Pre Spring Reports - Offensive Coaching Staff

by John Berkowitz on Mar 27, 2009 6:00 AM PDT

If you want to pick the one position with the most importance to the Washington football program going into spring camp it would be the new coaching staff. Washington cleaned house after a 0-12 season in 2008 and Steve Sarkisian leads a crew that needs to enact a culture change pronto!

Sarkisian takes the full reign of a football program for the first time this season. The 34 year old rookie head coach has impressed on lookers so far by really getting after it in recruiting and overhauling the strength and conditioning programs.

Sarkisian and his staff already have five recruits secured for 2010 and most observers feel he has the makings of a top ten recruiting class next season. The new staff has created a lot of excitement locally and up and down the West coast.

In the weight room Ivan Lewis was given the job of getting the current players into shape for spring ball. A few weeks ago we heard the offensive lineman were averaging 11 pounds of weight loss per man. It will be interesting to see how the team tests out on March 31st when drills begin.

We don't have a lot of information from the film room but Jake Locker obviously has been spending the off season getting his thumb back in shape and learning the nunaces of the new offense.

One thing we will be looking at closely at over the spring is how quickly UW is picking up the new schemes. Everything is going to be different as UW abandons the spread and adopts a pro style offense.

Sarkisian serves as his own offensive coordinator even though he will have help from Doug Nussmeier (Passing) and the "Prince of Darkness" Dan Cozzetto (Running).

Nussmeier is a former NFL QB who has gotten rave reviews as a QB coach in the both the pro's and college. Nussmeier, who was inducted to the University of Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008, along with fellow Vandal alum and Husky assistant coach Joel Thomas, came to the UW after one season as offensive coordinator at Fresno State.

He joined the Fresno State staff after having spent two seasons as the quarterbacks coach for the St. Louis Rams on the staff of head coach Scott Linehan, a former UW offensive coordinator.

Cozzetto is a tough as nails drill instructor who will make every practice a tough learning session as he builds skill and toughness among his charges.

Cozzetto, who was the Huskies' offensive line coach in 2003, comes to the UW after having spent the 2007 and 2008 seasons as tight ends coach at Arizona State. He had also previously worked as the offensive coordinator and o-line coach at ASU from 1992 to 1999. We are talking about a longtime Dennis Erickson assistant.

Joel Thomas from Purdue will take over the running game. Thomas was pursued all winter by NFL teams interested in his services. Thomas, who was previously also a graduate assistant at Purdue, return to the Boilermakers staff in 2006 after two years at Idaho as co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach under Nick Holt, then the Vandals' head coach and now the UW defensive coordinator and assistant head coach.

In 2002 and 2003, Thomas was running backs coach at Louisville. Under his tutelage, the Cardinals ranked 10th in the nation in rushing offense (228.2 yards per game) in 2003. Thomas also briefly worked at Idaho as running backs coach in the spring of 2002.

Dougherty has spent the last five seasons on the coaching staff at the University of San Diego. This past season, he served as the Toreros' offensive coordinator.

"Jimmie is a bright young coach," Sarkisian said. "I'm excited to have him on the staff. He'll do a great job with our wide receiver group."

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Thanks

John,
I just want to thank you for all the insight you are providing. I’m very interested to see how the spring shakes out. Since everybody seems to have a top ten I’m submitting my top 10.
1) Jake
2) Daniel
3) Mason
4) EJ…when he played in 2007 he was our best defensive player
5)the Flea
6)Tolar
7)Boyce I’m going on faith that he is going to give us the blocking and production that we’ve been lacking
8) Batts if he gets in he will be an immediate impact on our secondary
9)Middelton I look for big things from out tight ends this year. Anybody that watched USC knows Sark is going to exploit our mismatches
10) Thompson if he develops look for big things from him opposite Daniel.

by Lotar on Mar 27, 2009 7:30 AM PDT reply actions

Love this staff.

Hopefully they can get these kids motavated

by Snostrebla on Mar 27, 2009 9:31 AM PDT reply actions

It's all about sense of urgency

We haven’t felt a sense of urgency for so long. Whether you believe it or not hiring Neuheisel was our biggest downfall. Neuheisel abandoned all of our traditions. Instead of being labeled a tough football team, we were looked at more as a finesse team. Gilby (love him to death) got his dream job, and couldn’t turn it around before it all came crashing down on him. Ty didn’t bring any excitement with him other then some very articulate phrases. So in essense we haven’t had a sense of urgency around here since Jimbo Lambright departed.

What it came down to was a lack of vision by Washington brass. One bad hire after another destroyed the jewel of the Northwest, where we haven’t been that tough-as-nails Washington teams that everybody was accustomed to.

Now finally we’ve got some members of the Washington brass who gets it, folks that sees a path to success. Woodward was the right guy for the job. He came from a school that knows a little something about playing tough organized football (LSU) and knows hiring a coach and a coaching staff with those same principles will lead to success. The way I see it, we have been in the same boat as Nebraska. Both programs lost their success and swagger. Both programs have suffered for the same reason. We both have made ill-advised coaching hires in the past. Sarkisian is the answer for the Huskies but the verdict is still out on Bo Pelini for the Huskers.

