Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian knows quarterbacks and when Washington went defeated in 2008, they made sarkisian, the former USC assistant, their head coach. Washington had the potential at quarterback and a storied history, albeit not Notre dame, but these helped lure Sarkisian, the former BYU quarterback.
Sarkisian came to the UW with a wealth of experience as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. His string of success is nearly unprecedented as, during his time at USC, he has coached two Heisman Trophy winners and overseen one of the nation’s most consistent and dominant offenses. His bio on Washington’s website is very in-depth if you care for more information, but here is an excerpt:
"Sarkisian spent 2007 and 2008 as the Trojans’ assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. He had also previously served as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach (2005-06), quarterbacks coach (2002-03) and as an offensive assistant (2001) at USC, for a total of seven seasons there. During his seven seasons as a member of the Trojans’ staff, the team has posted a combined 74-15 record. As offensive coordinator, his record was 22-3."
Washington was excited for a reason. The article shows that in his second season, Sarkisian had already taken this team to third place in the Pac-10 with consecutive wins over perennial powerhouse, USC and he finished with a win over #18 Nebraska in the first bowl game for the Huskies in a number of years.
Sarkisian is one of the two main reasons Locker stayed for his senior season, risking draft stock. You see, Locker and the other recruits from 2006 wanted to win a bowl game. They set out to do it together and he wanted to give it everything he had. Now when we look at this page about Sarkisian and see how well he was tutoring Locker in his Pro-style offense, it’s easy to see the advantage of staying one more season. Locker wanted to give it all and learn as much as he could. I’ll be surprised if this isn’t a huge selling point to the NFL.
An article by The Seattle Times has a few quotes from Sarkisian and Locker and the main points that you get from it are that Sarkisian was overly excited to have Locker back and even jokingly called him a 10-star recruit that day. He goes on to say that he did not want to pressure Locker into making his decision on coming back for his senior season, but that he showed Locker that QB’s that come out as JR’s usually have shorter careers and that the way they finished the 2009 season was a huge seller. Locker did not keep fans guessing, he announced he would stay when Sarkisian thought he was just going to “shoot the breeze” to the media.
I guess Locker is no Brett Favre.