SEATTLE -- Washington coach Chris Petersen is doing his least favorite thing -- talking about himself -- as his meager-looking lunchtime salad sits neglected on his desk in his office at Husky Stadium. He is a master of the question redirect, which means he finds a trapdoor out of every inquiry that has been painstakingly worded to prevent such an escape.

Yet a discussion about coaching philosophy, culture and leadership seemingly has touched something and generated a verbal momentum that the laconic Petersen rarely shows.

"Man, every day is a fight," he said. "Just managing the whole thing, leading and managing, from players to coaches to administrators. This is such a big organization. This is not easy. This is a hard fight every day."

No. 4 Washington faces its toughest test yet this season with a visit to No. 17 Utah. Photo by Jesse Beals/Icon Sportswire

Then he provides some professional wisdom he received from the Seattle Seahawks head coach. Pete Carroll was talking about coaches getting older and the game passing them by as they were overtaken by new ideas. "And [Carroll] said, 'No, guys don't get dumb. They just get tired of fighting the fight.' I totally agree with that," Petersen said. "This is like a fistfight every day. It is everything you've got, every day."

It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that Petersen was looking for a new fight when he left Boise State after the 2013 season for Washington. While he frequently uses the term "good fit" for why he decided that the Huskies were the right program to lure him away from the Broncos after eight seasons and a 92-12 record, there clearly is something else there.

As in: Petersen the pit fighter, a guy throwing the totality of his coaching paradigm into the Pac-12 octagon because just maybe he has something to prove, to himself and others.

While there's the usual talk around Washington that typically accompanies fresh teams in the national picture -- team chemistry! brotherhood! attention to detail! our kind of guys! -- there's also plenty of grit beneath the surface. While Petersen wants you to know he emphasizes academics and good citizenship, his fight reveals itself in what he doesn't want you to know.

For example, say a reporter was nagging him about recruiting, pointing out that his still relatively young team -- only three senior starters on each side of the ball -- passes the so-called "sight test."

So, what are some key points he looks for when evaluating high school players beyond obvious measurables?

"I'm not looking to lay out everything we do here for everybody to see," he said. "I think everybody tries to copy us in recruiting anyway. I think if nobody is on a kid and we get on him, then they [start to recruit him, too]. We had that at Boise, too, and it would be frustrating."

When it's noted he can pursue players with better star ratings at Washington than at Boise State, he counters, "We know what we are looking for and we don't care what anybody else is thinking."

Petersen's three recruiting classes ranked 45th, 28th and 29th in the nation, according to ESPN Recruiting, yet 31 of the 51 position players on his two-deep depth chart, including 11 starters, are from the Huskies' past three classes. Stars like quarterback Jake Browning, running back Myles Gaskin and left tackle Trey Adams are second-year starters as true sophomores.

While significant credit is due Steve Sarkisian's 2013 class, which ranked 19th, the Huskies' climb to 7-0 and No. 4 in the nation hasn't been based on a recruiting surge with scintillating four- and five-star prospects.

Washington is good because it averages 48.3 points and yields just 14.6, both numbers ranking in the top six in the country. The Huskies are good because Browning is second in the nation in passing efficiency and ranks fourth in total QBR. They are good because their defense is huge up front -- average weight 324 pounds -- and fast everywhere else.

Washington is the only team in the nation that ranks in the top 10 in offensive, defensive and special teams efficiency, and the Huskies' defense gives up only 2.7 plays of 20 yards or more per game, third-fewest in FBS.

And they are good because their schedule has been forgiving, as no team they've whipped is currently ranked. They visit No. 17 Utah on Saturday in what might be their toughest remaining test, though the Apple Cup against rival Washington State in Pullman might prove pretty crusty.

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Senior safety Kevin King was recruited by Sarkisian and doesn't have anything bad to say about the man, which is pretty typical of the older players. Still, when challenged about all the Kumbaya talk from teammates about the closeness of the locker room, he allowed that it's part of a cultural transformation under Petersen that de-emphasized the individual in favor of the collective, and by "de-emphasized" he made it mandatory. The resulting buy-in has created a more united and poised team.

"In past years, there would be finger-pointing, cussing, yelling when things went wrong," King said. "Now, we have an understanding where if we get hit in the mouth, we're like, 'We're cool. Everybody regroup.' "

Petersen works hard to call his ways "different," not better than what existed under Sarkisian, but he acknowledges that one thing that challenged his players in his first and second seasons was "our expectations of paying attention." Call that discipline.

When asked for specifics of the Petersen culture change, players pretty much go with "everything." In practice, there's more work on fundamentals and less scrimmaging. The strength and conditioning program is more demanding. Miss a class and you're stuck with "Commitment Time," a punitive study session from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday night.

Some of the stuff is quirky. Petersen himself pointed to a discussion he had with his team on the Friday night before an emotional meeting at Oregon, which had beaten the Huskies 12 consecutive times. It wasn't, however, something inspirational or motivational. Petersen and his players talked about Brexit. Yep, the Huskies mulled the ramifications of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union before facing their biggest nemesis. They went on to win 70-21.

"If this was just football all the time, I would be very bored very quickly," Petersen said.

Petersen has his common catchphrases, such as "OKGs" -- Our Kind of Guys -- and his "Built for Life" program and his emphasis on details, but he's not a slogan guy. He doesn't give pregame speeches.

Noted senior offensive guard Jake Eldrenkamp, "There are not a lot of things on the wall here."

The Huskies are on a 10-game winning streak, second-longest active streak in FBS. Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports

Petersen would hate the idea, but it almost feels like a cult of personality.

"[Petersen] is honest about every single thing, and that brings something out of players that you don't see everywhere," Ross said. "Everything we do, we do for a reason. We might not understand at first, but it always shows up. When you get a coach who actually cares, the kids want to play for him. Everyone wants to play for Coach Pete."

Of course, everybody is feeling good and saying the right things at 7-0. The closest thing to adversity the Huskies have faced was an overtime win at Arizona, a game in which they never trailed after halftime. Perhaps they get full of themselves and complacent? Or maybe a flurry of miscues and a fourth-quarter deficit will shake their composure?

It's not as if any of these players have ever before been in the hunt for a Pac-12 title, much less a national title. This program hasn't been nationally relevant since the 2000 season, when it won the Rose Bowl -- over Drew Brees and Purdue! -- and finished ranked third in the nation.

"Your team is different all the time," Petersen said. "Your team is different after every game, win or lose. I think it's very important for coaches to pay attention to that."

Petersen subscribes to the Harvard Business Review -- "Ideas and advice for leaders" -- and he said he's a big fan of Jim Collins' "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't." A favorite non-fiction work is Doris Kearns Goodwin's nearly 1,000-page tome "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."

It's all part of his program, his process, his philosophy. His obsessiveness.

And he fights for it every day.