After whirlwind offseason start, Sarkisian talks about his new staff

A few sleepless nights over the course of a season are nothing new for a head football coach. Call it a job requirement.

Steve Sarkisian had his fair share during a 2011 season that saw the Huskies edge their way into the Top 25 and then lose five of their last seven games, including a 67-56 loss to Baylor in the Alamo Bowl.

But in college football, there’s no rest for the weary.

In the days after his team’s final game, Sarkisian fired his friend and defensive coordinator Nick Holt, along with linebackers coach Mike Cox and safeties coach Jeff Mills. Shortly thereafter he found a replacement for Holt in Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and also picked up the Vols’ linebackers coach, Peter Sirmon, to replace Cox.

It was a busy 48 hours for Sarkisian.

“I didn’t sleep, quite honestly,” Sarkisian said in his first public interview since the Alamo Bowl’s postgame news conference. “It was 48 straight hours of trying to find the right guy to fit what we wanted to do here, of where I felt like I needed our program to go. It was a dead period in recruiting, and I wanted to work diligently, quickly but yet make sure we made the right hire.”

In the first 24 hours, he made his first contact with Wilcox. And 24 hours later, the school announced that the one-time Boise State defensive coordinator was coming to Washington..

“I think we hit a home run with Justin, and I couldn’t be more happy about it,” Sarkisian said.

Happy isn’t the word Sarkisian would use to describe having to fire his good friend Holt and the other two the coaches.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “As you go through this, you have to try to take your personal emotions out of it the best you can and put on the CEO hat of the organization and do what’s best for our football organization. I think the world of Nick Holt as a person, I think the world of Nick Holt as a coach, but it didn’t work and it just wasn’t right for a variety of reasons, and we just felt like the time was right to make a change.’’

Sarkisian wouldn’t detail exactly when he made the decision during a media conference call. Later, in a radio interview, he said the decision to fire Holt occurred the day after the Alamo Bowl.

Wilcox’s resume and past success at Boise State and Tennessee made it an easy hire – one that drew plenty of praise around college football.

“It speaks volumes about the perception of what Washington Husky football is about around the country,” Sarkisian said. “You talk about a guy who is a defensive coordinator in the SEC and did a fantastic job and had opportunities to go to some other very high-profile universities and didn’t go. So to have him come back and be part of our program at the University of Washington, I think speaks volumes to where he thinks we are headed as a program and what the perception of what this program is around the country right now.”

Wilcox will bring an aggressive, attacking philosophy to the Huskies, including using a 3-4 defensive scheme in hopes of reviving a defense that ranked near the bottom of the Pacific-12 Conference in every statistical category.

“I think we will see more of a 3-4-type wrinkle to what we are doing and allow us to be a little more aggressive in coming after the quarterback and utilizing some of the strengths we have in our younger players,” Sarkisian said.

With Wilcox, Sirmon and recently hired defensive backs coach Keith Heyward of Oregon State, only one coaching spot remains open.

“The goal is to hire somebody to work with our defensive front,” Sarkisian said. “Johnny Nansen will still be part of that, but obviously Johnny is working with special teams. A great deal of time and energy is taken to work with the special teams, so we are going to hire somebody to work with the defensive front that has good pedigree as far as from a recruiting standpoint and has a good knowledge base of the kinds of things Justin wants to teach on the defensive side of the ball up front.”

Sarkisian may have been alluding to the qualifications of Cal defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, who has been a widely rumored target.

Lupoi is considered the best recruiter in the Pac-12 and one of the best in the country. He was named Rivals.com’s recruiter of the year in 2010 and is largely responsible for Cal’s highly rated recruiting class for the upcoming season.

“I’d love to do it sooner rather than later,” Sarkisian said of filling out the staff. “But I’m not going to rush to do this thing and it not be right.’’

Money seems to be no object for the Huskies right now. The money from the Pac-12 television deal allowed them to pay more than $1 million in 2012 salary to the fired coaches as well as handsomely compensate Wilcox, who was making $750,000-plus a year with Tennessee.

“I think it is the state of college football,” Sarkisian said. “And where we’re headed it’s almost the going rate for successful programs. I think you’re going to continue to see that around our conference now, especially with the new TV money coming in. And we’re obviously already seeing it from the head coaches’ salaries that are going on around the conference now, and I think we’ll continue to see that as it works its way, a trickle-down effect in a sense, down to the assistants in our conference.”

EXTRA POINTS

Sarkisian said that safety Travis Feeney underwent offseason shoulder surgery and receiver Kevin Smith had knee surgery. Guard Colin Porter is scheduled to have shoulder surgery. Quarterback Keith Price, who was beat up all season, has not had any surgeries. … Kicker Erik Folk’s petition for a sixth year of eligibility because of knee surgery as a redshirt freshman was denied. However, running back Johri Fogerson (knee surgery) and safety James Sample (shoulder surgery) were granted medical redshirts for this past season.

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports