Locker, UW about as good as you could ask for in spring game

The UW football team conducted its annual spring game on Saturday, putting the proverbial stamp on the first installment of the Sark era.

It was clear Sarkisian's objective for spring practice was to implement the new offense/defense, identify playmakers and begin to assemble a depth chart, and in general, set the standard for a new era of Husky Football.

And if the outcome of Saturday's game was any indication of what direction this team is headed, Husky fans surely have brighter days ahead.

OK, major caveat time. The spring game was scripted for success: The ones against the twos on both sides of the ball. And considering the twos were twos from an 0-12 team last season, Sarkisian may have considered inviting Jake Heaps' Skyline team to compete against the starters instead.

That UW coaches decided on this format in favor of the previous staff's mix-and-match ones/twos, or ones vs. ones (which yielded a retirement center bocce ball-like pace and 3-0 outcome in Tyrone Willingham's first spring game in 2005), suggests the new staff is more concerned with execution versus matching up the best possible competition.

And execution is what the coaches - as well as the fans - received.

Jake Locker went an impressive 16-18 with two touchdowns as the offense scored on its first four possessions, the offensive line/running game was able to establish itself, and the defense pitched a shutout in a 33-0 rout.

Is the score significant? Somewhat; Had the starters faltered, there would be reason for major concern considering the competition. In year's past, it was essentially a no-win situation: If the first team offense scored on the first team defense, it was a good/bad scenario, and vice versa. But pairing the ones versus the twos ensured a one-sided outcome should have been the end result, something everyone could feel good about.

But the way in which the ones executed a brand-new offense with exact precision, on the ground and in the air with a combination of short and medium game, play action, check-downs to secondary option receivers and dump-offs to running backs, suggests this team is learning quickly on the fly.

Locker's efficiency was huge. If the Dawgs have any chance of respectability in 2009, he has got to be effective through the air, something coaches have stressed all spring. In years past, it was more about featuring Locker in the complicated spread option with marginal athletes at the skill positions and overweight lineman, which was rarely successful if not downright disasterous when Locker went down with a broken thumb four games into last season, leaving Ronnie Fouch to fend for himself in an offense that couldn't have been any less-designed for him.

Now, in Sarkisian's pro-style offense, Locker's speed on the edge can be featured via play action and misdirection, which is sure to give defenses fits this fall, no matter how good. It also takes pressure off the lineman and running backs to block, which is surely welcomed. Locker's no longer depended on to run-option in the pocket, either - He can decide to run purely based on what the defense gives him now and not necessarily by design.

Defensively, we knew coming in many of the starters from a unit with the tackling skills of a matador return, but it was good to see them hold up their end of the bargain. The linebacker corps in particular, with the addition of once-banished star E.J. Savannah, could be "one of the best units in the conference" according to Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt. Overall the defense appears to by faster, more tenacious, hungrier.

This team will win football games in 2009. It will beat a few teams because it is more talented, it will sneak up on a couple teams that should beat them, and it will play some good teams close. The key to UW's success this year will be its health. Beyond the starters, there seems to be quite a dropoff. But all indications point to Sark's kids buying into his system/philosophy, which is a step in the right direction.

IN OTHER NEWS...UW unveiled new uniforms, featuring new block-style numbering on jerseys, retro 80s-style pants with stripes, and the introduction of an all-white road uniform. I love the new tougher, back-to-basics look of the home unis, and the pro-style road whites are very clean.

Sark's grade thus far: A+

Those Husky fans who demanded a seasoned, top-tier head coach with at least some salt in his beard assume the massive rebuilding project known as UW football got a big surprise when the man hired was probably trying to pass driver's ed in 1991 when UW last won a national championship.

Fans wanted a big name, and were left scratching their collective heads when coaches like Jim Mora, Mike Leach and Gary Pinkel were either not pursued aggressively enough or said, "No thanks."

Husky fans have always had a sense of entitlement. The national championship is recent enough that if you can recite the lyrics of "Ice Ice Baby," you can vividly recall the likes of Emtman, Brunell and Bailey dominate the national college football scene.

Most fans (young included) can clearly remember the 2000 season when a UW team rallied from the emotionally-devastating loss of Curtis Williams who was paralyzed on a helmet-to-helmet hit in rainy Palo Alto against Stanford, nearly lost the game, and then came back with less than a minute remaining to beat the Cardinal on a Tuiasosopo-to-Robbins pass in the back of the endzone, then went on to win the Pac-10, Rose Bowl, and finish #3 in the nation.

It hasn't exactly been that long ago that UW fans could plan on booking air and hotel to either Los Angeles or San Diego for the holidays, not that long ago when Planet USC took over the universe.

So when 34-year old Steve Sarkisian was hired, many UW fans felt like the program deserved a higher profile coach, somehow to reward them for 11-37 and no bowl games over the past four seasons. Not exactly a dream job for just about any established head coach, unless a "challenge" is what you're seeking.

Husky Football A.D.J. (After Don James) has been searching for another Dawgfather, a program-changer. The head coaching revolving door since James has consisted of two loyalty promotions (assistants Jim Lambright and Keith Gilbertson) and two (at the time) trendy picks in the briefly-successful-but-rules-compliance-nightmare Rick Neuheisel and altogether disastrous Willingham.

But if grades can be given out for effort alone thus far, Sarkisian gets a big fat A-plus.

Forget about prominence, Sarkisian is attempting to return the Dawgs to mediocrity, at least in the short term. And even in attempting that, he will have his hands full.

Nonetheless, "Coach Sark" as his blog is appropriately named, has done just about everything right considering what he inherited.

How has he done it?

• He made it clear from day one the barriers created with alumni, boosters, fans and the media Willingham worked so hard to enforce would be eliminated. He's opened practices, he's used technology to communicate - the aforementioned blog, use of Twitter and Facebook - to get Husky Fever approaching Tylenol time from fans trying to rally around a program that didn't even sniff winning last season.

• He convinced USC Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt, a Bill Goldberg lookalike and a guy I'm convinced could step into a college football game without a helmet and de-cleat the first person he sees, into leaving the comfort of working with perennial All-americans and NFL first rounders and taking on one of the nation's worst defenses statistically.
  

• He wasn't afraid to rescind Willingham's offers from high school seniors like Grant Cisneros, who had no other Division I offers and ultimately committed to Central Washington University, a statement that less-than-Pac-10-caliber talent was not acceptable, no matter how dire UW's situation.
  

• He had a giant "W" painted on one of the upper deck roofs at Husky Stadium, and "Go Dawgs" on the other so that blue chip recruits flying in from Southern California he's trying to steal from Pete Carroll can see the stadium on descent into Seattle.

• Perhaps more importantly, he's locked the border around Washington State thus far, receiving verbal commitments from three of the top four in-state recruits for 2010, and has the state's and quite possibly the nation's top recruit, Jake Heaps, jumping up and down with Jake Locker in the Dawg Pack at UW basketball games and standing in the cold rain observing spring football practices.
  

• He's reportedly in the process of working with Nike to redesign the uniforms to reflect a more classic look, bringing back the glory days of Husky football at least from an aesthetics standpoint.

In all, aside from a couple of minor recruiting violations (heaven forbid UW uses a fog machine again!) Sarkisian's missteps have been minimal, all coming from a 34-year old who has never head-coached a second of college football.

Compare that with public relations train wrecks like Lane Kiffin, another candidate UW fans clamored for, and it underscores how truly impressive Sarkisian's first few months on the job have been.

UW may win one, two, four games next season. But in the process of rebuilding a once-great program, Sarkisian understands the importance of controlling what he can control, and the fan support, talent, and ultimately wins will follow.