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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huskies’ staff aims to work in unison

Mike Allende Everett Herald

SEATTLE – Washington football coach Tyrone Willingham spent much of Tuesday’s meeting with the media discussing what he looks for in coaches and what he expects from his coaches this season.

He said that even though coaches may share different interests, they have to be similar in what they expect from their team.

“You have to share similar values,” Willingham said. “I would hope everyone in our office shares similar values as we look at young people, work with our football team, our drive, our intensity, our focus, our knowledge. I would hope there are a lot of similarities there. But at the same time, we’re different people.”

Willingham said he prefers to have his coordinators not also be position coaches. That is the case with defensive coordinator Kent Baer but not with offensive coordinator Tim Lappano, who is also the quarterbacks coach. It’s easier, Willingham said, to achieve that goal with the defensive coordinator than with the offensive coordinator, because the positions on offense are less interchangeable than they are on offense.

Willingham said there have been instances where he’s had separate coaches for defensive tackles and defensive ends, or outside linebackers and inside linebackers, and just used one coach for his secondary.

“(It depends on) what I’m comfortable with, what our team needs, and what we can do,” Willingham said.

In terms of coaches’ placement this year, defensive backs coach Steven Wilks, linebackers coach Chris Tormey, Lappano and running backs coach Trent Miles will be in the press box during games.

“It changes with every coordinator,” Willingham said. “Where he’s comfortable at. You like as much as possible to have what you call a clinical environment. So therefore they’re not distracted by a lot of things going on around them.”

Lappano will call the plays during the game. But how the plays are relayed onto the field is still being determined.

“We’ll do it a variety of ways,” Willingham said. “The quietest way is to send it in through a player. But then you also run the risk of players forgetting a play. It’s amazing how through the heat of the moment you forget a portion of it and turn around and look at the sideline.”

Willingham said having several different ways of getting a play onto the field is crucial in keeping opponents from figuring out what you’re doing.

“At Stanford, one of our assistant coaches had a son who was darn good at picking up their signals,” Willingham said. “He could read them like you couldn’t believe.”

Rather than have a split-squad practice as originally planned Tuesday, Willingham held just one full-squad practice. The team will also have a full squad workout Saturday instead of the offense and defense practicing separately.

Willingham said he would announce to the team who the captains for the Air Force game would be Friday night.