Jimmy Lake was in the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons as the Washington coach faced an investigation, and later suspension for shoving and hitting linebacker Ruperake Fuavai in the facemask.

However, a report from The Seattle Times noted that there was another incident allegedly in 2019, according to 5 eyewitnesses who spoke with newspaper on the condition of anonymity. The alleged incident they described this week occurred less than two months before he was announced as the Huskies’ head coach.

The incident came when Lake was in his sixth season as a Washington assistant, and second as defensive coordinator. Lake was accused by the eyewitnesses of going after wide receiver Quinten Pounds.

“Lake comes in on just a complete rampage pretty much, picks up Quinten Pounds and throws him into a locker,” one eyewitness said. “Those lockers there were wooden lockers, and it was violent. It really caught everyone by surprise. It was really unprompted. He just kind of did that and then went on a tangent about how the offense needs to start playing better.”

Lake offered his side of the story in a statement to The Times:

“I absolutely deny anything improper went on at halftime of the University of Arizona game in 2019. There were numerous witnesses in the game — from equipment room, to football staff, to strength and conditioning coaches, and no one came to me with concerns after halftime, after the game, never,” he said. “To my knowledge there’s never been any complaints launched by anyone related to anything that happened during that game, and nobody from the university has ever raised any issues with me about what occurred in the locker room at halftime. I wasn’t aware of any issue until” contacted by The Times.