USC ties aside, UW football seeking its identity

Considering all the bold and intoxicating promises Steve Sarkisian has made thus far in his opening act, this was easily his most sheepish pledge.

After poaching his good friend, USC defensive coordinator Nick Holt, from his old team, Sarkisian flashed a boyish grin and declared he was done with the Trojanification of the Washington football program.

"I think that's the last one," the new Huskies coach and ex-USC offensive coordinator said. "So you don't have to worry about any other SC guys coming."

What, Pete Carroll isn't also joining the staff as genius emeritus?

Darn.

With both of Carroll's coordinators and a few other new assistants with USC ties on the staff, we might have to call this team the TrojHuskies for a while, at least until the coaches forge a true purple-and-gold identity. In the meantime, a question remains about whether this hiring strategy will make the Huskies true challengers to USC in the near future.

The Huskies are attempting to do something very rare in contemporary college football. Seldom do you see an understudy leave his mentor's side, go directly into intra-conference competition and become a true rival to the mentor.

The reasons for this vary, but a big one is that major college-football programs are still reluctant to hire coordinators who've never been head coaches, especially within their own conference. We can use the likes of Georgia's Mark Richt and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops to prove that former coordinators from big-time programs can go straight to premier jobs without hiccups. But even Richt and Stoops, who came from Florida State and Florida, respectively, left for schools in different conferences and never had to slay their old bosses to restore their programs.

Sarkisian must do so, however. Last week, he talked of his last game with USC, of leaving the Rose Bowl victorious once again and saying to himself, "Someday, we're gonna be back."

To do that, he must beat Carroll and USC.

The Huskies, who are collecting a strong staff of young and aggressive recruiters, should be able to haul in impressive talent in the years to come, but the Trojans figure to always have an advantage there. So then you must wonder whether Washington can do more with less, through great coaching strategy (the Huskies will employ USC's pro-style system), through finding the right players for what they want to do, and through inspiring the players to compete with incredible intensity, togetherness and confidence.

Otherwise, the Huskies will merely be a lesser USC. And historically, this school has been much more than that.

"It starts with me," Sarkisian said when asked how his coaching staff can carve a Huskies identity. "I can't try to be Pete Carroll. I have to be Steve Sarkisian. Nick is going to be Nick Holt. The things we incorporate will be similar, but there will be some changes, I'm sure, so that we do what's going to be successful for us."

There is one coach at a BCS school who has had some success doing what Sarkisian hopes to do — Mike Leach of Texas Tech, whom some believe Washington athletic director Scott Woodward should've offered the job to before he hired Sarkisian.

Leach was Stoops' offensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 1999 before leaving for Tech. In nine seasons, he has managed to make the Red Raiders a threat to both Oklahoma and Texas. But even though they beat Oklahoma in 2007 and Texas last season, the Red Raiders will probably never be considered a peer of the Big 12 top dogs.

The difference at Washington is that the Huskies have a stunning tradition. Can the past become the present again?

"There are two national programs in the Pac-10," Woodward said. "Sarkisian and Holt came from one of them, and we're the other."

Those are bold words, considering the Huskies finished 0-12 this past season. But it will take that kind of daring approach to fully restore the program.

If you're looking for some inspiration in this challenge, consider the most celebrated mentee vs. mentor intra-conference rivalry of all time: Bo Schembechler vs. Woody Hayes.

Schembechler, a former Hayes assistant at Ohio State, took the Michigan job via Miami of Ohio before the 1969 season. The year before that, Ohio State beat Michigan 50-14, and Hayes was so ruthless against his rival he even went for two-point conversion after scoring near the end. Supposedly when asked why he went for two, Hayes said, "Because I couldn't go for three."

Enter Schembechler the next year. Michigan upset Ohio State 24-12, one of the most surprising victories in college football history. Over the next decade, Hayes and Schembechler balanced their friendship with their legendary fierce desire to beat each other and intensified the undisputed top rivalry in college football.

Sarkisian-Carroll (and Washington-USC) could never match that standard. Then again, Schembechler never had the audacity to snatch one of Hayes' coordinators.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com. For his Extra Points blog, visit seattletimes.com/sport.