Washington’s Sarkisian adds four assistants to Huskies’ football coaching staff

Published 7:04 pm Thursday, January 15, 2009

SEATTLE — New Washington coach Steve Sarkisian has nearly completed his football staff after the school announced the hiring of four new assistant coaches and one staff member on Thursday.

Sarkisian added Mike Cox, Jeff Mills, Doug Nussmeier and Joel Thomas as assistant coaches, while Dennis Slutak has been hired as assistant athletic director for football operations. All four of the assistants have Northwest ties, while three of the four — Cox, Nussmeier and Thomas — played their college ball at Idaho.

Cox will be in charge of linebackers; Mills will coach the secondary; Nussmeier will be the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator; and Thomas will coach running backs.

The only positions still without a coach are wide receiver and tight end. The tight end coaching slot is likely to be filled by a graduate assistant.

“I’m really excited about this latest group of coaches we’ve hired,” Sarkisian said in a statement. “They’re all great coaches, great recruiters and great people. They’re all excited to be a part of this program and each of them understands the great, rich tradition that UW football has.”

Cox will come to Washington after spending the last two seasons with the St. Louis Rams where he coached the defensive line and linebackers. He previously coached at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State.

Mills played his college ball at Western Washington, then was a graduate assistant under Don James at Washington in 1990 and 1991. The last two seasons, Mills was defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Youngstown State.

Nussmeier, a former starting quarterback at Idaho, was most recently the offensive coordinator at Fresno State, while Thomas served the last three years as running backs coach at Purdue.

Slutak will join Sarkisian’s staff in a similar position to what he held at USC for the last four years.