TACOMA -- Two of the under-appreciated ways of assessing the status of your college sports program that have nothing to do with rankings or won-loss records:

1. The quality of the programs that want to steal coaches from you.

2. The quality of the coaches you can steal from other programs.

The 2011 University of Washington football team stacked another 7-6 record onto the previous one, which may seem like a plateau in the continuing climb out from the dark Tyrone Willingham days.

But recent staff changes suggest a persistent upward trend, and the clear recognition of important contemporary realities: If you're going to compete with the big boys, you need upgraded facilities, and you are going to have to pay top dollar for the best assistants.

Well, at UW, the stadium is being renovated ... and so is the staff.

After three seasons of staff stability, coach Steve Sarkisian was forced -- by defection and deficiencies -- into a rebuilding phase.

National champion Alabama swooped in and hired away Huskies offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, while the defensive staff was ushered out after record-level futility.

If Alabama wants you, the temptation is a no-brainer, although Mike Price might debate the topic.

So it's something of a compliment that Nussmeier was hired away to replace Jim McElwain, the former Eastern Washington player who left Tuscaloosa, Ala., to become head coach at Colorado State.

McElwain shaped a brilliant scheme for the 21-0 rout of LSU in the BCS title game. Coach Nick Saban sniffed at some high-profile NFL assistants before picking Nussmeier.

Sarkisian calls the plays for the Huskies, but Nussmeier was obviously important to the development of both Jake Locker and Keith Price at quarterback.

On Tuesday, UW moved to hire Eric Kiesau, the passing-game coordinator at Cal. That came soon after landing Cal defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, touted as one of the game's hot recruiters.

The response of Cal coach Jeff Tedford was as might be expected.

"When people have career opportunities they make decisions based upon a wide array of reasons that are important to them," Tedford said.

Meaning: UW money-whipped them away from us.

"We exhausted all of our resources to try to retain Tosh and Eric," he added.

Meaning: UW money-whipped them away from us.

On another day we can debate the role of athletics in a university's mission of higher education, and the inequities in coaches' salaries relative to those actually contributing to student enlightenment.

But if you're going to commit to fielding a competitive team, this is what you do.

And there can be no more rewarding sentiment from the mouth of a conference rival than the admission that they exhausted their resources but could not compete with you.

These two hires come in addition to the recent hirings of two assistants from Tennessee -- new defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon, a Walla Walla grad.

The Vols were ranked 28th in the nation defensively under Wilcox, so it's logical to assume they wanted to keep these guys. Before last season, Texas tried to hire Wilcox from the Vols, but he turned them down.

Wilcox is a Northwest guy, so that might have played a part, but the fact remains, Texas couldn't get him, but the Huskies could. That's big stuff.

Dividends from these hirings should start piling up as soon as the letters of intent start arriving.

None of this is cheap, and when the salary figures for the new assistants are released, there are going to be some stunning numbers.

But the conference is flush with money from the new television contract, and this is the time to invest ... or risk getting bypassed by the others.

Oregon is already among the best-funded programs in the country.

Rival Washington State made a splash by hiring coach Mike Leach.

USC is USC.

Stanford has beaten the Trojans four of the past five meetings. Arizona (Rich Rodriguez) and UCLA (Jim Mora) hired high-profile head coaches.

Forking over the money doesn't guarantee success. They were paying former coordinator Nick Holt $650,000 a season, and the team still ranked 94th in total defense.

But to act so aggressively and decisively to build the new staff has the Huskies playing on a fiscal field level with any program in the country.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440 dave.bolingthenewstribune.com