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Huskies about to hire two more defensive coaches

It look like the hiring of Nick Holt yesterday from USC possibly included two other assistant coaches he has worked with in the past according to Football Scoop.

Jeff Mills is a coach who has coached in the secondary most of his career. Mills has coached on the defensive side of the football the past 15 years. In that span he spent eight seasons with the Idaho Vandals, four with Nevada and three at Montana State. He was on Dennis Erickson's last Idaho staff. Most recently he was at Youngstown State under Jon Heacock.

Mike Cox is a LB coach who most recently worked under Scott Linehan for the St. Louis Rams. Cox is a Northwest native who coached under John L.Smith at Idaho, Louisville, and Michigan State.

Cox was a four-year letterman at Idaho from 1983-86 and a three-year starter at linebacker, playing for both Dennis Erickson and Keith Gilbertson. He still ranks among the Vandals’ all-time leaders with 252 career tackles.

What do these two coaches have in common?

They both coached at Idaho in the past and have both been on the same staff as new DC Nick Holt and are part of the Idaho pipleine of coaching talent started by Dennis Erickson.

Football Scoop gets their information from a variety of places including my blog so I am not going to say this information is 100% accurate until it is announced later today at the 12:30 PM press conference. I will say that it sounds pretty plausible when you take a look at the connections and bloodlines.

Last night we heard that Chris Tormey was still trying to get back on the Husky staff as a LB coach. He has had a great relationship with Nick Holt so that is also a possible move that could be made today.

Head Coach Steve Sarkisian said yesterday that the delay in Holt arriving in Seattle wasn't all about the weather. They also had a couple of other things to work out. It could have been potential coaches to fill out the staff.

One thing is for sure though is to expect the defensive side of the coaching staff to be full by this afternoon. You need at least seven coaches to handle recruiting this time of year and the additions of Holt, Cox, and Mills does that.

Usually you go with four defensive coaches including the coordinator but we have heard that UW is considering going with five defensive coaches.

Washington still has plenty of vacancies over on the offensive side. They need to fill the QB,RB,WR, and TE coaching positions. The addition of an extra defensive coach if that is true could mean that Sark will be his own QB coach. OC Jim Michalczik is also going to be handling the offensive line so that takes up a bit of the slack.

 

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How do you guys feel about the asymmetry of coaching responsibilities?

I know the defense needs more help than the offense, but really? It looks like the head coach will do more position-specific coaching than the DC. If the terms of hiring Holt were that he gets two secondary coaches on top of a d-line and linebackers coach, AND $700k a year, I’m thinking he might not have been such a phenomenal get— who wouldn’t turn an offer like that down?

Also, could this kind of treatment stem a little resentment among the other assistants, specifically Michalczik?

It is encouraging that Woodward is willing to sign checks like that for assistants, however.

Our leather lungs together...

by attakid117 on Jan 6, 2009 1:59 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Good points

James used to have five assistants on the defensive side of the ball at times so it just depends upon the final makeup of the staff and what their responsibilities are going to be. Even though James was a QB in college he actually made his mark as a defensive assistant coach.

Sark is in total charge of the offense and Holt in in total charge of the defense for starters. Holt’s title as assistant head coach is not merely a title it aptly describes his responsibility. This is a partnership in which Sark has the final say. Defensively Holt has a free hand.

Michalczik is making a lot of money and I am sure he knew what Sark was up to before he came on. I don’t think their will be any resentment at all.

As far as the money it represents the committment that Emmert and Woodward are making to turn around the program.

by John Berkowitz on Jan 6, 2009 2:23 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

What would concern me if they hire 5 defensive coaches is that it seems likely Sarkisian would then be the QB coach. That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing at all, but I do worry about a first time coach taking on those dual roles. Will Sarkisian be able to manage his entire staff of coaches effectively while at the same time acting as a full-time QB coach?

Maybe this talk of 5 defensive coaches is partly due to Loeffler no longer being in the mix as a QB coach – I was pretty excited about the possibility of him coming here.

by kirkd on Jan 6, 2009 2:27 PM PST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Kirk

You are forgetting where the GA’s fit into the picture. You could have a GA taking care of the TE’s or you could group the TE’s with the offensive line or the WR’s.

As far as overall management I think that has been split between Holt and Sarkisian. Sark of course will manage Holt but the defensive coaches will answer to Holt.

Sark has said that he wants a QB coach so we wills ee how that ends up shaking out.

by John Berkowitz on Jan 6, 2009 2:31 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

GA’s might work for TE’s if you can get a guy that really knows that position. I’d much rather a GA handles TE’s than QB’s, that’s for sure…

Mainly I’m bummed that we won’t get Loeffler. He’s an awfully good QB coach, and the guy that Tom Brady credits for his success. And I do think it would be better if Sarkisian isn’t so tied down with specific position coaching duties that he can spend adequate time overseeing the entire operation. It’s great that he trusts Holt to run the defense, but he has to keep his fingers in the mix to a certain extent since he’s effectively the CEO of the coaching staff.

by kirkd on Jan 6, 2009 4:16 PM PST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Sark is still a better QB coach than Loeffler

yeah Loeffler would have been a nice luxury but no one is going to be more responsible for Sark’s early success or failure than Locker and Sark isn’t handing that responsibility off 100% to anyone. Loeffler had the cred to reduce some of the QB workload for Sark but not by much. Sark is going to be spread thin the first couple of years that’s just how it has to be.

by 206 on Jan 6, 2009 4:52 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

ST on the defensive side

Holt’s staff may have an extra coach, but that includes J Nansen who is also the special teams coach (the so called 3rd coordinator). It looks like the QB coach will be a GA.

by dawgdude on Jan 6, 2009 5:18 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

GA

It would be great if we could get a guy like Mark Bruener as a GA.

I amnot a big fan of GA QB coaches but I guess if Sark is in charge it could work.

by John Berkowitz on Jan 6, 2009 9:42 PM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

GA

Like you said, since Sark will be working very closely with the QB’s during practice I don’t think that having a GA as a QB coach just to run drills will be that big of a deal. Sark will coach during position drills but when it comes to the warm ups and pre practice the GA could step in. I like having GA’s, I think they can connect with the kids better sometimes than the coaches. Usually young, energetic, and can be a good go to with questions. Either way, Sark I am sure knows what he is doing!

by bigdave967 on Jan 7, 2009 6:20 AM PST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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