Steve Sarkisian's USC career ended this afternoon with the Trojans' 38-24 Rose Bowl win over Penn State.

Now all Sarkisian has to do is hop a flight back to Seattle, finally free to devote all of his attention to rebuilding the Huskies. My understanding is that he was expecting to return Friday.

If you watched the game, you know that Sarkisian got a lot of face time on the broadcast, and his move to UW was mentioned several times.

And if you liked his play calling -- or didn't -- prepare to see something similar next fall at Husky Stadium.

One of the first questions I asked Sarkisian in his first UW press conference was if what he was doing at USC is what he plans to do offensively at UW.

His answer: "The offense will very similar (to USC), obviously we’ll play to the strengths of what we have, whether is offensive line, running back, quarterback, wide receiver. For the most part, the system will remain the same, but every game is different. There will be some games we’re going to pound the rock, some games we’re going to have to throw it 40 times to win, but the goal is the same and that is to win football games. That’s what we’re going to try to do."

Eight Pac-10 teams tip off in the first four league games of the season Friday, and then UW and Washington State complete the first round of games at 3 p.m. Saturday in Pullman.

We took a fresh look at the state of the conference race in today's paper.

And we also got preview comments from both UW coach Lorenzo Romar and WSU coach Tony Bennett.

Romar:
"I thought that the conference would be competitive. I didn’t know how competitive it would be from one to 10. I think there are more clubs that are stepping up, that are making it an even more competitive conference that I even thought it would be. I wouldn’t have predicted Stanford would be undefeated going into conference play. They’re doing a heck of a job. I watched them play against Texas Tech: They looks stellar. Cal (is even better than I expected.) … There are just some teams across the board that are doing a good job. I think Arizona has everyone’s attention. People thought they were dead in the water. They’re not. It’s going to be a wild ride again."

Bennett:
"You don’t know until you get into league play, but certainly Cal and Stanford have been surprises. You look at what Stanford did to Texas Tech and you say, 'Oh my, that was an impressive performance.'

"In the league, I think everybody’s capable. Some teams are a little up and down with new guys, but our hope is that with our new guys they’ll continue to become more solid. Some of these games have exposed the areas where we have to improve. But I think the league is very capable this year. Maybe it doesn’t have the powerhouses or some of the marquee players of last year, but it’s a little better than maybe some of the people thought. It seems to be solid. ... Some teams that some people thought – the Cals or Stanfords that might be really down; or even us for that matter – have shown now that they’ll be able to compete. So, I think you’ll see a very hard-fought league -- better than people thought. As good as last year? I don’t know; it’s probably hard to say that right now. But I think it’s capable."