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Portrait of a winner

Erickson brings years of success, lessons learned back to Moscow

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Jim Meehan
Staff writer
August 30, 2006

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho football coach Dennis Erickson has moved into the same Kibbie Dome office twice, but the walls look different this time around.

When he was hired in December, 1981, Erickson was a first-time head coach and a lousy interior decorator.

"Some stuff from when I was at San Jose State and some from when I played (at Montana State)," Erickson said. "I don't remember, but I hardly had any pictures."

When he was hired in February to revitalize the struggling program, Erickson brought back some mementos of what he's been doing since he left Idaho after the 1985 season. Asked for a tour of the team photos, magazine covers, celebrity snapshots, Heisman Trophy presentations and recaps of his two national championship seasons that adorn the walls, Erickson leans back in his office chair and regales a visitor for 20 minutes.

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Charles Barkley?

"I got to know him pretty well when I was at Miami, played golf with him," Erickson said. "He talked to our team at a Fiesta Bowl practice."

Eddie Robinson?

"The old Grambling coach," said Erickson, motioning to his coach of the year plaque nearby, "the award's named after him."

Who's that skinny kid running off the field in a late 1960s game?

"That's me and (Jim) Sweeney," Erickson said of his former coach at Montana State. "We'd just scored a touchdown against Tulsa."

On it goes. There's John Elway, Dee Andros, a Sports Illustrated cover featuring the No. 1 Hurricanes, the 1984 Vandals football staff and a portrait of NFL coaches.

A picture of Cortez Kennedy, whom Erickson coached at Miami and Seattle, makes the coach beam. "He just graduated from college," Erickson said. "It was the happiest call I've ever got from him. He's going to walk in December and I hope I can get there to be with him."

One picture sits centered on the wall off Erickson's right shoulder. It shows ex-Vandals Ken Hobart and Kurt Vestman, and Erickson's late father, Pink.

"That's my favorite picture of them all," he said. "It's either '82 or '83. My dad coached with me for four years, tight ends, for room and board. He's got his little clipboard there. That was a hell of a deal for me."

Current players drop by to see Erickson and they're mesmerized by the pictures.

"It's like a museum in there," senior guard Jade Tadvick said.

But this museum has more than sentimental value. The pictures reflect Erickson's numerous travels in the coaching industry, the locales that shaped his teaching and coaching philosophies, and, in a roundabout way, explain why he's returned to Idaho for a third time (head coach from 1982-85, offensive coordinator from 1974-75).

The only place Erickson didn't win big was in the NFL. Perhaps that's why a portrait of NFL coaches hangs somewhat lonely on the back wall.

"I had it so I put it up there," he shrugged.

Erickson absorbed lessons from each one of his previous employers, shaping him into the 59-year-old coach Vandals faithful believe will restore the program to the glory days that began when he took over at Idaho in 1982.

Back then, Erickson's mind was full of ideas and he was ready to unleash them in his first head coaching position.

"It's where I learned a lot of what I'm doing today," he said. "Obviously it started with my dad and the coaches I was around and played for. Sweeney had a great deal of influence in terms of toughness and philosophy. I spent a lot of time with Jack Elway, formulating what our offensive thoughts were. He was so far ahead of anybody when we were at San Jose State. He never got the credit he deserves. He was doing stuff then that Bill Walsh gets credit for now."

Erickson transformed downtrodden Idaho into a NCAA Division I-AA power before moving on to Wyoming, which was 3-8 prior to his arrival, and immediately went 6-6 in 1986.

"People said, 'you were there and gone,' and that's how it ended up, but I loved it there," Erickson said. "That was a program where we had a lot of tough kids, they hadn't won and you talk about diehard fans. What I learned is I could take what we were doing offensively into a different league and do it – in weather conditions that were pretty difficult sometimes."

He endured his first losing season as a head coach at Washington State in 1987. A year later WSU went 9-3 and won the Aloha Bowl.

"We were the only team running the one-back in Division I," Erickson said. "People still doubted if we could do it (in the Pac-10). The first year we weren't very good, but we came back that second year with that offense and all of a sudden 50 teams were running it.

"I found out there that football is the same whether you're in the Big Sky or Pac-10, the players, their personalities, the only difference is you have more of them."

The allure of winning a national championship and the persistence of Miami athletic director Sam Jankovich brought Erickson to Miami. He turned down the job twice, but the former Washington State A.D. finally persuaded Erickson.

"You're stupid at that age, or ambitious," said Erickson, who won two national titles in six years at Miami. "Everybody wanted to go. I was the one who wanted to stay, but it was a good move for me and I'm glad I did it. Being around those players. . . . their work ethic and how important the game was to them were different than any place I've ever been."

Erickson returned to his northwest roots, taking over the Seattle Seahawks in 1995. He boosted the team's win total by two games in his first season. A month and a half later, owner Ken Behring announced he was moving the team to California. If that wasn't the beginning of the end for Erickson in Seattle, an official's call that gave Vinny Testaverde a gift touchdown and the Jets a win over the Seahawks certainly was.

"I still think we had a pretty good football team there," Erickson said.

Erickson was fired one day after the 1998 season ended, but landed, somewhat surprisingly, at struggling Oregon State. The Beavers posted three winning seasons in his four years, including an 11-1 campaign in 2000, punctuated by a 41-9 Fiesta Bowl pummeling of Notre Dame.

The NFL called again and Erickson, in retrospect, wishes he would have simply hung up. He was happy in Corvallis and so was his wife, Marilyn, who warned him that it was the wrong move. But Erickson went to San Francisco and watched virtually every marquee player exit because the team was beset by salary cap problems. He said he didn't research the situation thoroughly and the team didn't adequately inform him about its shaky ledger sheet.

Erickson sat out last season, played golf and realized how much he missed coaching. He was more than happy to answer the call when athletic director Rob Spear offered him Idaho's job. It's hard to tell who needed who more, but Spear makes a pretty convincing argument that it was the school.

Season ticket sales are up nearly 40 percent with a renewal rate in the mid 90s, Spear said. Erickson's impact on fundraising has been strong, too.

"Who could have predicted he'd be the lead story in USA Today (earlier this month)," said Spear. "I had lunch with the writer and he said he had a choice between Dennis and (retiring NFL commissioner) Paul Tagliabue. He chose Dennis because it's such a neat story about someone coming full circle."

Now comes the hard part. Can he write another happy ending? Can he pull off another rebuilding job at a program that has lost at least nine games each of the last five seasons?

"I believe when you've done it, and I'm not bragging or complaining, it gives you some credibility," he said. "They know what we've done at Oregon State, Washington State, Miami. I believe that we know how to get it done."

He said others need to join in to help foster the turnaround. Facilities need to be upgraded to close the gap on WAC competitors.

As for the on-field product, Erickson said he doesn't own a magic wand.

"No. 1 we've got to start winning games. Secondly, we've got to recruit and get the right guys," he said. "I really believing in recruiting – and it was like this at a lot of other programs I've been – you have to do a great job evaluating and you have to expand your recruiting."

Aside from his current job, Erickson said there are no other mountains left that he feels the need to scale. He can't pinpoint how long he plans on coaching, but admits that he's probably cut from similar cloth as Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno.

"I know both those guys," Erickson said. "They do it because they still love it."

So does Erickson, who started learning Xs and Os in elementary school when his dad was a high school coach.

"It's in my blood," Erickson said.

And he has the pictures to prove it.