The offseason of change continued on Monday for the University of Washington football team. As the Huskies prepared to welcome two coaches who will try to rebuild an ailing and inept defense, one of the players who helped resurrect the program from the depths of 0-12 will be leaving it early.
The school announced that junior running back Chris Polk had decided to forgo his senior season and apply for the NFL draft.
He will leave Washington as the school’s No. 2 career rushing leader with 4,049 yards – 57 yards behind the school record held by Napoleon Kaufman.
“Chris had a terrific career at Washington and deserves the opportunity to move on to the next level,” UW coach Steve Sarkisian said in a press release. “We wish him nothing but the best in what I’m sure will be a great professional career.”
Meanwhile, the Huskies’ “national search” to replace defensive coordinator Nick Holt took a little more than 48 hours. After multiple reports broke early Monday morning, the school made it official later in the day, announcing it had hired Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox to be its new defensive coordinator. They will also hire Volunteers linebacker coach Peter Sirmon.
Wilcox, 35, and Sirmon, 34, have Northwest roots, having both played at Oregon. Wilcox was born in Junction City, Ore., and was a standout defensive back there, even being named to the 1994 News Tribune Northwest Nuggets. Sirmon is a Walla Walla native, who played for the Ducks from 1996-99 before going onto a seven-year NFL career with the Tennessee Titans.
“I am excited to welcome Justin and Peter to Washington,” Sarkisian said, “as they are two of the brightest young coaches in the country. Both are natives of the Northwest and have strong recruiting ties in the area, which compliments their tremendous coaching abilities.”
Before spending the last two seasons at Tennessee, Wilcox developed into a hot coaching commodity as the defensive coordinator at Boise State. He helped lead the Broncos to an undefeated season in 2009. Under Wilcox, the Broncos were ranked third nationally in scoring defense in 2008, giving up just 12.6 points a game. In 2009, Boise State was 14th in the NCAA in scoring defense and total defense and third in turnover margin.
Wilcox also spent three seasons as a linebackers’ coach at Cal.
“I’m grateful for this opportunity,” Wilcox said in the release. “Washington is a place where you can win big, and I’m excited to work with Coach Sarkisian in developing a championship-caliber football program. Our first order of business is hitting the recruiting trail, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Polk’s announcement was not a surprise. The fourth-year junior had little left to prove on a college playing field. His name is firmly embedded atop the Huskies’ record books.
Polk, who was named the team’s most valuable the last three seasons, is one of two players in Huskies history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in three seasons, and one of seven players in Pacific-12 Conference history to rush for more than 4,000 career yards.
He holds UW career records for carries (799), 100-yard games (21) and average yards rushing per game (101.2).
“Not to take anything away from a guy by the name of Jake Locker, but (Polk is) probably been the biggest reason why we’ve climbed as quickly as we’ve climbed from the depths of 0 and 12,” Sarkisian said. “Our ability to win all of those times that had gotten tough on us, to rely on No. 1 to run the football, to win tough games late in the season. It’s not only physical but mental toughness to take on those amounts of carries, and to practice the way he’s practiced speaks volumes.”
Polk was originally committed to USC but changed his mind and signed with Washington. His freshman season ended prematurely because of knee surgery. He earned his degree this spring in American Ethnic Studies.
“The growth that he’s made from the day we stepped on campus, not only on the football field but in his personal life, in the classroom, has been the thing that has probably been most impressive to me,” Sarkisian said. “As coaches, there’s little things that make you proud along the way, and he’s definitely one of them.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
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