I know, I know - where have you been! As you all know December is a busy month! Between my birthday, basketball, and getting ready for Christmas it's been hard to find time to post to the blog!
Well most of the decorating, shopping and Christmas cards are done so it's time to get back on track! Biggest news is we have a new Husky Football Coach!
The following is an article from the Seattle PI. We could not be happier! Bye, Bye Ty!
In 1992, Steve Sarkisian was faced with a painful and fateful reality -- he couldn't hit a slider. That baseball deficiency led Sarkisian back to the football field and, eventually, to his first head coaching job.
On Monday morning, Sarkisian, the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at USC, was introduced as Washington's 23rd head football coach.
"I'm just so excited to be part of this thing and to get this thing going in the right direction," Sarkisian said at a news conference that included a rowdy crowd of about 400 fans at Husky Stadium's Don James Center.
Sarkisian's tasks are monumental. The Huskies are coming off the worst season in program history in which they became the first 0-12 team in Pac-10 Conference history.
Sarkisian, 34, must rebuild a program that has crumbled like its relic of a stadium, and he must do so while welding together a fan base as fiery as he is.
To complete those tasks, he will have to call upon that troublesome memory of the elusive slider and the ability to overcome.
"Transforming himself into a football player (after giving up baseball), and then going to BYU from there and having an outstanding season talks about failing, coming back and not letting it affect you," Washington athletic director Scott Woodward said.
When USC defeated the Huskies 56-0 on Nov. 1 in Los Angeles, Sarkisian looked across the field and saw a team defeated as much mentally as it was physically.
"We just need to change the mind-set and the culture here right off," he said.
"It all starts with our self-talk. The way I talk to (the players), the way they talk amongst each other. It's a belief, and you either believe you're going to go out and win football games or you're not."
Sarkisian said there's an immediate need for speed.
"We need to become a faster football team. Right now, where we're at, this team was built on strength and bulk, and we need to get speed back into this program," he said.
Recruiting becomes his first priority. Sarkisian said he planned to make his first recruiting call on behalf of the Huskies later Monday, shortly after the news conference.
He said his goals included keeping the state's best talent from leaving for other programs. He said he has a solid relationship with high school coaches in Southern California and hopes to make inroads there.
Sarkisian met with the team at 9 a.m. Monday.
"He seemed like a really enthusiastic, energetic guy," quarterback Jake Locker said. "I think he'll bring a lot of excitement to our program. I think he'll surround us with coaches that are similar in coaching style to that. I think it will raise the energy and excitement of the players."
Backup quarterback Ronnie Fouch, who started the final nine games this season after Locker was injured, said, "He was straight to the point. I liked it. I'm excited."
Excitement -- and putting the memory of an 0-12 season to bed -- is another key ingredient to any sort of eventual turnaround.
UW President Mark Emmert, who was instrumental in the hiring of coach Nick Saban at LSU while he was chancellor, said, "You have to have the right personality to work with these young men, to be their teacher, their coach, their mentor. And that, to me, naturally involves having a lot of energy and bringing that back into the program."
Sarkisian teemed with enthusiasm, which is something freshman running back Chris Polk remembered from when Sarkisian recruited him to USC. Polk orally committed to the Trojans before changing his mind to attend Washington in order to play his first year. Polk started two games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.
"He's been to my house a few times. I like him," said Polk, who was lifting weights Monday. "I'm excited. I'm pumped up."
Stirring up excitement and passion starts with the players, Sarkisian said.
"I don't know what was taught here before, but I know (emotion is) going to be a big part of what we do," he said. "(Players) feed off of fans, they feed off of students, they feed off the emotions of the game and we need to be an emotional football team, an enthusiastic football team, one that loves playing with one another."
He said that also extends to the fan base.
"I want our practices to be fun and exciting. I want people there. I want students at practice. I want alumni at practice. I want media at practice," Sarkisian said.
"We've got 105 kids on this football team, but they're not the only ones making this thing and making this experience what it's going to become."
This is a sharp contrast from Tyrone Willingham's reign, which, after four seasons, ended with an 11-37 record. Willingham closed practices to fans and media. Sarkisian, on the other hand, called the program's turnaround a "group effort."
"It's going to take this entire university, this entire community," he said. "It's going to be open. We want people around us. We want people seeing us. We want the kids to feel your support to empower them to do great things that we want them to do."
