A couple more to answer before heading out to practice. ...

Q: I'm just interested if you can ask Coach Sark his thoughts on the reports that the reason he and Norm Chow's relationship has "cooled" is because of the fact that Chow had his play calling duties taken away at USC.

A: I actually asked Sarkisian about that last December when he I wrote this profile of him for our paper. It's in the lower half of the story. That basically explains what I know of the situation.

Q: Sark has had success against SEC teams when he was at SC against Auburn/Arkansas. Can you ask ask him if there's something that SEC teams do
that he's figured out, or was it just that SC has superior talent. I guess the point of the question is can his schemes here at UW be sucessful against SEC teams such as LSU.

A: I'll ask that at some point but I think it's mostly that USC had superior talent to those teams when he was there. Also, though they are in the same conference, not sure that being able to beat Auburn and Arkansas would portend success against LSU. Here's one example I can think of to dismiss the notion that a coach's success against one team at one place will mean anything when he moves to another school --- Tyrone Willingham was 7-0 against Cal before coming to UW.

Q: Football is a complete team sport, 11 players working in unison to accomplish a goal. Against LSU, USC and some of the other "top" teams, does the UW just not have the talent to compete (i.e. Idaho, Nevada, etc) with those teams?

A: Well, we're going to find out, but my hunch is that right now, the answer is no (though depends on how many teams you define as "top.'') I know some of you hate me referencing the 0-12 record of last year, but it's pretty hard to ignore. There's lots of blame to go around for that, but talent was definitely one of them. I don't think it's realistic to think you go from 0-12 one year to being able to consistently beat the USC's of the world the next (and consistently is definitely the key word there. An upset or two won't surprise me. A slew of them would).

Q: I know most of the football players take a very light course load during the fall, only a class or two. However, since UW doesn't start till the last week of September is there any possibility that UW has some kind of advantage being able to just focus on football the first three weeks while other schools are already starting classes?

A: Well, if it is an advantage, it certainly hasn't looked like it the last few years. But first off, they have to still take a minimum load of classes so they aren't just taking nothing. Also, there are four other Pac-10 schools on the quarter system that also have a similar schedule --- I think Oregon and UCLA are also among those on the quarter system. So that's one of those things that I guess you could think is an advantage if you want, but I haven't ever gotten much of a sense that the numbers bear it out.

All for now.