Nussmeier, Dawgs Parting Ways
As reported earlier this week, Doug Nussmeier has agreed in principal to join the University of Alabama as their new offensive coordinator.
Nussmeier held that position for the University of Washington for three years. The SEC is the premier conference in college football, and this will be a great career step for him.
With Nussmeier gone, it is believed that head coach Steve Sarkisian will remain the one in charge of calling the plays for the Huskies in the future.
With that in mind, I give you 5 big reasons why this will not turn out to be such a great idea for coach Sark.
1: Tough Act To Follow
Under Nussmeier, the Huskies had a very potent offense, and even though it was reported that head coach Steve Sarkisian did all of the play calling, Nussmeier got the credit for the offense.
And what a great offense it was, 26th in the nation in points per game at 33.4, and 38th overall with 410 yards per game.
2: New Coach’s Are Tough To Break In
With the Huskies adding new offensive coordinator Eric Kiesau from Cal, it’s going to be a whole new ballgame for the Dawgs this off-season. With Kiesau comes a new philosophy, which means new offensive plays for the returning Huskies, and possibly a lot of new terminology for Keith Price (Maybe not…we’ll see).
Hopefully coach Sark gets all of the new coach’s on the same page before the start of the season.
3: Conference Familiarity
Kiesau, along with fellow former Cal coach, and newly hired Tosh Lupoi, are well know within the Pac-12. Kiesau is only one year removed from being the offensive coordinator at Colorado, a team that is in the Pac-12 North with the Huskies.
Steve Sarkisian did all of the play calling, Nussmeier got the credit for the offense
This kind of familiarity in such a tight knit conference is not always a good thing.
4: When Coach’s Leave, So Do Recruits
The Huskies have a hard enough time as it is recruiting talent against the likes of UCLA, USC, and Oregon, but now with the man who was credited with shaping the defensive shredding power of Jake Locker going to Alabama, we may have to accept losing a recruit or two to them as well too.
5: Ego
This all could have been avoided if coach Sark would have given up the play calling duties. Like a lot of coach’s before him, he wanted to have all of the power, and possibly the glory of the offense all on him.
Not saying this is a bad thing by any means, but, this has burned a few programs in the past, and all we need is for that to happen in Seattle.
Again.
Mike Holmgren is a mastermind, but he left Seattle because of the same reasons that are abound with the Huskies at this very moment, a head coach who wants the recognition of being the talent overseer, the offensive magician, and the head coach all in one.
Let’s hope coach Sark’s ego doesn’t get the best of him.
About Clinton Bell
