Huskies' Steve Sarkisian says new offense will play to QB Jake Locker's talents

Huskies quarterback Jake Locker could be the player most impacted by the hire of Steve Sarkisian as Washington's new football coach.

Sarkisian plans to bring with him the basics of the offense he ran at USC, a prostyle, two-back attack that hasn't traditionally featured a lot of running by the quarterback. Locker, meanwhile, has running ability so uncommon that former coach Tyrone Willingham had changed his offense accordingly, putting in a lot of elements of the spread option.

But after getting his first meeting with his new coach, Locker said Monday afternoon he's excited about the hire and thinks it might be what the Huskies need right now.

"I think the energy he brought, everybody felt it," Locker said of Sarkisian's talk with the team Monday morning. "He's a younger guy, I think guys feel they might be able to relate to him a little bit better. I was very pleased with him, and I think he'll be able to bring a lot to this football team."

As for how the offense might change, Locker said he'll go along with whatever the coach decides.

"I came here because I knew I would be able to run the football," Locker said.

He said that the offense has allowed him to use one of his strengths.

"So I hope that's not completely taken out and I still have the opportunity to do that at times," he added. "If it's limited, I'm OK with that, or in a different kind of way, I'm open to that too. Really, whatever he brings in. He's had success doing what he's doing, and I'm going to believe in it 100 percent and do the best to put our team in position to win."

Sarkisian said he plans to keep the offense similar to what it was at USC but that he will tweak things around Locker's skills. However, he also said he doesn't want Locker to bear the burden of having to be the entire offense.

"We are going to play to his talents and that is going to come through evaluation," Sarkisian said. "I'll look at Jake over the last two years, see what he does well, what he doesn't do well. See the potential of the things that we can change to get him to do other things well and how it fits around him with the personnel that we have. We would be dummies to come in here and say this is our offense and you guys make it fit, make it work. We are not going to do that. We have a system in place that is very flexible, that is going to fit into the talents of not Jake but our entire football team.

"Jake is going to be part of our offense, he is not going to be the entire offense and I think that will be a breath of fresh air for him, knowing we will put him in a position to be successful but we are also going to put the other 10 guys in a position to be successful."

Locker said he was recruited by USC but mostly as a safety and not by Sarkisian.

Sarkisian coached quarterbacks at USC and served as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. He plans to continue calling plays at UW but said he will hire an offensive coordinator as well as a quarterbacks coach.

"We will have a quarterback coach title because it takes a lot of work to mentor a quarterback, takes a lot of offseason work, in-season work," he said. "So we will have basically two of us heading this thing up. But I will work hand-in-hand closely with Jake and Ronnie [Fouch] and the guys we bring in. They will play well."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com