SEATTLE -- A dog barks in Steve Sarkisian's office, which is strange. There's no Alpo in sight and it's just the two of you in the not-quite-lived-in surroundings of Washington's new coach.
Sarkisian pulls out two cell phones. One is silent. The other ... well, welcome to the world of creative ringtones. The 34-year-old coach of the Huskies is reminded where his loyalties now lie every time someone dials his business line.
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| Sarkisian admitted to his players that he has ADD and can't sit still without doodling. (AP) |
Hold all his calls. Sark is on a roll, which can happen. Ask any recruit he has pulled into USC this decade or one at Washington he just met.
"He told us today he has ADD," Huskies linebacker Donald Butler said of his new coach. "He said, 'Anytime you sit me down and get somebody up there talking for too long, I've got to doodle.'"
It's not doodling on this day. Sarkisian is alternately standing, pacing and sitting. Making a presentation of ... himself. At the moment he is talking Kiko.com, a long-ago failed Internet start-up that sustained him for a brief time in the 1990s before he got into coaching.
"It was MySpace-slash-Facebook-slash-Blackboard.com," the coach said. "We were selling vapor, man, stuff didn't even exist yet."
It's hard envisioning talking software companies with Jim Tressel or Mack Brown. No offense, guys, but when you're 34, the third-youngest coach in football, you carry two cellies and are computer literate right down to the microprocessor.
All of them, though, are selling the same vapor to some extent. That's what recruiting is, the BBD -- the Bigger and Better Deal. Their roles are reversed in this case, though. Tressel and Brown can round up a class with a click of a mouse. Sarkisian will have to work a little harder, as head coach of Division I-A's only winless team last season.
There are Huskies and there are dogs. Washington, in 2008, was the latter.
• B/R: Stadium woes | B/R: Locker highlights spring game | MaxPreps: Incoming Huskies
In 2009, U-Dub is vapor, man, the new Kiko.com.
"It's no different than what we're doing right now," Captain ADD said. "We're selling a product that doesn't even exist yet."
Rebuilding a program, a reputation and a stadium
If Washington is going to get back to being Washington it's going to have to be about four people.
Pete Carroll. Don James. Ken Griffey Jr. And Tyrone Willingham.
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| A 6-6 record in 2001 was the worst year Sarkisian had in seven seasons under USC coach Carroll. (Getty Images) |
Both are college rookie head coaches. Both have showed their commitment in their new college jobs. Both have recruited well. Both have showed their youth. In their zeal to do everything right now both have committed NCAA secondary violations.
It seems that Sark and crew rented a fog machine and blared a siren while recruits ran into Husky Stadium. Simulating a gameday experience is an NCAA no-no.
Like their former boss, Sark West and Kiffin East aren't waiting around for something to happen. The closest Sarkisian came to losing in his seven seasons at USC was 2001, Carroll's first season in Troy. The Trojans started 1-4 and 2-5, before rallying to become bowl eligible.
You know the rest. If you don't, you haven't followed college football this decade.
"It was bad starting out," Sarkisian said. "That place is different now. We go 12-1 and we failed. We failed in the minds of the people there. At that point being 2-5 was a stressful time."
You want to talk stressful, bud, take a look at this diminished giant on the shores of Lake Washington you just inherited. If you, Husky Honk, are looking for USC North then you've come to the right place, too. Practices are run at a swift pace to the point that players don't run at the end because they've in constant motion for two hours.
There are such things as Competition Monday (starting jobs are always on the line). Tell The Truth Tuesday (or Wednesday, or Thursday -- film sessions).
If one-tenth of Troy rubs off, Washington will go bowling in a couple of years. If the Carroll seed really takes root, look the hell out.
Sark likes his staff, who wouldn't with all the money the school threw around? Every one of the offensive assistants has been a coordinator at some point in their careers. Washington defensive coordinator Nick Holt was 5-18 as the head coach at Idaho in 2004-05. Holt was then hired back by Carroll for a second go-round in 2006.
After overseeing one of the best defenses in school history in 2008, Holt was lured here with a $200,000 signing bonus and a $650,000-per-year contract, making him one of the top 10 highest paid assistants in the country. Not bad for a guy with a .217 winning percentage.
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| Defensive coordinator Holt is one of the highest-paid assistants in the nation. (AP) |
Nothing is more optimistic.
"Everyone thinks Sark is this guy who has had it handed to him," Washington AD Scott Woodward said. "All he does is recruit and talk ball. He was obviously the COO of that company. Pete let him ascend to that."
The son of an Iranian father, Sark -- even his nickname suggests urgency -- was the youngest of seven children. Success wasn't automatic. He spent one semester playing baseball at USC before realizing he couldn't hit.
At junior-college power El Camino College in Torrance, Calif. he set a juco record completing 72.4 percent of his passes. Sarkisian narrowed his major college choices to BYU and Kansas State. The Catholic chose the Mormon school but that's not where the story ends.
In 1996, he led the Cougars to a 14-1 season. The one loss coming, ironically, to Washington. The season, and his career, ended in a stirring Cotton Bowl victory over Kansas State. Sarkisian threw a late, game-winning touchdown pass then gestured to the K-State side. The Wildcats had been chiding him the entire game for turning down their program.
Up yours, Cats.
Giving the Canadian Football a chance for three years, Sark threw 21 interceptions in his final season for Saskatchewan and left the game as a player.
His old BYU offensive coordinator, Norm Chow, got hired by Carroll in 2001 and got his old quarterback an interview. Sarkisian was hired as a grad assistant and the rest would be history, except there is a bit of lingering nastiness.
