turner gill

IF YOU ASK me, the whole Washington football coaching search ended with a whimper.

After seeing some big names on their supposed wish list, the Dawgs hire Steve Sarkisian. Steve Sarkisian? Are you kidding me? When they said that money was no object, they offer the job to an offensive coordinator who has no head-coaching experience?

But if I think the hiring was suspect, chances are great that Sarkisian will be Pac-10 coach of the year next season.

As a Coug, it's not my inclination to support a Husky hiring, whoever it is, especially when they didn't even interview the three men I boxed in my trifecta -- former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, Buffalo coach Turner Gill and Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen.

Fullmer, who went 152-52 at Tennessee, was at the top of my list. Gill, 46, was best remembered as the Nebraska quarterback who went 28-2 as a starter in the '80s. But he's better known in Buffalo as the coach who led the Bulls to their first bowl game in 50 years.

Most of my money was on Mullen, the longest shot on the board. He's Urban Meyer's right-hand man, the offensive coordinator who tutored quarterbacks Alex Smith at Utah and Chris Leak and Tim Tebow at Florida.

I also like that Mullen is married to former Golf Channel anchor Megan West, which has nothing to do with anything, making it significant to me.

If I had been handicapping this search like a race at Emerald Downs, Sarkisian would have been the second horse I threw out after Mike Haywood, the offensive coordinator from Notre Dame.

Yet Sarkisian prevailed, though UW president Mark Emmert would not admit it when I spoke with him Friday. An official announcement is not expected until Sunday or Monday, so Emmert didn't want to violate his own embargo.

All he said was: "Obviously the world knows we met with Steve Sarkisian, and we certainly liked our conversations with him. I think he's an incredibly promising young coach."

Emmert also said the job was offered to only one person. To another question about the future of the program, he said, "Husky football is going to be heading in all of the right directions right away."

Right away is defined as 24 hours from now, after the UW's benchmark 12th defeat at Cal, a winless season signaling the end of the Tyrone Willingham era and the start of Sarkisian's.

To get an idea of what Husky fans think about the hire, I called Dawgman.com's Kim Grinolds, who was his predictable wise-guy self.

"Steve Sarkisian is no Paul Wulff," Grinolds said. "Washington goes to L.A. to get guys, not to Cheney."

Grinolds added that after Jim Mora, the fantasy candidate, anyone would do, including Sarkisian.

"You could hire me a snowman, and he'd win more games than Tyrone did this year," he said.

Prominent Husky booster Ron Crockett was more enthusiastic, saying: "I'm very excited. Obviously I don't know the fella. I like the age (34). Some people say he's too young. I disagree. ... He comes from a great program, he can recruit on the West Coast, and he has a passion to be here."

As is usually the case in this space, I went on a search for useless information, specifically wondering if Sarkisian golfs, drinks beer and owns a dog. I struck out and still don't know. I tried calling five Sarkisians in Torrance, Calif., his hometown, and left messages or got a busy signal. No one called back, and, frankly, I don't blame them.

So I went scraping for stuff from the USC sports department and discovered that he's a family man who married his high-school sweetheart, Stephanie. They have two daughters -- Ashley, 5, and Taylor, 6 months or so; and a son, Brady, 3.

According to the USC media guide, Sarkisian is pronounced sar-KEY-juhn, and one story said he's half Armenian and half Irish -- the latter leading me to believe he must be a beer drinker. Then again, he went to BYU, so it's hard to say.