High-energy coach Steve Sarkisian gets festive reception at UW

Steve Sarkisian strolled into the Don James Center holding the hand of his 6-year-old daughter, Ashley, and carrying the weight of the expectations of Huskies fans who expect him to turn around a struggling program.

What he didn't have was any baggage.

This wasn't Tyrone Willingham after getting fired at Notre Dame, Rick Neuheisel having to explain his controversial move from Colorado, or Keith Gilbertson and Jim Lambright accepting the job under awkward circumstances.

The news conference to announce his hiring was, instead, a celebration of hope for both the 34-year-old Sarkisian and a Huskies program looking for some life after this year's 0-12 season.

It was exactly that thought Sarkisian said he shared with the team shortly before meeting the media.

"The biggest message was that this is a clean slate," he said. "Whatever has gone on before — I wasn't here, we're starting off on a brand new foot, with me, with the program. I think, for a lot of guys, it's a chance for a new beginning."

And, too, for a program that some felt was unduly restrained the past four years by Willingham, who restricted practice access to fans, boosters and media. The news conference itself was evidence of a new era, a rather raucous affair attended by several hundred fans. Sarkisian's kids even got into the act. His 3-year-old son Brady finally tired of sitting and sauntered onto the stage, where his father picked him up and continued to answer questions.

Sarkisian said he was caught off-guard by the enthusiastic, if well-orchestrated, reception, but said it's something he embraces, saying he plans to open practices to fans and media.

"We've got 105 kids on this football team, but they're not the only ones making this thing and making this experience what it's going to become," Sarkisian said. "We want people around us, we want people seeing us."

It was that sort of youthful enthusiasm — he is the youngest head coach at UW since Jim Owens was hired at age 29 in 1957 — that attracted UW president Mark Emmert and athletic director Scott Woodward to Sarkisian. They bypassed head coaches to take a chance on a coordinator unproven as a head coach.

Woodward said he was also struck by Sarkisian's success as a player at Brigham Young — he led the Cougars to a 14-1 record in 1996 when the only loss was at Husky Stadium — and as a coach. Sarkisian has been an assistant seven of the past eight years at USC as Pete Carroll rebuilt the program into a national powerhouse. He most recently has served as assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

"Two words just stuck out: winner and passion," Woodward said. "Those were the ones that were just overarching in my mind. I just kept coming back to it. He's been a winner everywhere he's been, every step of his life, and he's done it with hard work and by being tough. And I think that's what Husky football is all about, and it just kept coming back to that."

Woodward said the job was not offered to anyone else.

"We went down the aisle, but we never got to the alter with anyone but Steve," Woodward said.

Sarkisian said he went after the job aggressively.

"I did everything in my power to try to go get this job," he said. "I went after this thing full fledged. I wanted to be here more so than anywhere else in the world."

Some ex-players in attendance listened to Sarkisian and decided he might be exactly what the program needs right now.

"It's a game of emotion, a game of passion, and that's been lacking out here," said legendary UW quarterback Sonny Sixkiller. "I've observed him on the sidelines at USC and you see that true love between he and his players and that excitability, and I'm just excited to see some of that around here."

Word of Sarkisian's hire leaked Thursday night and became official over the weekend. The school announced Monday that he agreed to a deal that will guarantee him $1.75 million in 2009, $1.85 million in 2010, $2 million in 2011, $2.1 million in 2012 and $2.3 million in 2013. He also has incentives for academic and on-field success that can add another $1.5 million (including $500,000 for winning the national title and $350,000 for winning the Pac-10 title).

When the search began in late October, word was UW was willing to pay more than $2.5 million a year. The Huskies brought Fresno State's Pat Hill and Texas Tech's Mike Leach to Seattle for interviews, and they also talked with Seahawks coach-in-waiting Jim Mora and Cincinnati's Brian Kelly.

But Woodward and Emmert resisted the notion that they settled by paying less for a coordinator with no previous head coaching experience.

"The size of the salary wasn't a factor in it," Emmert said. "The only question was, is this the right person for our team? And he is. We had chances to hire sitting head coaches, and they probably would have cost more money, but this decision wasn't based on the price."

Sarkisian began making recruiting calls Monday and visited Bellevue and Skyline high schools. He also plans to meet with all of the team's current assistant coaches, and he says there's a chance some could be retained. But he said he also plans to take his time filling his staff.

He also will have a dual role for the next four weeks as he returns to Los Angeles to handle offensive-coordinator duties, something Woodward said he encourages.

Sarkisian, the youngest of seven children, said he thinks the Huskies need improvement physically and mentally. He said he plans to hire a new strength coach.

"We need to become a faster football team. Right now, where we're at, this team was built on strength and bulk, and we need to get speed back into this program. Speed on defense, most notably. Get guys flying around the football."

He also said the team needs to believe again that it can win, something he saw was lacking when the Huskies played at USC on Nov. 1 and lost 56-0.

"This is a better football team than 0-12, and I think you all would agree with that," he said.

He added, "Are they a 12-0 team yet? I don't know, but I do know they are better than 0-12. We just need to change the mind-set and the culture here right off."

And when that happens, he said anything is possible — he even held out the goal of a bowl game in 2009.

"It's about time for us to get back to the Rose Bowl," he said. "It's about time for us to get back competing for conference championships, it's about time for us to get back competing for national championships, and that's what our goal is, no question."

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