (CAI), a company founded in 2011. Boise State is like nearly every Division I FBS team - among others - who subscribe to the products and services of CAI as they provide decision-making matrices and charts for coaching staffs that help them understand game situations and plan accordingly.
When Washington studied to learn how to use the “book,” he would blast opposing teams’ fight songs to mimic the under-pressure moments in a game. When a high-pressure moment presents itself in a game, and the Boise State coaches are asking Washington for his recommendation based on what the “book” says, it’s not going to be quiet in his ears. He had to replicate the moments any way he could.
Following his playing career ending during the 2023 season, a rollercoaster career that was hindered by injuries towards the end, Washington joined the Boise State coaching staff in January 2024.
As an assistant EDGE coach and defensive quality control coach, his role is a little bit of everything. But a conversation with head coach Spencer Danielson in the break room quickly added a new wrinkle to his job duties.
“One day we're getting coffee, Coach D comes up to me, said, ‘Are you pretty analytical?’” said Washington. “I said, ‘I'd say so.’ And then the next day, I got a call from Coach D. ‘Hey, Rob Ash is going to call you in a couple days, and he's going to try to set you up on this deal and kind of talk you through what your job is going to be during the season.’”
Ash is the Director of Coaching Development for CAI. He was a college football coach for 36 years, working his way up from Juniata College in Huntington, Penn. in the 1980s to his final head coaching stop at Montana State from 2007 to 2015. He is responsible for creating the CAI’s football strategy curriculum that trains people across the country on how to use the “book.”
Ash called Washington one day when he was getting dinner. He stepped outside, got quickly caught up on what to expect, and he was off and running.
The training for the “book” is full of videos, tutorials and tests. Washington became obsessed with understanding and moving through the book, only accepting perfect scores by him while taking the tests on each section. This is where he would use schools’ fight songs as a way to create a simulated stressful situation.
“This was going to be my first year of any form of coaching so I didn’t know what it was truly like on the sideline,” said Washington. “I could hear (the fight songs) blaring, so I could do the math and all that stuff as I was going through the test.
“My Spotify (Wrapped) list for that year, where it shows all your favorite songs, half of them were fight songs.”
The “book” for Washington changes each week based on the opponent. Each Monday, Washington receives what is called the “settings sheet” around noon Mountain Time. This is essentially the raw data that will become that week’s strategic bible. Washington reviews all the data along with some of the coaches to approve what is spelled out based on the upcoming opponent and game details. Once approved, Washington sends it back to CAI.
By Monday night, he receives an emailed PDF with the previously confirmed data into the week’s personalized version of the “book.” A color-coded guide that will influence every major decision head coach Spencer Danielson makes during that week’s game. Each week, 64 pages change based on the game. Another five pages dedicated to first half scenario planning do not change while another 20 pages for second-half situations also remain the same.
Throughout the week’s practices, Washington is utilizing the “book” for the upcoming game during certain play periods and talking to Danielson as situations arise. Then, every Thursday, there is a meeting with Danielson, the coordinators and Washington to go through the different situations. They ask themselves questions such as “What would our mindset be here?” or “Would we do what the ‘book’ is telling us?” or “Do we agree or disagree with the ‘book’?”
“Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't (agree with the ‘book’) and that's something that it's dependent on the team,” said Washington. "No team is going to be 100% focused on the ‘book’ and follow it completely. The ‘book’ is just an aid for you honestly, and at the end of the day, it's your team. What's required for your team to be successful, and things that you need to make to put your team in the best spot.”
From Thursday to Saturday, Washington is nose-deep in the ”book” to prepare as much as possible. He wants to know as many situations as possible and what the “book” might suggest. From play-calling based on field position, to fourth downs, to timeouts, to two-point conversions, Washington has to be up to speed on all of it.
“Once you kind of get a good feel for the book, (CAI) does a really, really good job making it very user friendly,” said Washington. “So once you get kind of a good feel, you don't really memorize it. You just say, like, you have to know the process of how to find stuff.”
The “book” resembles a heat map more than a traditional playbook. Green zones indicate aggressive recommendations, yellow suggests caution, red means conservative play. But as games progress and situations intensify, Washington can't rely on colors alone.
“When it gets dicey, like later in the game or under a minute, you can't just look at the color,” Washington explains. “You have to be calm because then you have to think: What's the time? What's my recommendation here? What's the decision if I'm in this time slot?”
Washington follows Danielson along the sideline for the entirety of the games. Part his shadow, but more importantly, part his real-time aide.
“At the end of the day, I'm just an aide for Coach D to make his game time decisions and for him to put us in the right spot,” said Washington. “He’s going to go with his gut feeling, but it's my job to tell him different things that would help him, tell him a different way he can see it, or show why we want to do that. There are ways for me to just kind of be a helping hand.”
Sometimes the “book” is not necessarily for quick decision-making. It can also be used for peace of mind.
In 2024, during the regular season game at UNLV in late October, Washington went from the “book guy” to “confirmation guy.” As Boise State was up 29-24 in the fourth quarter and had the ball, coaches and players were seeking out Washington to know if and when they could celebrate the victory as the Broncos went on a 14-play, eight-plus minute drive to ice away the win.
“We got the first (down), and everyone came up to me asking ‘Is this game over?’ Or ‘Once we get this first down, can we kneel this out?’ said Washington. “It was a funny and cool moment for me, because half of these (coaches) coached me on the staff for years are coming to me and being fired up (based on what I was telling them).”
The irony isn't lost on Washington. Coaches who taught him everything about football as a Boise State player now turn to him for strategic advice. His freshman-year teammate Jabril Frazier is currently the EDGE coach. Danielson was the defensive coordinator for the last half of Washington’s playing career.
But Washington takes the responsibility seriously, perhaps overly so.
“I'm giving advice to Dirk Koetter - 15 years NFL coaching, knows more about football than I will probably ever know,” said Washington about working with the Boise State legend and the former offensive coordinator during the 2024 season. “I want to be incredibly prepared when I present to somebody like that.”
The “book” that Washington fanatically follows during the football season is his second favorite book. Outside of any readings he has done for his Master’s of Business Administration, his favorite book is one he received from Blake Hansen, founder and CEO of Alturas. It’s called “The Rhythm of Life.”
“It says, every person's goal should become the best version of themselves,” said Washington, who ended up getting a bracelet that says the phrase on it and he wears it every day.
Washington aspires to work up the coaching ladder in his career, but the perspective of being the “book guy” has allowed him to lean into his analytical brain and become well-versed in game management. He believes it's made him a better version of himself as a coach.
“Game awareness,” said Washington on the biggest area he has improved on with the role. “I think there's a lot of things, especially from my lens of football, that I saw and where I played, that I never thought about. And there's a lot of different things that I can now see in a game.”
From seeing new things to being the person Danielson consistently communicates with throughout a game, Washington has been prepared throughout it all. Even in the high-stress moments, he’s able to tune out the noise and be appreciative of what he has.
“It’s awesome that this was a role that I got first, and I was entrusted with,” said Washington. “And it's been really, really fun.”