a reflection on sark

WilburHooksHands

Cal week and watching Shaq got me reminiscing. Yeah Sark was a lazy drunk but him taking Tosh from Cal was the greatest and ballsiest move a washington coach has made in 30 years.

LawDawg1

Agreed. That got Cal fans in an uproar. Now they just expect it since they went radio silent when Oregon took their DC.

FireCohen

Hiring an assistant to an assistant to an assistant RB coach has to be the ballziest move

PostGameOrangeSlices

Part of the all sizzle no steak Sark MO

WilburHooksHands

PostGameOrangeSlices said:

Part of the all sizzle no steak Sark MO

Tosh was steak. He did exactly what he was supposed to do.

PostGameOrangeSlices

WilburHooksHands said:

PostGameOrangeSlices said:

Part of the all sizzle no steak Sark MO

Tosh was steak. He did exactly what he was supposed to do.

Fair. It bumped sark from 7 wins to 8.

YellowSnow

PostGameOrangeSlices said:

Part of the all sizzle no steak Sark MO

True. But, at least, Shaq ended up being a 5 star who wasn't a bust.

chuck

Sark big dicked the Vols when he snagged Wilcox and Sirmon too. Tennessee did not want them to leave.

Those were two things he did right.

Gladstone

Sark was (and is) always great at pitching himself to other coaches and ADs. We lament his "failing upwards" but interviewing well/selling yourself is the most underrated skill people should hone in life. Most rarely do.

RoadDawg55

I think part of the appeal to younger coaches was that Sark partied and took them to a lot of fun stuff. Recruiting trips were fun and excuses to party.

Tosh was working for Tedford. Wilcox had mostly worked for Pete and probably knew it was a sinking ship at Tennessee. Sirmon was going to go wherever Wilcox went.

chuck

Gladstone said:

Sark was (and is) always great at pitching himself to other coaches and ADs. We lament his "failing upwards" but interviewing well/selling yourself is the most underrated skill people should hone in life. Most rarely do.

I take part in hiring quite a few people per year, a few as the hiring manager and more as a panel member. I'd rank our final, deciding emphasis areas as:

70% interview answers scored as objectively as possible
20% personality traits, but basically likability.
10% resume, accolades, accomplishments...these get you the interview but rarely even get brought up at decision time.

This seems to be how it works out for Sark too. I actually imagine he is likable as fuck when one first meets him and if his agenda dictates that he turn on the charm.

This is a stupid, stupid way to hire coaches. Really there are very few successful businesses that hire this way but it's especially stupid in sports. Good coaches succeed in every situation, at every level. Past results ARE predictive of future results, almost without fail. It's just that simple. It's almost 100% about the resume. The answers to a handful of key questions would play a role, but you can almost hire right off of stat sheets and get it right most of the time.

YellowSnow

RoadDawg55 said:

I think part of the appeal to younger coaches was that Sark partied and took them to a lot of fun stuff. Recruiting trips were fun and excuses to party.

Tosh was working for Tedford. Wilcox had mostly worked for Pete and probably knew it was a sinking ship at Tennessee. Sirmon was going to go wherever Wilcox went.

I wish I could have gone to one of Sark’s Patron parties. He’s a douche canoe in the extreme but who doesn’t love free @Tequilla shooters ?

RoadDawg55

The reason Sark hit a home run with those guys is he had no previous affiliation to any of them. Most coaches simply hire their buddies or who they knew which is why Holt was hired in the first place and Holt hired a bunch of guys that worked at Idaho with him.

chuck

RoadDawg55 said:

I think part of the appeal to younger coaches was that Sark partied and took them to a lot of fun stuff. Recruiting trips were fun and excuses to party.

Tosh was working for Tedford. Wilcox had mostly worked for Pete and probably knew it was a sinking ship at Tennessee. Sirmon was going to go wherever Wilcox went.

I remember Vols fans coming to doogman and saying that they were meh to mildly displeased on Wilcox, but really disappointed to see Sirmon go.

