If a person with no knowledge of Saturday’s outcome stumbled upon Steve Sarkisian’s Monday press conference, they likely would have assumed that the Huskies lost to Eastern Washington.
The University of Washington coach talked and sounded like a man whose team had lost, not won.
His demeanor was far different than just after the game, when Sarkisian seemed relieved and somewhat satisfied to have survived with a 30-27 victory against the tough Eagles.
On Monday, he was anything but satisfied. Watching the game recording brought him no solace, just frustration. It wasn’t about missed assignments, poor technique or physical mistakes. It was about attitude.
“I thought we lacked energy,” he said. “I thought we lacked enthusiasm. I didn’t think we were physical at all, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So ultimately that stuff has to start with me. I need to coach better. I need to motivate better. We need to be better prepared than we were Saturday, from an emotional standpoint for sure.”
And that preparation wasn’t going to wait until practice.
“Oh, it’s going to start at 1:15 in our team meeting,” he said.
What will be said?
“We’ll address things,” he said. “We need to understand when things are acceptable and what things aren’t. There are standards that have been set here – by them, because they have shown us what they’re capable of doing and the way they’re capable of playing. … And now we’re held to those standards. When we don’t play to those standards, we need to be accountable to that. They’ll be addressed … .”
For senior captain Cort Dennison, having Sarkisian question enthusiasm and energy hurts a little.
“As a team, we pride ourselves on being high tempo with high enthusiasm,” Dennison said. “I’m going to make sure we are all in the game, and it’s not just going to be the players on the field. It’s going to be a whole team effort. It can’t be just 11 guys. I think we’ll be a totally different team on Saturday.”
But Dennison knows they can’t wait till then.
“Everything in this program starts with practice,” he said. “I think this will be (a) very up-tempo, enthusiastic week of practice.”
It goes beyond enthusiasm and pep. Sarkisian wants a more aggressive approach.
He thinks the entire team has moments of playing tentatively, afraid to make mistakes.
“After evaluating the film, I really feel like we played not to lose,” he said. “And that’s disappointing to me. We played much too cautious, much too cautious a brand of football. That is the last thing I want our teams to play with, a cautious mentality. We should be aggressive, we should be relentless … . For a team, that I’m coaching to play that way is one of the most disappointing things that I’ve seen around here. And so we’ll address it and we’ll get right.”
Sarkisian admitted to doing the same thing when quarterback Keith Price sprained his knee and Jermaine Kearse left the game with a sprained ankle.
“If we put (Price) back on the field to play that means he’s good enough to compete and play and we should have stayed more aggressive than we were,” he said. “With that coupled with Jermaine being out, it didn’t taste right. It didn’t feel great watching the film, the rhythm of what we were doing offensively didn’t feel right to me.”
So now the task is rebuilding swagger. The Huskies had it all fall camp, then lost it.
“That was one of my concerns: what would we really be like when the lights came on?,” Sarkisian said. “So now that’s coaching, now that’s motivating, now that falls upon me, because it’s not about talent. I think we’re plenty good enough. We can play; we can cover; we’ve got good athletes; we can rush the passer. We don’t need to be cautious or concerned with what might happen if I’m wrong. Go play.”
INJURY UPDATES
Price was limited in practice Monday and was noticeably limping. He did early throwing drills, but did not participate in team drills. Backup Nick Montana guided the first-team offense. … It was difficult to tell Kearse had been injured. He also practiced and showed no effects of the sprained ankle. He didn’t have the ankle taped on the outside of shoe. He ran well, had no trouble getting out of his cuts and he made a terrific leaping catch. … Cornerback Quinton Richardson practiced fully. He had his ankle heavily taped, but he moved well. Interestingly, Richardson practiced with the No. 1 unit as the nickel back instead of Justin Glenn, who was with the No. 2 defense. Greg Ducre remained at the outside corner, while the stronger and more physical Richardson bumped inside and played. … Linebacker Garrett Gilliland (concussion) did not practice as expected.
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.