Steve Sarkisian was the best coach for the job. I’m saying that even before he coaches a game, I am that confident. What he’s done here so far speaks volumes as to what he’s going to bring us. Ty was all about the blanket statement “Lets be champions”. Sure that is all good and all, but he forgot to mention how we were going to achieve that. Sark has said very little about future success and that’s GOOD! Why? Because to achieve something you’ve got to put in the hours of work to see it through. Ty said it, but Sark is doing it. BIG difference.

Go Dawgs! WOOF!!!

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Mar 27, 2009 11:04 AM PDT reply actions

NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

We can’t agree, it’s not allowed!!!

Neuheisel and the fraud that hired him are completely to blame for the downfall of Husky Nation. No queston!

Is Sarkisian the best coach for the job, WAY too early to tell. I love what he has done so far, but let’s not set him up for failure. I have every reason to believe Mike Leach could have lit up the Pac 10 at Washington.

"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"

by Lear Pilot on Mar 27, 2009 4:56 PM PDT up reply actions

Sark

Lear I respect your opinions,but I can’t see Steve Sarkisian failing. If he fails then surely his career as a head coach will be short lived. This guy is too smart and works too hard to fail. The good coaches? When all of them were young they were a young Steve Sarkisian. To make it in this business you have to be clever and work hard. That was one reason why Willingham failed here. Ty had resources galore and either simply didn’t use them or abandoned them, and was too stuck in his old fashioned ways.

Mike Leach? Yes a brilliant head coach and gets a lot out of mediocre talent. I’m quite certain his intellect would’ve fit in well with the predominant Seattle-intellect fanbase, but he is sort of quirky if you ask me. If you have a love affair with pirates then surely a few screws have come loose. How would he have welcome the alumni, boosters, media, students, and fans? It has been said that Leach likes his privacy and doesn’t like to be bothered by outsiders of the RedRaider program. Didn’t we just go thru a regime like that under the Willingham flag? And whose to say Leach doesn’t get burned out with coaching? When you are as intellegent as Leach supposively is, don’t you think the little things become a bore? People who are intelligent strive for the next big challenge. All I am saying is I think their was the possibility that Leach wouldn’t have been the right fit for the job. He loves Lubbuck, TX because it is obsure with very little media mongers. Seattle has a rich history of those types of mongers.

I liked Leach at first, but from what I’ve seen from Sarkisian in just 3 months- Ty couldn’t do in 4 years, 6 years if you add in the golden domer years.

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Mar 28, 2009 10:05 AM PDT up reply actions

You can't see Sark failing?

Are you for real? There have been plenty of hard working coaches that have failed. Great coaches have failed. I knew you were drinking the kool-aid, but know I see that you are completely blinded from reality. Failure is only one injury away, you saw this team without Locker last year, do you think we could win without him this year? You lose all credibility when you make a statement like Sark can’t fail.

Leach – Yes he is quirky, but he wins. He has a proven track record of winning in a very tough division of the Big 12. That’s far more than Sark can say.

"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"

by Lear Pilot on Mar 30, 2009 6:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Good coaches...

Good system with time will equal success.

by doubledeucedawg on Mar 27, 2009 12:15 PM PDT reply actions

Good coaches

It’s all about the coaches! If Georgia Tech can win running the triple option, Tulsa can win running the spread, and Buffalo can win, well a football game, then its ALL about the coaches. Urban Meyer won 10+ games within two years at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. It had to be the coaching.

"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"

by Lear Pilot on Mar 27, 2009 5:02 PM PDT up reply actions

Meyer

Or maybe he has always been at the right place at the right time. He is very knowledgable I’ll give him that. To stay clear of South Bend and take the job in Gainsville was huge for his career. ND has become a career breaker- no real substance talent is going to Notre Dame, particularly defensive talent. Florida has been a pipeline for talent since the ole’ ball coach days.

I respect Meyer like I respected Jordan- doesn’t necessarily make me a big fan of him.

All I saw was purple

by crazidawg on Mar 28, 2009 9:46 AM PDT up reply actions

You are hilarious!

Right time, Right place – that’s the best you can do? Was Bowling Green on the verge of greatness? How about Utah? If it happened only once I might agree, twice is stretching it, three time is damn good coaching by an offensive mastermind.

"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"

by Lear Pilot on Mar 30, 2009 6:09 PM PDT up reply actions

Agreed...

…at some point you have to say that “this guy would be successful wherever he went”. The thing is that’s measurable. When I say that, do you really think he would turn around any of the cellar dwellers immediately? No, I don’t think so but I believe that whatever program he went to, you would see immediate improvement and the trend would be up over the years.

Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions

by dawgfan22 on Mar 30, 2009 7:22 PM PDT up reply actions