RaceBannon

There's a special on Bruce Ariens. His first head coach job was Temple in 1984

Most of his Bucs staff coached with or played for him at Temple

They followed him to most head coach jobs he has had

dannarc

Peterman came in with a staff and a track record of success, even knocking off a couple blue bloods. As tim goes on, I think this is the way to go, instead of hiring within and cobbling together whoever is available at the time

RoadDawg55

YellowSnow said:

RoadDawg55 said:

I think part of the appeal to younger coaches was that Sark partied and took them to a lot of fun stuff. Recruiting trips were fun and excuses to party.

Tosh was working for Tedford. Wilcox had mostly worked for Pete and probably knew it was a sinking ship at Tennessee. Sirmon was going to go wherever Wilcox went.

I wish I could have gone to one of Sark’s Patron parties. He’s a douche canoe in the extreme but who doesn’t love free @Tequilla shooters ?

I knew Nick Holt’s brother in law on a friendly level. I was wearing a UW coat walking out of a gas station and after commenting on coat and asking where I was from, he told me that he was Holt’s wife’s brother. I was drunk, shot the shit with him for a bit, and he was impressed with my knowledge of his brother in law and the UW program in general. He invited me to watch a game at his house. I also went to the bar with him once.

He told me the post game parties after victories were incredible. He went in being skeptical about Sark (he was a very blue collar guy), but had nothing but good things to say about him. He said anything you could want was there and Sark was very generous. This was in 2010 so I didn’t hate Sark yet. I didn’t hate Holt either because at the end of 2010, the defense was playing pretty good.

YellowSnow

RoadDawg55 said:

YellowSnow said:

RoadDawg55 said:

I think part of the appeal to younger coaches was that Sark partied and took them to a lot of fun stuff. Recruiting trips were fun and excuses to party.

Tosh was working for Tedford. Wilcox had mostly worked for Pete and probably knew it was a sinking ship at Tennessee. Sirmon was going to go wherever Wilcox went.

I wish I could have gone to one of Sark’s Patron parties. He’s a douche canoe in the extreme but who doesn’t love free @Tequilla shooters ?

I knew Nick Holt’s brother in law on a friendly level. I was wearing a UW coat walking out of a gas station and after commenting on coat and asking where I was from, he told me that he was Holt’s wife’s brother. I was drunk, shot the shit with him for a bit, and he was impressed with my knowledge of his brother in law and the UW program in general. He invited me to watch a game at his house. I also went to the bar with him once.

He told me the post game parties after victories were incredible. He went in being skeptical about Sark (he was a very blue collar guy), but had nothing but good things to say about him. He said anything you could want was there and Sark was very generous. This was in 2010 so I didn’t hate Sark yet. I didn’t hate Holt either because at the end of 2010, the defense was playing pretty good.

But there’s booze in the blender. And soon it will render that frozen concoction that helps us doogs hold on.

HuskyJW

RoadDawg55 said:

The reason Sark hit a home run with those guys is he had no previous affiliation to any of them. Most coaches simply hire their buddies or who they knew which is why Holt was hired in the first place and Holt hired a bunch of guys that worked at Idaho with him.

This

DerekJohnson

Gladstone said:

Sark was (and is) always great at pitching himself to other coaches and ADs. We lament his "failing upwards" but interviewing well/selling yourself is the most underrated skill people should hone in life. Most rarely do.

Sark should do one of those Master Class things on interviewing well/selling yourself. I would probably plunk down the $180 to watch/listen.

DerekJohnson

RoadDawg55 said:

The reason Sark hit a home run with those guys is he had no previous affiliation to any of them. Most coaches simply hire their buddies or who they knew which is why Holt was hired in the first place and Holt hired a bunch of guys that worked at Idaho with him.

In Chuck Knox's autobiography (RIP), he talked about how if you see him on the sidelines, he is surrounded by the same old familiar faces year after year. Some of them tracing all the way back to his Juniata days in Pennsylvania. He said you surround yourself with people you trust and it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.