From the outside, Sarkisian's career looks as rosy as the place he will visit for the fifth time Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif., when the Trojans face Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
But the task of resurrecting the Huskies will no doubt test his ability to take some lumps -- like he did when he left the USC baseball team in '92.
After Sarkisian quit baseball, he was recruited to El Camino College by football coach John Featherstone. Sarkisian went on to a successful quarterbacking career at El Camino and then BYU.
After three seasons playing for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League, he got into coaching and spent seven of the next nine years at USC.
"Steve Sarkisian is an outstanding young coach who did great things here at USC," Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. "He's savvy, he's tough, he's charismatic and he's a real leader."
Woodward began the search for a coach after announcing Willingham's firing Oct. 27. He interviewed Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Fresno State's Pat Hill and Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood, and was thought to have talked with Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, Seahawks coach-in-waiting Jim Mora and the agent for Missouri's Gary Pinker.
Woodward would not get into details of the search, but said Sarkisian -- whom he interviewed in Seattle on Thanksgiving Day -- was a candidate who wouldn't go away.
"He was on our target list from day one," Woodward said.
"Two words just stuck out: winner and passion. Those were the ones that were just overarching in my mind. I just kept coming back to it. He's been a winner everywhere he's been, every step of his life, and he's done it with hard work and by being tough. And I think that's what Husky football is all about."
SARKISIAN'S DEAL
Though he has yet to sign a contract, Steve Sarkisian has a "memorandum of understanding" with Washington.
Annual guaranteed compensation:
Year
Salary
2009
$1,750,000
2010
$1,875,000
2011
$2,000,000
2012
$2,100,000
2013
$2,300,000
Incentive compensation: He will reach incentives if the Huskies play in a bowl game ($150,000), win the Pac-10 ($350,000), play in a BCS bowl or win the national title. He also can make up to $250,000 a year if the team meets certain academic standards.
Other compensation: includes standard UW employee benefits; the use of two vehicles, moving expenses; club membership.
P-I reporter Molly Yanity can be reached at 206-448-8295 or mollyyanity@seattlepi.com. Read her Huskies blog at blog.seattlepi.com/huskiesfb.
Go Dawgs!
Jim
Well most of the decorating, shopping and Christmas cards are done so it's time to get back on track! Biggest news is we have a new Husky Football Coach!
The following is an article from the Seattle PI. We could not be happier! Bye, Bye Ty!
In 1992, Steve Sarkisian was faced with a painful and fateful reality -- he couldn't hit a slider. That baseball deficiency led Sarkisian back to the football field and, eventually, to his first head coaching job.
On Monday morning, Sarkisian, the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at USC, was introduced as Washington's 23rd head football coach.
"I'm just so excited to be part of this thing and to get this thing going in the right direction," Sarkisian said at a news conference that included a rowdy crowd of about 400 fans at Husky Stadium's Don James Center.
Sarkisian's tasks are monumental. The Huskies are coming off the worst season in program history in which they became the first 0-12 team in Pac-10 Conference history.
Sarkisian, 34, must rebuild a program that has crumbled like its relic of a stadium, and he must do so while welding together a fan base as fiery as he is.
To complete those tasks, he will have to call upon that troublesome memory of the elusive slider and the ability to overcome.
"Transforming himself into a football player (after giving up baseball), and then going to BYU from there and having an outstanding season talks about failing, coming back and not letting it affect you," Washington athletic director Scott Woodward said.
When USC defeated the Huskies 56-0 on Nov. 1 in Los Angeles, Sarkisian looked across the field and saw a team defeated as much mentally as it was physically.
"We just need to change the mind-set and the culture here right off," he said.
"It all starts with our self-talk. The way I talk to (the players), the way they talk amongst each other. It's a belief, and you either believe you're going to go out and win football games or you're not."
Sarkisian said there's an immediate need for speed.
"We need to become a faster football team. Right now, where we're at, this team was built on strength and bulk, and we need to get speed back into this program," he said.
Recruiting becomes his first priority. Sarkisian said he planned to make his first recruiting call on behalf of the Huskies later Monday, shortly after the news conference.
He said his goals included keeping the state's best talent from leaving for other programs. He said he has a solid relationship with high school coaches in Southern California and hopes to make inroads there.
