Dennis Erickson

Dennis Erickson (born March 24, 1947) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Arizona State University, a position he has held since the 2007 season. In 2008, the Arizona Board of Regents approved a contract extension to keep Dennis Erickson at Arizona State through June 2012. Previously, Erickson was the head football coach at the University of Idaho (1982–1985, 2006), the University of Wyoming (1986), Washington State University (1987–1988), the University of Miami (1989–1994), and Oregon State University (1999–2002). Erickson was also the head coach of two teams in the NFL: the Seattle Seahawks (1995–1998) and the San Francisco 49ers (2003–2004), where he tallied a mark of 40–56. During his stint at Miami, Erickson's team won two national championships, in 1989 and 1991.

Early life
Erickson was raised in Ferndale, Washington, 100 miles north of Seattle, and in Everett, 25 miles north of Seattle. His father, Robert "Pink" Erickson, was the head football coach at Ferndale High School before becoming the head coach at Cascade High School in Everett. 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 for Miami 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 Washington State job in 1987. Six years earlier in 1981, Price had beaten Erickson out for the job at Weber State University 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. There he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Erickson was an effective undersized quarterback from 1966 to 1968, earning all-conference honors in the Big Sky. Immediately after his senior season, he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Montana State Bobcats in 1969. In 1970, at age 23, Erickson became the head coach at Billings Central Catholic High School, staying for just a single season.

Assistant coaching
From 1971 to 1981, Erickson was a college assistant coach, working with the offense. Beginning at his alma mater, Montana State University, in 1971 under Sonny Holland, he became an offensive coordinator in 1974 at the University of 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 University after the 1975 season moved to Fresno State in 1976, Erickson followed him to be the offensive coordinator for Sweeney's first three seasons. When Jack Elway, a former Sweeney assistant at Washington State, 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 head coaching chance following the next season.

Idaho
Erickson's head coaching career began at age 34 at the University of Idaho. He was hired on December 11, 1981, succeeding Jerry Davitch, who had been fired just days before the final game (a one-point home loss against rival Boise State). A pre-season playoff pick, Idaho finished the disappointing 1981 season with six consecutive losses, and were winless in seven games in the Big Sky.

Building on his reputation as an offensive innovator, Erickson became Idaho's all-time winningest head coach in just four seasons with the Vandals (1982–1985), taking them to the I-AA playoffs in his first and fourth seasons. In his first season of 1982, Erickson took a 3–8 team in 1981 and immediately turned it into a 8–3 playoff team, led by decathlete quarterback Ken Hobart. Erickson's overall record with the Vandals was 32–15 (.680), 31–13 (.704) in the regular season and 1–2 in post season. He went 4–0 in the rivalry game with Boise State, a team which had dominated the series by winning the previous five games. (The winning streak against the Broncos continued through 1993, reaching 12 games.)

His most notable recruits at Idaho were his quarterbacks: future NFL head coach Scott Linehan, who had future Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable blocking for him, and future College Football Hall of Famer John Friesz, who had Mark Schlereth blocking for him. Erickson had revived Vandal football, quickly turning it into a top I-AA program, whose success was continued for another decade by former assistants Keith Gilbertson (1986–1988) and John L. Smith (1989–1994).

Wyoming
He took his "Air Express" form of the spread offense with him to Division I-A Wyoming in 1986 for a single 6–6 season. He left Wyoming without notice after accepting the head coaching job at Washington State.

Washington State
When he returned to the Palouse with Washington State of the Pac-10 for the 1987 season, he went 3–7–1 in his first year. 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, their first bowl win since 1931. This success led to his hiring by the University of Miami following the 1988 season.

Miami
Expectations were very high at Miami, as Erickson replaced the successful Jimmy Johnson, who had led the Hurricanes to ten or more win each the previous four seasons and a national championship in 1987 before departing for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. Erickson led Miami for six seasons (1989–1994), winning two national championships in 1989 and 1991 giving Erickson more national championships than any other Miami coach. Erickson's .875 winning percentage (63–9) at Miami remains the highest in the history of the program. However, his 1993 team went 9–3, first season with fewer than ten 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. Moreover, the Hurricanes were found to have broken NCAA rules on Pell Grants due to a member of the financial aid office, and were placed on three years' probation not long after Erickson left the school. Erickson was interviewed about his time at the University of Miami for the documentary The U, which premiered December 12, 2009 on ESPN.

