Offensively I don't have a lot of concerns. Sarkisian was one of the best quarterbacks in college football when he played for BYU back in the early nineties. He comes from the Lavell Edwards/Norm Chow School of coaching. He played under Norm at BYU and coached with him at USC.
He earned his way through the coaching ranks as a QB guru with an impressive resume that includes Carson Palmer and Matt Leinhart. Steve Sarkisian understands how to coach quarterbacks and that is good news if you happen to be Jake Locker, or the next Montlake Jake in waiting, Skyline's Jake Heaps. He should be able to get a quantum leap of improvement in this area next year for Washington.
Washington players also should benefit from the way he will structure practice and conditioning. Obviously coaching under Carroll for the majority of his career has taught him how to breed toughness. Toughness is one of the many things this program lacks at this point in time.
He should also be able to bring some passion to a squad who has been muffled emotionally during the reign of Tyrone Willingham. If you have ever watched USC practice you realize that they go at it as hard, or harder than they do at game time. The best team they may face each week is their No. 2's.
Sarkisian needs to create that type of environment at Washington. Some observers feel that Sarkisian at only 34 years old may not be ready yet to be a head coach.
Washington once hired a 29 year old assistant coach named Jim Owens who was able to turn around a team that was in a similar situation and lead it to three Rose Bowls in his first six years. Husky fans have to realize that it won't turn around overnight no matter who the coach is. It will take a couple years of strong recruiting and some serious weeding of a roster made up of underachievers.
It reminds me of the situation Jim Owens faced when he arrived in 1957. Sarkisian won't be able to implement the famous Owens death march but he will have the tools to make the changes necessary to build a winning program. I have to admit I didn't know much about Steve Sarkisian when he was hired, but the more I hear about him the more excited I get about his potential as a head coach.
Obviously this guy knows how to recruit the inner city of Los Angeles. Obviously he has a built in recruiting network nationally and up and down the West coast. An influx of talent is one of the most important things it will take to turn around the program and he has the contacts to get it done.
I did hear a KJR interview where Tui described Sark's emotion and fire and I came away impressed. Like Jim Owens and Don James, he wasn't the first choice, and we all said "who?" In the end he may be the best choice. You can't discount the fire and drive to succeed. It has been a long time since we had a coach who just didn't dial it in.
So I am willing to give the guy a chance and wait to find out what Scott Woodward found so compelling about him. We may not have to wait to long to see results because his first job will be to turn around a 2009 recruiting class gone South. I am betting that he surprises us right off the bat and creates some excitement going into the spring.
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