The Monday Morning Wash

As we enter Christmas week news has slowed down to a trickle coming out of the football offices in Montlake. We have entered the recruiting dead period and head coach Steve Sarkisian is in LA preparing the Trojans for one last Rose Bowl under his watch.

One good piece of news is that Kennedy Pola will be coming to Washington after January 2nd as a RB coach and recruiting coordinator. Pola who is currently with the Jacksonville Jaguars is a great hire. He once was at UW a few weeks when Neuheisel took over but his ex wife didn't like the rain. The hiring of Pola is considered significant because he is a great recruiter who will have an impact over in Hawaii. No official word yet on Pola but the word on the street is pretty strong he is headed our direction.

Expect Washington to be a force in coming years over on the islands because Pola, Sarkisian, and Nansen all have significant recruiting ties and experience over there. Polynesian kids have always done well in Seattle because of the strong community in the Seattle area and at UW.

Scott Loefler who is a former QB coach at Michigan has still not been confirmed as the new UW QB coach. Expect the latter two announcements to be made at the end of the NFL regular season.

Oregon WR coach Rob Plufgrad could be on Washington's short list for WR coaches. Word out of Eugene is that OC Chip Kelly is beginning to reshape the coaching staff in preparation for the day he takes over as head coach. Plufgrad is possibly one coach who won't be staying despite the fact his son is a member of the team.

Dennis Slutak was officially named head of football operations at the University of Washington. Slutak comes with Sarkisian from USC and has prior experience as an assistant coach. Sarkisian has done a nice job filling his administrative and strength positions with qualified people.

Ron English was hired as head coach at Eastern Michigan this weekend which cancels any speculation that the former Michigan assistant was headed for Seattle. Who will be the DC at UW? We seem to be running out of names to speculate on at this point. Current USC DC Nick Holt seems to still be a possibility but why would he make a lateral move to UW?

The Husky basketball team will play Lehigh on Tuesday but the game is in serious doubt because of the weather. The Mountain Hawks may not be able to get a flight in or out of Seattle if the weather keeps acting up. Power forward Jon Brockman has recovered from his injured ankle suffered in practice and will be available for full time duty if Lehigh does make it in to town.

The Huskies women dropped a 65-63 game to Northern Colorado in the final of the round-robin format tournament last night in Cancun. Mexico to finish 1-2 for the tournament. The loss was obviously pretty disappointing after an upset win over Florida State on the heels of an historic bad game against U-Conn the previous night.

The Huskies built up a 12 point lead in the second half and seemed in control until the started playing lousy defense and turning the ball over against the 4-5 Bears. It seems like Tia Jackson is in danger of losing control of her team for a second straight year.

Two Washington Soccer players earned invitations to the Major League Soccer player combine Jan. 9-13 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. George John and Raphael Cox are among 65 college seniors from 45 Division I schools selected to participate.

John, a midfielder from Shoreline, and Cox, a midfielder from Tacoma, finished their collegiate careers this past fall and were first-team All-Pac-10 selections.