Dennis Erickson

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Dennis Erickson

Date of birth	March 24, 1947 (age 60)
Place of birth	Everett, Washington
Sport	Football
College	Arizona State
Title	Head Coach
Overall Record	148-65-1
Championships   won	1989, 1991 NCAA Division I-A
Coaching Stats	College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1966-68	Montana State (College Division = Division II)
Position	Quarterback
Coaching positions
1982-85 1986 1987-88 1989-94 1999-2002 2006 2007-present	Idaho (I-AA) Wyoming Washington State Miami Oregon State Idaho Arizona State

Dennis Erickson (born March 24, 1947, in Everett, Washington) is the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils football team. He has been the head coach of six college football programs and two NFL franchises.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Assistant Coaching 3 Head Coach 3.1 Idaho (I) 3.2 Wyoming and Washington State 3.3 Miami 3.4 NFL (I) - Seattle 3.5 Oregon State 3.6 NFL (II) - San Francisco 3.7 Idaho (II) 3.8 Arizona State 4 Head Coaching Records 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Early life

Erickson was raised in Everett, twenty five miles north of Seattle. His father, Robert "Pink" Erickson, was a high school head football coach at Cascade High School. The younger Erickson played quarterback at the rival Everett High, coached by next-door neighbor, Bill Dunn. This "made for some quiet dinners on game day." As a junior, Dennis was the starting quarterback, beating out the former starter, senior Mike Price, another future college head coach.

Price, the son of the head coach of Everett Junior College, was moved to defense (as a safety). When Erickson left Washington State in 1989, he recommended Mike Price as his replacement, who got the job, and rented Erickson's Pullman home. Erickson had beaten out Price for the job in 1987. Six years earlier in 1981, Price had beaten Erickson out for the job at Weber State in Ogden, Utah. While at Idaho, Erickson was 2-2 vs. Price's Weber teams. At Oregon State, Erickson was 2-1 against Price's Washington State teams, not playing in 2002.

In 1965, Erickson graduated from Everett High School and accepted a football scholarship to Montana State in Bozeman to play for head coach Jim Sweeney. Erickson was an effective undersized quarterback (quick feet, marginal arm) from 1966-68, earning all-conference honors in the Big Sky. Immediately after his senior season, he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Bobcats in 1969. In 1970, at age 23, Erickson became the head coach at Billings West High School, staying for just a single season.

[edit] Assistant Coaching

From 1971-81, Erickson was a collegiate assistant coach, working with the offense. Beginning at his alma mater, Montana State, in 1971 under Sonny Holland, he became an offensive coordinator in 1974 at Idaho under newly promoted head coach Ed Troxel, and stayed for two seasons.

When Erickson's college coach Jim Sweeney resigned from neighboring Washington State after the 1975 season, then hired at Fresno State in 1976, Erickson followed him to Fresno be the offensive coordinator for Sweeney's first three seasons. When Jack Elway, a former Sweeney assistant at WSU, was hired at San Jose State in 1979, Erickson joined him for three seasons, again as the offensive coordinator. Erickson was a finalist for the Weber State job after the 1980 season, but lost out to his high school teammate and friend, Mike Price. Erickson would finally get his chance following the next season.

[edit] Head Coach

[edit] Idaho (I)

Erickson's head coaching career began in December 1981, at age 34, when he was hired at the University of Idaho, succeeding Jerry Davitch.

Building on his reputation as an offensive innovator, Erickson became Idaho's all-time winningest head coach in just four seasons with the Vandals (1982-85), taking them to the I-AA playoffs in his first and fourth seasons. His overall record was 32-15 (.680): 31-13 (.704) in the regular season and 1-2 in post season. His most notable recruits at Idaho were his quarterbacks: Scott Linehan and John Friesz. Erickson had revived Vandal football, turning it into a top I-AA program whose success was continued for another decade by Keith Gilbertson and John L. Smith.

[edit] Wyoming and Washington State

He took his "spread offense" with him to Division I-A Wyoming in 1986 for a single season, then returned to the Palouse with Washington State of the Pac-10 for the 1987 season, going 3-7-1. Erickson turned around the Washington State program quickly, going 9-3 in the 1988 season and leading the normally average Cougars to a win in the Aloha Bowl. This success led to his hiring by the University of Miami the following season.

[edit] Miami

Expectations were very high at Miami, as Erickson replaced the successful Jimmy Johnson, who had led the Hurricanes to 10-win season in the previous four seasons as well as a national championship before departing for an NFL head coach position. Erickson lead Miami for six seasons (1989-94), winning two national championships in 1989 and 1991. Erickson's .875 winning percentage (63-9) at Miami remains the highest in the history of the program. However, he was receiving heat from many Miami fans near the end of his tenure. His 1993 team went 9-3 - the first season with fewer than 10 wins for Miami since 1985 - and lost its bowl game 29-0 to Arizona. In September 1994, the Hurricanes lost 38-20 to Washington at the Orange Bowl, snapping the Canes' NCAA record 58-game home win streak.

[edit] NFL (I) - Seattle

Erickson was then hired as an NFL head coach, staying with the Seattle Seahawks for four seasons (1995-98), going 8-8 in his final season before being fired to make room for the available Mike Holmgren.

