Washington Football Culture Change—"Death March" Style

Owens continued the drills after each practice that season breaking the will of his players just as Bryant had done previously at Texas A&M. During many of the practices, the then young Owens continued to lead his team in the sprints, running backwards with them as they navigated the field, in short bursts of sustained energy. Some of the men would fall flat on their faces, too weak and exhausted to continue. Taking the players to the point of where they think they can do no more is “when you find out what guys really want to play ball,” Owens later said.

There was a lot of attrition on that first team but what was left was a solid core of legendary men led by Bob Schloredt, Don McKeta, Ray Jackson, Roy McKasson, and many others who established the Husky tradition of toughness that lasted until the turn of the present century when Rick Neuheisel assumed command of the program.

Washington didn't win many games that first two years under Owens only finishing with a 6-13-1 record but the table was set for a run of championships starting in 1959 when Washington obliterated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl followed by a win the next season over in season national champion Minnesota.

During his tenure, Jim Owens compiled a 99-82-6 record. He fell a step behind in the late 1960's when the game changed back to two platoon and the lack of scholarship limits allowed schools like USC to horde talent. He did have a nice finish with his Sonny Sixkiler squads but nothing could compare to his early tenure at Washington when he was completely on top of his game.

Washington football faces a similar challenge in 2008. This time we picked a little known assistant from USC which is now the top football power in the West and arguably the top program in the country. Pete Carroll is the Bear Bryant or Bud Wilkinson  of today and Steve Sarkisian is his Jim Owens.

Expect Sarkisian to be fair coming in but not very flexible. He is giving chances to everyone to compete but like Owens the players are going to have to learn to compete on Sarks terms. Like he says everything is a clean slate and even the troubled EJ Savannah has been invited back for one last hurrah. Sarkisian knows that if he fails at UW his coaching career is pretty much over. He isn't going to let bad attitudes get in the way of overall team performance. He will break the will of the team to resist change before it breaks him. You can count on that.

Sark learned how to run a football program under one of the modern day masters in Pete Carroll, and he is going to take those lessons learned, and apply it at the University of Washington. All the enthusiasm you see happening this week is soon going to be replaced by players being pushed beyond their limits in the weight room and on the practice field. The ones that don't measure up are going to be gone. You can count on attrition being a major factor during the first two years. The tough one's keep going and the weak ones will leave.

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