Seattle
After turning down offers from both the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles, Erickson accepted an offer to coach the Seattle Seahawks in 1995. In his first season, he switched starting quarterback from the #2 overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft, Rick Mirer, and went to John Friesz, whom he recruited to Idaho in 1985. Friesz guided the Seahawks to their biggest comeback win ever in a game, rallying from 20–0 down at the half after Mirer had started, and took the Seahawks to the final week of the season with an 8–7 record after starting 2–6 and a playoff berth on the line only to lose to Kansas City and finish 8–8. In 1996, the Seahawks finished 7-9, Erickson's worst record with the team. 1997 saw an ownership change in Seattle, in which Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen purchased the team from then owner Ken Behring and helped pass a referendum for a new stadium to be built, that season, the Seahawks had one of the best passing offenses in the league, only to finish 8–8 after an 0–2 start in which they were outscored 76–17 in two home losses. After the season, Erickson, who had been told by new owner Paul Allen that he would return in 1998 had to fire longtime friend and assistant the special teams coach Dave Arnold and replace him with Pete Rodriguez. With a revamped lineup led by 1997 passing leader Warren Moon the Hawks flew out of the gate with three-game winning streak (including a Kickoff Weekend shutout of the Eagles at Veterans Stadium) but stumbled and lost their next three games. Later in the year, with the team playing at .500 he turned to Jon Kitna to lead the offense and they responded with a close win at home against the Tennessee Oilers before going on the road to New York to play the Jets. In a hotly contested game that many viewed as the best combined offensive performances of 1998, the game came down to a blown call on a short touchdown run by Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde (where he was ruled to have scored despite replay evidence clearly showing his forward progress had been stopped at the one-yard line) which cost Seattle the game and Erickson his job. Many Seahawks fans argue his fate may have been different had Seattle won that game, this game would be cited as one of the main reasons the NFL restored its instant replay review system following the season.

Oregon State
In 1999, Erickson returned to the college ranks when he was hired at Oregon State University. The Oregon State Beavers had become one of three perennial "cellar dwellers" in the Pacific-10 Conference. Expectations were so low that Erickson's predecessor, Mike Riley, was promoted to a head coaching position with the San Diego Chargers after leading the Beavers to a 5–6 record.

In his first season, Erickson directed the Beavers to a 7–5 record, the program's first winning season in 29 years. The following year, Oregon State went 11–1, snapped a 33-year losing streak to the USC Trojans, and earned a share of the Pac-10 conference championship for the first time since the conference expanded to ten teams in 1978. It was the first time the Beavers won at least a share of a conference championship since 1964, when they were part of the AAWU. Oregon State began to develop a national reputation for its high-powered offense and a swarming defense. In fact, the team barely missed an invitation to play in the national BCS title game due to a late-game missed field goal against Washington. The win over USC did, however, help Erickson's crew clinch a spot in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Oregon State won the bowl game 41–9, in what is generally considered to be one of Erickson's crowning career achievements.

At the close of the 2000 bowl games, the Beavers were ranked fourth nationally in the Associated Press top 25 College Football Poll with some national media stating that Oregon State would have been a favorite to win the BCS Championship at the Orange Bowl had they been selected.

Before the 2001 season, Sports Illustrated ranked Oregon State as the number one team in the nation. However, a lack of returning talent from the 2000 team took its toll, and the Beavers went 5–6. Among the players who hail from Erickson's high-octane 2000 team are NFL stars Chad Johnson and T. J. Houshmandzadeh. Both were selected in the 2001 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Erickson was named Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 2000. His name also came up for several high-profile college football positions. In late 2000, Erickson was a primary choice to fill the vacant position at the University of Southern California, however he spurned a $7.2 million, five year contract to remain with the Beavers; the position would eventually go to Pete Carroll.

Erickson remained coach at Oregon State for four seasons (1999–2002) before accepting another coaching position in the NFL. His early departure left some OSU fans angry with him for not finishing-out his contract, but he is still credited with playing a leading role in resurrecting the Beavers.

San Francisco
Erickson returned to the NFL in 2003 with the San Francisco 49ers, a team that had made the playoffs 10 of the previous 12 seasons, and lasted just two seasons before being fired along with general manager Terry Donahue after a 2–14 season in 2004. The hiring of Erickson was very surprising and highly criticized. The 49ers had three defensive-minded head coaches as finalists for their head coaching vacancy, but the offensive-minded Erickson ended up being hired. The 49ers' offense had mostly players who specialized in the West Coast Offense that the previous head coach, Steve Mariucci, ran. But the aggressive style of offense that Erickson is known for deviated greatly from that scheme and the hybrid scheme that Erickson employed in order to maintain parts of the West Coast Offense never worked out. He took a team that had gone to the second round of the playoffs, and posted seasons of 7-9 and 2-14. Erickson did not coach during the 2005 season.

Return to Idaho
On February 8, 2006, the University of Idaho announced the re-hiring of Erickson as its head football coach. Erickson had won 32 games in his first four seasons as a head coach (1982–1985), then a I-AA program in the Big Sky Conference. Idaho had since moved up to Division I-A in 1996. Their previous 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. The 2006 Vandals were 4–3 after seven games, then lost five straight to finish at 4–8.

Arizona State
Erickson left to join a BCS school again in December 2006, after just ten months at Idaho. Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love hired Erickson to replace Dirk Koetter on December 9, 2006. Arizona State is the third Pac-10 Conference program 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. He immediately paid dividends at ASU, leading the Sun Devils to a 10–3 record, a share of the Pac-10 title and a berth in the Holiday Bowl in 2007. Erickson was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, becoming the first man to ever win the award at three different Pac-10 schools. He also coached another major award winner, as his kicker, Thomas Weber, was named the Lou Groza Award winner.

Family
Erickson and his wife, Marilyn, have two sons: Bryce and Ryan. Erickson hired his son Bryce to the Arizona State staff.