[edit] Oregon State

Erickson immediately went back to the college level with Oregon State in 1999. Oregon State, like Washington State, had been a team traditionally stuck at the bottom of the Pac-10. Expectations were so low that, before his arrival in Corvallis, Erickson's predecessor, Mike Riley, had led the Beavers to a 5-6 record that earned him a position as head coach of the NFL's San Diego Chargers. After leading the Beavers to a respectable 7-5 season his first season, Erickson led the Beavers to their best season in school history in 2000. During that 11-1 season he snapped a 33-year losing streak to the University of Southern California Trojans, earned the Beavers a share of the Pacific-10 Conference Championship, handily beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Fiesta Bowl 41-9 and barely missed a national title game appearance with a three-point loss earlier in the season. During his tenure with the Beavers, his name came up for several high-profile college football positions, including the head coaching position at USC (which eventually went to fourth-choice Pete Carroll).

He stayed with the Beavers for four seasons before returning to the NFL in 2003.

[edit] NFL (II) - San Francisco

He chose to return to the NFL in 2003 with the San Francisco 49ers, a team with salary cap problems, and lasted just two seasons before being released, going 2-14 in 2004. Erickson did not coach during the 2005 season. Erickson, in just two seasons as the 49ers head coach, managed to turn a playoff team into the worst team in the NFL, as well as hand the 49ers their worst season in the history of the franchise. For these reasons, Erickson can be attributed the worst coach in 49er history as well as a failure at the professional level.

[edit] Idaho (II)

On February 8, 2006, the University of Idaho announced the re-hiring of Dennis Erickson as its head football coach. Erickson won 32 games in his four seasons as the Vandals' head coach (1982-1985), then a I-AA program in the Big Sky Conference. Idaho moved up to Division I-A in 1996. The former head coach, Nick Holt, resigned after just two seasons to take an assistant's job with the NFL's St. Louis Rams, then took another job a few days later at USC.

[edit] Arizona State

Erickson jumped ship again in December 2006 after just ten months at Idaho, where he had signed a five-year deal in February. Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love hired Erickson to replace Dirk Koetter as the head football coach on December 9, 2006. The Arizona State job is the third program in the Pac-10 Conference that he has coached.

Arizona State paid Dirk Koetter $2.8 million and a $150,000 buyout to Idaho to complete the hiring of Erickson. Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said he was "very disappointed" in the coach's decision, stating he would have "never gone down that road" had he known Erickson was going to leave after just one season.^{[citation needed]} Spear hired Robb Akey on December 20, 2006; Akey's buyout is $1 million during the first two seasons of his contract.

[edit] Head Coaching Records

School	Year	Overall Record (Conference)	Postseason Results
Idaho	1982	9-4 (5-2)
Idaho	1983	8-3 (4-3)
Idaho	1984	6-5 (4-3)
Idaho	1985	9-3 (6-1)
Wyoming	1986	6-6 (4-4)
Washington State	1987	3-7-1 (1-5-1)
Washington State	1988	9-3 (5-3)
Miami	1989	11-1
Miami	1990	10-2
Miami	1991	12-0 (2-0)
Miami	1992	11-1 (4-0)
Miami	1993	9-3 (6-1)
Miami	1994	10-2 (7-0)
Oregon State	1999	7-5 (4-4)
Oregon State	2000	11-1 (7-1)
Oregon State	2001	5-6 (3-5)
Oregon State	2002	8-5 (4-4)
Idaho	2006	4-8 (3-5)
College Career	1982-1994, 1999-2002, 2006	148-65-1

[edit] External links

• College Football Data Warehouse - Dennis Erickson - college coaching record
• Pro coaching record - Dennis Erickson
• Seahawks owe big debt to Erickson - Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11-Oct-2003
• University of Idaho athletics - Press release 08-Feb-2006
• Erickson back for another Idaho go - The Seattle Times - 09-Feb-2006
• Erickson comes full circle - The Seattle Times - 19-Apr-2006
• Erickson Era II off to solid start - The Seattle Times - 07-Sep-2006
• Erickson to Arizona State - Idaho Statesman - 10-Dec-2006
• Arizona State University athletics - press conference transcript - 11-Dec-2006
• Wanderlust calls... - Tacoma News Tribune, by John McGrath, 11-Dec-2006
• Erickson buries one more... - The Seattle Times, by Bud Withers - 12-Dec-2006
• Erickson violates Idaho's trust - Seattle Post Intelligencer, by Jim Moore - 12-Dec-2006
• "Can Akey make jilted Vandals true Believers?" - Tacoma News Tribune - 26-Jan-2007

[edit] References

"Out of Everett," The Seattle Times' Pacific Magazine, Sunday, August 13, 1995, p.12-17.

Preceded by Jerry Davitch	University of Idaho Head Football Coach 1982–1985	Succeeded by Keith Gilbertson
Preceded by Al Kincaid	University of Wyoming Head Football Coach 1986	Succeeded by Paul Roach
Preceded by Jim Walden	Washington State University Head Football Coach 1987–1988	Succeeded by Mike Price
Preceded by Jimmy Johnson	University of Miami Head Football Coach 1989–1994	Succeeded by Butch Davis
Preceded by Tom Flores	Seattle Seahawks Head Coach 1995–1998	Succeeded by Mike Holmgren
Preceded by Mike Riley	Oregon State University Head Football Coach 1999–2003	Succeeded by Mike Riley
Preceded by Steve Mariucci	San Francisco 49ers Head Coach 2003–2004	Succeeded by Mike Nolan
Preceded by Nick Holt	University of Idaho Head Football Coach 2006	Succeeded by Robb Akey
Preceded by Dirk Koetter	Arizona State University Head Football Coach 2007–Present	Succeeded by current Head Coach

Seattle Seahawks Head Coaches
Patera • McCormack • Knox • Flores • Erickson • Holmgren

San Francisco 49ers Head Coaches
Shaw • Strader • Albert • Hickey • Christiansen • D. Nolan • Clark • Meyer • McCulley • O'Connor • Walsh • Seifert • Mariucci • Erickson • M. Nolan