Who will take the reigns in Seattle?

With the long-overdue tenure of Ty Willingham as the head football coach at Universiy of Washington coming to a conclusion at the end of this season, questions abound as to who will be the next coach of this once storied program.

The list of candidates will likely include coaches of current non-BCS success stories such as Boise State's Chris Pedersen, BYU's Bronco Mendenhall, Utah's Kyle Wittingham, and Fresno State's Pat Hill, because their names are often mentioned when a BCS head coaching position becomes available.

In an ideal world the candidates list would also include other successful Pac-10 coaches such Jeff Tedford at Cal, Mike Bellotti at Oregon and Mike Riley at Oregon State. It is unlikely however that these coaches would be willing to give up already successful programs to start from scratch with the Huskies.

There is also the possibility of some of the top coordinators from other conferences such as the SEC or Big 12 taking the job following in the footsteps of coaches like Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. Stoops had never had a head coaching job prior to Oklahoma taking a chance on him and has since went on to become the highest paid coach in college football history and led the Sooners to an Orange Bowl victory and a National Championship.

Recently fired and current NFL head coaches and assistants could also be in the mix, as long as their name is not Jim Mora.

All of those are possibilities but I have the solution.

If Washington is serious about getting back into Pac-10 contention there is only one choice they should make. That choice would strengthen the Huskies and also the most successful Pac-10 team of the last decade. Their #1 choice should be none other than USC’s Steve Sarkisian.

“Sark” as he’s called has had the opportunity to coach under and learn from one of the most brilliant offensive minds in college football, Norm Chow. He also played for Chow at BYU and currently coaches under Pete Carroll.

He is ready to make the jump from coordinator to head coach. There is a slim chance his departure from USC could weaken the team, so that is a possible added benefit. Although more than likely as long as Coach Carroll is still calling the shots for the Trojans it will take more than Sark to topple the Trojans. The Huskies hiring him away would be a step in the right direction though.

With Sark the Huskies would get a young, energetic and dynamic coach with ties to the Los Angeles recruiting base. Recruits who decide not to go to USC but want to stay in the Pac-1o might be convinced by Sark to join him in Seattle. It would also be interesting to see what Sark could do with Jake Locker back healthly next season.

I haven't heard Sark's name mentioned often when the UW head coaching position comes up, but I think that it should.

If they can't get Sarkisian the Huskies could do worse than Lane Kiffin, but Sark should be target #1 if the Huskies want to return to their old selves, winning Rose Bowls or at the very least a game or two.