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| Sark threw for 7,464 yards and 53 touchdowns in two seasons at BYU. (Getty Images) |
Coming back to the present, Washington's new coach marvels at his advantages. On this day, the sky is cloudless in traditionally murky Seattle. There was great weather, the coach said, for every significant recruiting weekend.
The linebackers are solid. Sarkisian loves Chris Polk, a second-year tailback from Redlands, Calif. There are six in-state commitments for the class of 2010. The schedule is daunting with LSU and USC coming here in the first three weeks, but you've got to start somewhere.
"I'm hesitant to say it this way because it can come off as arrogant," Sarkisian said. "I don't think it's going to take very long."
If nothing else, Sarkisian will lure quarterbacks because that's what he does. In his time at USC, he worked with two Heisman winners -- Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart -- as well Mark Sanchez, the No. 5 pick in last week's draft. In his short time here, he has kept the Huskies on the list of national recruit Jake Heaps, a quarterback from nearby Skyline High School.
While at USC, Sarkisian liked his quarterbacks to project an image. If a road trip required a USC polo, then there were no backwards baseball caps allowed. At Washington, Sark has inherited junior Jake Locker, a coveted talent from nearby Ferndale, who is still considered the heart of the program after two injury-plagued seasons.
"He gets on me, sometimes, I don't shower in the morning," Locker said. "Before practice, my hair is all crazy."
Personal appearance, though, is a lot less important than game management. Locker's best attribute is his running ability, but you get the feeling that his wild-horse scrambles will not be stopped but curtailed. That's another thing Sarkisian learned from Carroll. The best quarterback is the one who helps the defense the most. In other words, don't turn the ball over.
Locker threw 15 interceptions in becoming Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2007. He was off to a fine start in 2008 before breaking his thumb in the season's fourth game, while throwing a block on a reverse.
Three weeks before, Locker had scored what seemed to be the tying touchdown late against BYU. After being flagged for excessive celebration, the extra point was pushed back, and ultimately missed. BYU won by a point.
"To be totally honest I don't like to talk about it," Locker said. "I want to look forward to the pleasant things we have going."
Former Huskies coach James would probably cringe at all this USC talk. From 1975 to 1992, James woke up every day dreaming of steamrolling the Trojans. On the field, he was 9-8 against them. Off the field, James raided Southern California for recruits to make Washington great.
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| Locker: 'I want to look forward to the pleasant things we have going.' (AP) |
This is how we all remember Washington, or should: Rose Bowls, defense and a tough running game. Lambright didn't win enough. Neuheisel did, but brought disgrace in the end. Gilby was a stop gap. Willingham? Well, that's why Sarkisian is ultimately here.
Ty's four-year reign was worse than four years of rain in the Emerald City. It became hip in the past year to write the Seattle, City of Losers story. It was too easy. The Mariners and Seahawks sucked. The Sonics left town. U-Dub football sank to the lowest of lows.
But there is hope in this city, and part of it has to do with a DH/outfielder who is five years older than the Washington football coach. Griffey's return re-energized the city. Never mind that he is batting only .200 through Wednesday, there might not be a Mariners had not Griffey made his bones here.
Washington's basketball team won the Pac-10 and made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006. The Seahawks are jacked about Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry falling to them in the draft.
None of this means Washington football will win at Jamesian levels anytime soon. It does mean that if the new coach can get it close to those levels, he and the Huskies can own the town.
For now Sarkisian can't "lose." If he wins one game, Washington will technically have made progress. If he wins five, they'll stage a parade in his honor right down Montlake Blvd.
For now, Sarkisian's arrival does mean players can look at themselves in the mirror again.
"Honestly, words can't even explain how bad it was," according to linebacker Donald Butler. "You come out here every day and put your heart into it. To not get any kind of reward on Saturday, it messes up everything else in your life -- academically and relationships you had."
Almost everyone interviewed for this story had no reservations about commenting on the Willingham era. The man won 11 games in four seasons and ran the program into the ground.
Decent man, good coach maybe at some point but, "the life had been sucked out of the program."
That was the head coach.
"No passion, no energy."
That one came from the president, Mark Emmert.
"It baffles me ... I'm at a loss."
That was Woodward.
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| The first-year coach is a big fan of redshirt freshman RB Polk. (AP) |
Something as simple as opening up spring practices has given everyone a brighter outlook. Willingham treated practices like top secret atomic bomb research when it should have been fun. Media and most of the loyal Huskies fans were shut out.
Two-hundred twenty-five former players showed up for Saturday's spring game that drew 10,000 fans. They watched Locker complete 16 of 18 passes. The other two were drops.
"If we start winning, they'll swim across Lake Washington to get to Husky Stadium," Woodward said.
Currently, they use boats, one of the charms of one of best settings in college football. Just less of them. Season tickets have declined five figures in the last decade. Seventy-two thousand-seat Husky Stadium is in desperate need of repair. A $150 million state senate bill designed to jump start the renovation died this week. Had the bill passed, Washington would have begun raising a matching $150 million to spruce up the historic, but dilapidated stadium.
Historic and dilapidated bled over to the field too. The winless season was the first in school history. Washington goes into 2009 with a 14-game losing streak.
Winning football seems to cure everything. Everywhere. As long as Joe Paterno wins, his age and forgetfulness are quaint. As long as Charlie Weis wins, he can be as brusque as he wants. As long as Sark wins, water wings for those swimmers on Lake Washington could become optional.
"I'm not selling what these guys were before," Captain ADD summed up as he bounced around his office. "The way I view this thing is there's this beautiful lot on the water, but there was a home on it I didn't like. I bought the lot, tore down the home and we're building a new home brick by brick by brick."
Forget open house analogies. Selling barking ringtones, season tickets and vapor is a good place to start.
