Originally published Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Washington football coaches committed secondary rules violation

Huskies coaches rented a fog machine and played a siren while recruits ran out of the Husky Stadium tunnel during their visits last weekend. A school official said the activity violated a rule about engaging in "game-day simulations." The school will file a report to the Pac-10 and to the NCAA.

By Bob Condotta

Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington football coaches committed what the school is calling a secondary violation during recruiting visits last weekend, an athletic department official said Wednesday.

John Morris, the school's senior associate athletic director for compliance, said a violation of an NCAA rule regarding simulating game-day environments occurred during visits last weekend.

The rule in question prohibits recruits from engaging in "game-day simulations."

Morris said UW violated that rule by renting a fog machine and playing its siren while recruits ran out of the Husky Stadium tunnel, similar to how they might be introduced on game days.

Washington will file a report of the violation to the Pac-10 and the NCAA. Morris said the precedent for penalties in such cases is a letter of admonishment and rules training. He expects the same in this case.

"This is clearly not on the more serious end of the scale," he said.

Morris said an allegation that the recruits also received personalized jerseys is "100 percent" not true. Players are allowed to be shown jerseys in a locker, but not to be provided with jerseys.

The violations came to light after several recruits were quoted speaking about them in stories on Web sites largely devoted to recruiting, Morris said.

Morris said UW coaches thought the fog machine did not violate the rule since it is not a regular part of UW's game-day environment.

"They were just looking for a way to make the visits fun," he said.

Morris said he is confident there were no other violations related to the visits, which were the first for new coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff. Thirteen players were in for visits.

Morris said he spoke with Sarkisian and "he was remorseful and regretted that it happened and said if he had known it was going to be a violation it never would have happened."

Morris said the violation "will not impact UW's ability to recruit or sign to letters of intent" any of the players involved.

The rule in question, Morris said, is relatively new, adopted in 2004 after Morris said schools were "trying to one-up each other with this sort of thing."

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

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