Washington football is going through a lot of changes. Athletic director and longtime defensive coordinator Jon Blank has taken the reins as its head coach. A handful of other changes have been made to the coaching staff, too, including the hiring of new offensive coordinator Perry Owens.

More so than anything, though, the last few months have been about changing the program’s culture. There’s been a new emphasis place on the weight room and on breeding competitiveness. Practices have been filmed and posted to Hudl.com so that the coaching staff and players can all review film after a session. Blank said it’s helping evaluate how these competitions are unfolding.

Those processes started right away when Blank took over in late 2016. The Pam Pack got to put everything to work during its spring-practice period. Washington fans will get a look at how the team looks during a spring preview on June 2.

Here’s what Blank had to say about how the spring went.

 

How his new role is similar and how it’s different:

“Taking on a new role has opened my eyes to some things that I maybe I didn’t do before. The thing that I love is that when we’re out on the field and it’s defensive time, I feel like they same old coach I’ve always been. There’s not much more that I look forward to than calling defense in practices and games. When I can kind of zero in and not worry about everything else that’s going on, that’s my favorite time to be out coaching.”

 

How Owens’ offensive mind has manifested itself in the spring:

“Players and coaches are talking about the differences in practice this year. It’s much more up-tempo. (Owens) has gotten off on the right foot with installing stuff. We’re rolling right into some of the concepts we want to have all season long. We’re rolling right into some of the tempo we want to play with.

“We’re looking at a lot of different kids right now. To have 60 kids out there and get them some kind of reps so we can evaluate them is tricky, but coach Owens is doing a good job on his side of the ball in doing that.”

 

What he wants the new culture to be:

“Right now, we’re just trying to set the new standards we want in place for the summer and by the time we get to July 31, which is our first day of practice. We just want to make sure our practice standards and practice expectations are put in place. I think we’ve had a great amount of energy in practices. We even got through a dreaded Monday practice. We always have an expectation of Monday practices being tough, especially when it’s hot and muggy. We got through it and learned some lessons from that day.

“… (For coaches), It’s constant coaching. No hands in pockets, no one on their phones in practice. It’s go go go. It’s been good.”

 

What he wanted to see by the end of the spring:

“We want to have out basic run plays and basic pass plays installed. We want to be able go out and execute some of those things. Defensively, we want to have our base defense in place and our base coverages. One of the big mistakes you can make in the spring and summer is putting in too much too fast. So far, we’ve been pretty good about not going too fast.

“… One of the other things we kind of want to get done is have imagined 11 guys we’ll have start in certain positions, but also have a second offense and a second defense. That’s why we’re trying to get a lot of reps right now. Guys are fighting for spots. All of our sophomores are fighting to maybe make the varsity football team this year.”

 

How much of the depth chart is coming together:

“We’re starting to have a bigger picture of what our first and second offense and defense will look like, and who may get pulled up to varsity from our rising sophomore group. No major decisions have been made on that. We’re in an evaluation phase.”