Sarkisian met with the team at 9 a.m. Monday.
"He seemed like a really enthusiastic, energetic guy," quarterback Jake Locker said. "I think he'll bring a lot of excitement to our program. I think he'll surround us with coaches that are similar in coaching style to that. I think it will raise the energy and excitement of the players."
Backup quarterback Ronnie Fouch, who started the final nine games this season after Locker was injured, said, "He was straight to the point. I liked it. I'm excited."
Excitement -- and putting the memory of an 0-12 season to bed -- is another key ingredient to any sort of eventual turnaround.
UW President Mark Emmert, who was instrumental in the hiring of coach Nick Saban at LSU while he was chancellor, said, "You have to have the right personality to work with these young men, to be their teacher, their coach, their mentor. And that, to me, naturally involves having a lot of energy and bringing that back into the program."
Sarkisian teemed with enthusiasm, which is something freshman running back Chris Polk remembered from when Sarkisian recruited him to USC. Polk orally committed to the Trojans before changing his mind to attend Washington in order to play his first year. Polk started two games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.
"He's been to my house a few times. I like him," said Polk, who was lifting weights Monday. "I'm excited. I'm pumped up."
Stirring up excitement and passion starts with the players, Sarkisian said.
"I don't know what was taught here before, but I know (emotion is) going to be a big part of what we do," he said. "(Players) feed off of fans, they feed off of students, they feed off the emotions of the game and we need to be an emotional football team, an enthusiastic football team, one that loves playing with one another."
He said that also extends to the fan base.
"I want our practices to be fun and exciting. I want people there. I want students at practice. I want alumni at practice. I want media at practice," Sarkisian said.
"We've got 105 kids on this football team, but they're not the only ones making this thing and making this experience what it's going to become."
This is a sharp contrast from Tyrone Willingham's reign, which, after four seasons, ended with an 11-37 record. Willingham closed practices to fans and media. Sarkisian, on the other hand, called the program's turnaround a "group effort."
"It's going to take this entire university, this entire community," he said. "It's going to be open. We want people around us. We want people seeing us. We want the kids to feel your support to empower them to do great things that we want them to do."
From the outside, Sarkisian's career looks as rosy as the place he will visit for the fifth time Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif., when the Trojans face Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
But the task of resurrecting the Huskies will no doubt test his ability to take some lumps -- like he did when he left the USC baseball team in '92.
After Sarkisian quit baseball, he was recruited to El Camino College by football coach John Featherstone. Sarkisian went on to a successful quarterbacking career at El Camino and then BYU.
After three seasons playing for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League, he got into coaching and spent seven of the next nine years at USC.
"Steve Sarkisian is an outstanding young coach who did great things here at USC," Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. "He's savvy, he's tough, he's charismatic and he's a real leader."
Woodward began the search for a coach after announcing Willingham's firing Oct. 27. He interviewed Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Fresno State's Pat Hill and Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood, and was thought to have talked with Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, Seahawks coach-in-waiting Jim Mora and the agent for Missouri's Gary Pinker.
Woodward would not get into details of the search, but said Sarkisian -- whom he interviewed in Seattle on Thanksgiving Day -- was a candidate who wouldn't go away.
"He was on our target list from day one," Woodward said.
"Two words just stuck out: winner and passion. Those were the ones that were just overarching in my mind. I just kept coming back to it. He's been a winner everywhere he's been, every step of his life, and he's done it with hard work and by being tough. And I think that's what Husky football is all about."
SARKISIAN'S DEAL
Though he has yet to sign a contract, Steve Sarkisian has a "memorandum of understanding" with Washington.
Annual guaranteed compensation:
Year
Salary
2009
$1,750,000
2010
$1,875,000
2011
$2,000,000
2012
$2,100,000
2013
$2,300,000
Incentive compensation: He will reach incentives if the Huskies play in a bowl game ($150,000), win the Pac-10 ($350,000), play in a BCS bowl or win the national title. He also can make up to $250,000 a year if the team meets certain academic standards.
Other compensation: includes standard UW employee benefits; the use of two vehicles, moving expenses; club membership.
P-I reporter Molly Yanity can be reached at 206-448-8295 or mollyyanity@seattlepi.com. Read her Huskies blog at blog.seattlepi.com/huskiesfb.
Go Dawgs!
Jim
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