If we’re going to accept that poor coaching will inevitably render talent useless no matter how good they were projected to be, then the other side of that coin has to be that great coaching brings out the best in players. One has to look no further than Chris Peterson to prove that’s true. After working as Offensive Coordinator for 10 years, Peterson became head coach of Boise State in 2006. The previous two years Boise State’s recruiting class was ranked nationally 74th and 62nd respectively. Over those two years the Bronco’s received commitments from zero 5 star athletes, one 4 star athlete, eleven 3 star athletes and twenty-six 2 star athletes. In 2006, his first year, their recruiting class ranked 80th nationally, picking up seven 3 stars and eleven 2 stars. So, in his first year of coaching he fielded a team of only one 4 star athlete with the rest being a bunch of young talented men the power conferences had no interest in.
How did he do? Glad you asked. In Chris Peterson’s first year as Head Coach of Boise State he had an undefeated regular season, going 12-0. They became only the 2nd team from outside the BCS to play in a BCS bowl game facing and beating Oklahoma 43-42 in a thrilling game that went into overtime. They were the first Bronco team to go undefeated in Boise State history and ended up at No. 5 nationally on the final AP Poll. That bowl game was won against a team that, over the same three recruiting seasons, had classes in the Top 10 each year-one as high as third. After eight seasons as head coach of Boise State Chris Peterson took over as head coach of the University of Washington Huskies. After two years of rebuilding Peterson has been able to lead the Huskies to two PAC-12 Championships as well as a 4th place finish in the College Football Playoff Ranking and a semi-final spot in the final four against Alabama. Oh yeah, almost forgot, but just as important or maybe more so to the Washington fans—Peterson’s Huskies have beaten their in-state rival Washington State in the Apple Cup every year since he arrived.
All that said and as talented a coach as I think he is, Peterson’s going to have his hands full repeating last years PAC-12 Championship as the Washington Huskies are in a rebuilding year. In spite of that and as a result of the great respect he has as a coach Washington is ranked No. 12 in the country in the Amway Coaches Poll that was just recently released on August 1st-one spot ahead of Oregon. I also suspect that the Huskies are going to be a tough out and it wouldn’t surprise me if they exceed expectations. Although QB Jake Browning became one of Washington’s all time statistical leaders, passing for over 10,000 yards and throwing 85 TD’s over the course of four years, there is some thought that this will be an area of improvement for the Huskies.
Starting under center this year for UW will be Georgia transfer Jacob Eason who started for the Bulldogs in 2016 but got injured the first game of 2017, the year Georgia went all the way to the national title game. After getting hurt and replaced, Eason decided to transfer to UW even though he’d have to sit out a year. Why the Huskies? Well, probably because it felt like coming home as he grew up in Lake Stevens, WA less than 45 minutes from the UW campus and, of course, the coaching staff. In comparison to Browning, Eason is much taller at 6’ 6” with a much stronger arm that will be throwing to some of Peterson’s best returning players including Senior WR’s Aaron Fuller and Andre Baccellia, Junior Ty Jones as well as Tight Ends Cade Otton and maybe the best of the lot, Hunter Bryant who has not been able to get through a season without injury. If both him and Fuller can stay healthy all season Eason should be able to do some major damage in the air. Look for RB Salvon Ahmed to take over the Myles Gaskin role and with an outstanding offensive line returning, should be able to not only keep the defense honest but do some serious damage—helping to set up what could be an outstanding downfield offense.
Washington starts their season at home against Eastern Washington on Saturday, August 31st, at 12:00pm on the PAC12 Network. The very next week they’ll have their first conference game as CAL travels to the Alaska Airlines Husky Stadium on September 7th to take on UW. Two non-conference games after that; one at home against Hawaii and one on the road in Provo taking on BYU. On Saturday September 28th they’ll be back at home for what should be an intense matchup with USC.