Huskies’ offense untested

SEATTLE – With an offense that features just two projected starters who are entering their senior seasons, the University of Washington football team is not exactly a reservoir of football experience.

Then again, it doesn’t take Joe Paterno to know repetition when he sees it.

The Huskies’ so-called “new” offense, to the players running it, doesn’t seem all that different from what they’ve seen in the recent past.

“Every offense in the Pac-10 is the same,” sophomore tight end Kavario Middleton said with a shrug last week when asked to compare this year’s UW offense to the one run under Tyrone Willingham in recent seasons.

With seven starters returning from an offense that ranked near the bottom of the NCAA last season, and a similar system, the Huskies don’t appear to have the weapons to go to war with some of the Pac-10’s finest.

Except for one: Steve Sarkisian.

Using many of the same concepts that he ran while serving as coordinator at USC, Sarkisian will roam the UW sideline with the reputation for offensive ingenuity. His Trojans offenses were always among the nation’s best, and so even the most ardent Husky hater will enter this season with a curious eye on the “new” system.

“Coach Sark is an offensive genius,” said UW cornerback Justin Glenn, who has been working against Sarkisian’s offense at practices this fall. “People are going to see that. I think we’ll be able to do pretty well with the system that we’re in.”

The biggest question, of course, is talent. Any discussion about Sarkisian’s success at USC comes with the caveat that he had many of the nation’s top athletes at his disposal.

The question looms: Did the system make USC All-Americans like Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Dwayne Jarrett, or did the All-Americans make USC’s system?

Asked this week about his somewhat tarnished reputation as a play-caller, Sarkisian 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. You’ve just got to get the talented guys the ball.”

No one can argue that the Huskies have less talent than the Trojans. It’s conceivable that quarterback Jake Locker is the only player on UW’s offense who would challenge for a starting job at Sarkisian’s former school. But when Husky coaches talk about fitting this system to his talents, they’re not planning on employing any “Jake-Run-Left-And-10-Men-Block” offenses this season.

“We’ve got playmakers that we can feature, that can do things with the ball in their hands,” said receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty, who spent the past five seasons at the University of San Diego. “Obviously, Jake is a special guy, but we’ve also got guys around him.”

Using a similar system, the Huskies were worlds away from exciting during the Tyrone Willingham era.

What separates the current system from that one, on paper, is concepts. Sarkisian is known as more of an attacker, meaning he’ll take chances in an effort to get a big play.

“He’s going to call the offense very aggressive,” said UW running back Johri Fogerson, who faced Sarkisian’s USC offense while playing safety for the Huskies last season. “He coaches the offense like coach (Nick) Holt coaches the defense: really aggressive, keeping people on their toes. He never shows too many things the same way. He’s a smart coach.”