Averaging a little more than 13 points per game last season, the Washington football team finished 118th out of 120 Division 1-A teams in the category.

Enter Steve Sarkisian, an offensive-minded head coach, Doug Nussmeier, an offensive coordinator who coached Marc Bulger to a Pro Bowl and a healthy Jake Locker, and you’ll find good reason for optimism in spring practice.

Replacing Tim Lappano, UW’s former offensive coordinator, Nussmeier will be renovating the look of the Huskies’ offense in hopes of turning around last season’s underwhelming performance.

“This is a pro-style offense,” Nussmeier said. “We’re going to give our guys multiple personnel groupings and multiple formations, and we’ll try to create an advantage for ourselves in both the running game and the passing game.”

While last year’s offense ran out of the shotgun more often than not, repetitions in spring practice are proving that next year’s offense will look much more like that of teams in the NFL.

“We’re under center a little bit more than in the past and doing some different things from it,” Jake Locker said. “It’s a little different look than it was in the past, but hopefully, it will be more successful.”

Changing the look of the offense and bringing in an entirely new playbook will create a steep learning curve for the players, but Nussmeier’s coaching background seems to indicate that he will guide the players successfully through the transition.

As offensive coordinator for Michigan State, the St. Louis Rams and Fresno State before coming to the UW, Nussmeier coached the likes of quarterbacks Drew Stanton and Bulger to career seasons.

“I really like coach Nuss. He’s personally my quarterbacks coach, so he’s been working with me a lot individually,” Locker said. “He’s got a good way of relaying his message to us, and he’s really knowledgeable when it comes to football.”

As for now, the offensive players don’t have a full playbook, but a great amount of information is being thrown their way early in spring practice.

“There’s a teaching progression to the offense,” Nussmeier said. “We give them a lot to start — the meat and potatoes. Then as we go along, we sprinkle new concepts and new things on them that kind of mold around those base principles.”

The focus on the offensive side of the ball thus far in spring practice is undoubtedly on the fully-recovered Jake Locker, who missed most of last season with a broken thumb.

Throwing a couple of nice deep-balls during the drills and breaking some of his typical runs, Locker impressed the new head coach at Monday’s practice.

“Jake got a lot better today,” Sarkisian said. “I thought he was more accurate with the football, was a little more relaxed in the pocket. There’s still a couple plays he’s still learning, but I thought he was more efficient from a quarterback’s standpoint.”

Nussmeier, who is the quarterbacks coach along with his duties as offensive coordinator, sees a healthy Locker as a dangerous weapon that he must make the most of.

“Jake’s a really, really good player,” he said. “Probably the most athletic quarterback I’ve ever been around as far as pure speed and ability to break plays in the open field.”

With the spring game later this month, Nussmeier, Locker and the entire Husky offense will continue to work at understanding and implementing the new offense.

Reach reporter Scott Eisen at sports@dailyuw.com.