DENNIS ERICKSON

Age:  61

School:  Arizona State

Alma Mater:  Montana State, 1968

Conference:  Pac-10

Salary:  $1,100,000

Official Bio:   www.thesundevils.com

Years Coaching:  19

Career Record:  158 - 68 - 1  .696

Years at School:  1

Record at Arizona State:  10 - 3   .769

2007 Record:  10 - 3   .769

2007 Cost per Win:  $125,700

Attorney/Agent:  

Contract: 

December 2008 Buyout:  $750,000

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

In the last 30 years there have been three great jumps from relative obscurity to the top of the game of college football:

1.  Gerry Faust - Hired to be the head coach at Notre Dame from Moeller High School.

2.  Mike Shula - Hired to be the head coach at Alabama from being the QB coach/clipboard holder with the Miami Dolphins.

3.  Dennis Erickson - Hired to be the head coach at Miami only 4 years removed from being the head coach at I-AA Idaho.

Dennis Erickson had just completed his 2nd season at Washington State when he was hired to replace Jimmy Johnson at Miami.  Erickson's career record in 7 years at Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington State was 50-31-1 (.610), and none of us here at Coaches Hot Seat (well, CHS didn't exist in 1988, but us individually) could understand how Erickson got the Miami job.  Whatever the reasons for Miami hiring Erickson, he certainly didn't disappoint by winning 2 national titles and compiling a 63-9 (.875) record in 6 seasons.  Maybe it was the heat and humidity in Miami, or the very demanding Hurricane fans, that drove Erickson to take the Seattle Seahawks job in 1995, but Erickson has learned in his two stints in the NFL that he was meant to coach in the college game.  Now that Dennis Erickson has returned to be the head coach at a BCS school in Arizona State, he seems poised to finish his College Hall of Fame coaching career in style.

The first thing that one notices in a Dennis Erickson coached football team is how well organized his teams look in practice and in pre-game warm-ups.  Everyone on Erickson's coaching staff has a very important  job to do, and what a very obvious difference between how well coached the Arizona State team looked in '07 compared to the '06 team.  When players are disciplined, prepared to play, and focused to play a football game, it is always because of very good coaching.  We went back and looked at a couple of games side-by-side from the '06 Arizona State season on one TV and a '07 Dennis Erickson ASU coached team on another TV, and the differences in how well the two teams are prepared to play and play during those games is like night and day.  Dirk Koetter is a very good offensive coach, but something is going on at practices under Erickson that is getting his Arizona State players prepared to play, and that is probably the difference that has made Erickson such a big winner in his career.

Dennis Erickson enters the Pac-10 at Arizona State at a very unusual time.  In the previous 20 years most Pac-10 football teams have been playing on a pretty even footing, but with the arrival of Pete Carroll at USC in 2001, the Pac-10 has moved from a 10 team conference league, to a 1 team, 9 "other" teams deal.  Just like Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, and a few other schools, when USC gets a high-quality head coach, they are going to win a lot of football games.  That Pete Carroll is at USC right now poses a problem for Erickson and other coaches in the Pac-10, that in only recent times (like when Erickson got to Oregon State) is something they would not have faced.  We do see the Pac-10 changing in coming years though, because we believe that if the right NFL job opens up (a new Los Angeles NFL franchise team or the San Francisco 49ers job), Pete Carroll will be moving back to the NFL to prove he can win big on that stage as well.  In the meantime, Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and a few other Pac-10 teams will probably have to fight it out for 2nd place in the Pac-10 and hope that USC shows a weakness that we currently don't see.  Of the teams that are striking for 2nd in the Pac-10, Erickson probably has the best chance to move into that position, because of his experience and the recruits that he can attract to a school like Arizona State.  Whatever happens in the next 5 to 7 years, we fully expect Erickson and the Sun Devils to be a thorn in the side of other Pac-10 schools for the foreseeable future.

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We predict that Dennis Erickson and Arizona State will have an 8-4 record in 2008.  If you have been to an early season night game in Tempe at Sun Devil Stadium then you know it is still hot in the desert long after the sun goes down, and that Arizona State is very tough in early season football games.  The 2008 season for the Sun Devils starts out easy enough with I-AA Northern Arizona coming town.  That is a win, and ASU is 1-0.  The Pac-10 gets their conference schedule going early with Stanford traveling to Tempe in week 2.  Jimmy Harbaugh is doing his best at Stanford, but there is way too much of a talent difference for Arizona State to lose this game.  ASU is 2-0.  In week 3, UNLV comes to Tempe, and we have to think that Arizona State will whip up on the Running Rebels in preparation for one of the most interesting non-conference games of the year, Georgia at Arizona State.  Mark Richt brings the Georgia Bulldogs to Tempe in week 4 with Georgia shooting for big things in '08.  Richt has an amazing record on the road, especially in big games, and we think that he will have his very talented team ready to play this game.  Arizona State will keep it close for awhile, but Georgia is just way too deep and talented to lose this game.  ASU is 3-1.  Arizona State goes on the road for the first time in week 5 to play Cal in Berkeley.  We see the Cal Bears bouncing back in '08, and in what we see as a very close game, Cal gets the win.  A loss in Berkeley runs the ASU record to 3-2.  After two straight losses the last thing one would want is a trip to Los Angeles to play Southern Cal in the Coliseum, but that is what is up next for ASU.  Pete Carroll has built a monster at USC and he will want to make a statement against Arizona State that the Trojans are still the big kid in the conference.  We see USC beating the Sun Devils by a couple of touchdowns, which would run the ASU record to 3-3.  After starting 3-0, ASU has now lost 3 games in a row and the Sun Devil fans are getting a little antsy in the desert.  The 2nd half of the season brings the Oregon Ducks to Tempe and as we saw in Tucson last year, a Duck doesn't like the desert.  We see ASU bouncing back with a win over Oregon, which takes the ASU record to

4-3.  Week 5 is a payback game of sorts, at least for the Oregon State fans, as Arizona State travels to Corvallis to play the Beavers.  Dennis Erickson has admitted that it was a bad decision to leave Oregon State for the 49ers, but that want mean anything to the Beaver fans who will want a win badly against their former head coach.  We believe Oregon State will beat the Sun Devils, and that will take the ASU record to 4-4.  After 8 games and a .500 record it will probably be said that ASU is having a disappointing season, but all of the remaining are winnable and we see Erickson turning the Sun Devils around to finish strong in '08.  The week 9 game will be a huge challenge for Arizona State as they have to travel to play Washington in Seattle, because the Huskies should be a lot better team this far into the football season.  We see a very close game with Arizona State winning in the 4th quarter to take their record to 5-4.  In week 10 another former Dennis Erickson coached team, Washington State visits Tempe and Arizona State should be able to get a win in this game.  ASU's record is 6-4.  Rick Neuheisel and UCLA are up next in Tempe, and there is still a lot of work to be done and recruits to be gotten before the Bruins can challenge in the Pac-10.  ASU beats UCLA and that runs their record to 7-4.  The last game of the season is the annual duel in the desert with Arizona in Tucson.  In what may be Mike Stoops last game as head coach of the Wildcats, we see a very close game filled with a lot of emotion, but Arizona State getting the win in the end.  A win over Arizona takes ASU's final regular season record to 8-4.