Is Washington coach Steve Sarkisian a rising star or product of USC system?

Asked one day why he decided to reopen Washington's practices to media and fans, Steve Sarkisian replied, "I don't have a whole lot to hide."

And come Saturday, he also will no longer have anywhere to hide.

In two days, when the Huskies begin the 2009 season with a game against LSU, the questions about Washington's newest football coach — the 25th in school history — will begin to be answered.

Was his success as an offensive coordinator at USC largely the result of working for Pete Carroll and with the Trojans' mammoth recruiting advantages? Or is he truly a coaching star on the rise?

And even if he proves to have more substance than just his association with USC — and early returns have been overwhelmingly positive — how long will it take to make the transition from hot young assistant to proven head coach?

These are the types of questions that typically arise with a new hire, but particularly one who has never been a head coach.

Sarkisian, 35, outwardly professes no pressure to prove himself. Asked during camp if he worried about a perception that his success at USC was due largely to his situation as much as his offensive play-calling prowess, he said, "I don't mind. Hopefully that's what they say about us here. When you play good, you've got to be pretty talented."

Still, until some hard data is in, the debate will continue, as it does for any new coach, all of whom are hired amid fanfare and optimism.

But for every Jeff Tedford — who had never been a head coach before taking over at California and immediately turning the Bears into winners — there are two or three Tom Holmoes.

Washington athletic director Scott Woodward, though, says Sarkisian's lack of head-coaching experience was never an issue for him, citing the success of Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Georgia's Mark Richt as first-time coaches.

After firing Tyrone Willingham, Woodward divided possible candidates into four categories — head coaches of BCS schools, coaches with NFL experience, coaches of non-BCS teams and coordinators.

"In each quadrant you have a success story," Woodward said. "This was one we were very comfortable with."

In fact, Woodward says he gets more comfortable by the day.

After a few early bumps in the road with a couple of minor recruiting violations, Sarkisian has seemed to hit all the right notes.

Fans, media and the university community have embraced the new transparency of open practices during spring and fall camps. Practices will be closed to the general public during the season, but still, it's a mind-boggling turnaround from the Willingham era.

Current players say the energy and enthusiasm of Sarkisian and his staff have been a welcome change.

And Sarkisian has already scored a few notable recruiting successes, such as landing a commitment from quarterback Nick Montana, son of Joe, part of a class that continues to be listed among the top 10 in early national ratings.

"It has exceeded my expectations," Woodward said. "I expected it, but not to this level. His grasp of the community, his grasp of Husky tradition. His grasp of what we have been here traditionally and what he wants to get it back to. He was a very quick study."

Woodward received a sense of that during an initial face-to-face interview with Sarkisian in November. The new UW AD made runs at established names like Texas Tech's Mike Leach, Missouri's Gary Pinkel, Tedford, TCU's Gary Patterson and Cincinnati's Brian Kelly (and at least, depending on whom you believe, a few feeler calls to Jim Mora, just in case). But none got to the finish line for a variety of reasons.

Not that it mattered, Woodward said, once he and UW president Mark Emmert interviewed Sarkisian.

"He was extremely organized and very methodical," Woodward said of Sarkisian, who went into the interview wanting to make sure the Huskies weren't just trying to grill him for info about USC's football machine. "But he also has a great vision. He was by far the best interview. Not even close. ... He had a clear vision of what this place is and what it can be and that was clear from day one."

It's a vision that's a mix of past and future.

Sarkisian, a star quarterback at BYU in 1995-96 before entering coaching, has embraced the tradition of the program at every opportunity, invoking the names of Don James and Jim Owens whenever given a chance, and inviting former players back for reunions — even hiring Marques Tuiasosopo as an assistant strength coach. He said this week he hopes his program can embody "the characteristics [James' teams] had when it was really rolling here."

It's hard to fathom, however, what James would have done with Twitter and other new technology, which Sarkisian has embraced. Along with a Twitter page, he also helped develop his own Web site, often posting such items as players and plays of the day from practice, each designed in part at luring recruits.

"It fits me," Sarkisian said.

That much of it might have been copied from USC and Carroll is another perception that doesn't bother Sarkisian.

"They've got a winning formula that has withstood the test of time, so I would be a fool to come up here and try to do everything different just to say I do things different than USC," Sarkisian said.

And ultimately, all that really matters is winning.

Sarkisian says the situation is better than might be expected of a team coming off an 0-12 season, citing, among other things, quarterback Jake Locker, the experience of the defensive front seven, particularly the linebackers, and a bevy of young skill players on offense.

Still, he's not ready to predict a Tedford-style turnaround.

"I don't," he says when asked if he has a win total in mind for this season. "I just us want to play hard."

Las Vegas has set an over-under for UW wins this season at 3 ½. And while that might not seem like much for long-suffering Huskies fans, it would actually rank among the best turnarounds for a first-year Pac-10 coach.

Tedford's 5 ½-game improvement in 2002 is at the top of the list with only five other first-year coaches guiding their teams to improvements of three games or more. Not that a quick start is a sign of long-lasting success — second on the list is Joe Kapp, who led Cal to a five-game improvement in 1982, including "The Play" win over Stanford, but was fired after five seasons having never had another winning record.

Most coaches have records close to what their teams had done the year before. If there's going to be a turnaround, it usually happens in year two or three. James, for instance, took over a 5-6 team and went 6-5 and 5-6 his first two seasons before guiding UW to the Rose Bowl in his third season.

Woodward says great improvement could be made this year without a corresponding huge jump in wins.

"It's subjective," he said of his expectations for this season. "It's not objective like number of wins or closeness of games or anything like that. It's how we play and how we perform and what and how we do it. That's going to be the most important thing is the subjective stuff. But I want to see marked improvement every year."

A tough schedule this year and a roster filled with underclassmen — there are just five seniors among the 23 position starters listed on the depth chart for this week's game — indicate the real breakthrough could come in 2010, when Locker would be a senior.

Woodward, though, needs the turnaround to happen as quickly as it can. Football revenue provides about 85 percent of the athletic department budget at UW, which like every other in the country is struggling to stay afloat in the wake of a challenging economy. Woodard made the decision to cut the men's and women's swimming programs.

And while Woodard thinks Sarkisian's hiring has helped, reality is that Washington's season-ticket sales are down about 3,000 from last year, the losing and the economy each contributing.

Sarkisian, however, says the process has to take its course — it could happen this year, or aybe in three years — saying only that he's confident the turnaround is coming. He remembers what an ex-coach once told him: "That we will be good when we get good."

"I try not to put a 'this is when we need to be good by' kind of thing on this because what if we are good before then?" Sarkisian said. "Now what are we shooting for? Or what if we hit that point and we're not where we want to be yet? Did we fail? So our goal is just to play hard every day and to get better every day."

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