Stewart, if Boise State returns to the Boise State of old and Washington remains mired in mediocrity, what will it mean? Will it mean that Bryan Harsin was the brains behind Chris Petersen? Will it mean that success at Boise State simply doesn't translate elsewhere? Will it mean that Washington no longer has whatever it had as late as the early 2000s?
-- Joseph V. Manzo, Coral Gables, Fla.
I don't think you can say Harsin was the brains behind Petersen -- like the way we often said Petersen was the brains behind predecessor Dan Hawkins -- because for one thing, those great Boise State teams won with a suffocating defense as much as they did a creative offense. But more to the point, Harsin left for Texas in 2011 and the Broncos kept winning. Petersen was the primary architect behind Boise's extraordinary 84-8 run from 2006-12, and I fully expect him to elevate Washington over the next couple of years.
If that doesn't happen, though, it would raise more questions about Petersen than it would either his current or former employer. While Washington has struggled for more than a decade, it's at no real institutional disadvantage compared with its divisional foes. If anything its location should give it a better chance at success than even Oregon. And while people would inevitably try to correlate Petersen with former Boise coaches Hawkins (Colorado) and Dirk Koetter (Arizona State), who flopped at a higher level, that seems misguided, too. Each of those guys ran the program in their own unique ways, but beyond that, why would Boise be a less likely launching point than Bowling Green (Urban Meyer), Central Michigan (Brian Kelly) or any number of other mid-majors?
Having said all that, Petersen's personality and philosophy were ideally suited to Boise. There's no guarantee they will translate at Washington, but I believe they will.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...da-state-seminoles-dalvin-cook-mailbag-071515
-- Joseph V. Manzo, Coral Gables, Fla.
I don't think you can say Harsin was the brains behind Petersen -- like the way we often said Petersen was the brains behind predecessor Dan Hawkins -- because for one thing, those great Boise State teams won with a suffocating defense as much as they did a creative offense. But more to the point, Harsin left for Texas in 2011 and the Broncos kept winning. Petersen was the primary architect behind Boise's extraordinary 84-8 run from 2006-12, and I fully expect him to elevate Washington over the next couple of years.
If that doesn't happen, though, it would raise more questions about Petersen than it would either his current or former employer. While Washington has struggled for more than a decade, it's at no real institutional disadvantage compared with its divisional foes. If anything its location should give it a better chance at success than even Oregon. And while people would inevitably try to correlate Petersen with former Boise coaches Hawkins (Colorado) and Dirk Koetter (Arizona State), who flopped at a higher level, that seems misguided, too. Each of those guys ran the program in their own unique ways, but beyond that, why would Boise be a less likely launching point than Bowling Green (Urban Meyer), Central Michigan (Brian Kelly) or any number of other mid-majors?
Having said all that, Petersen's personality and philosophy were ideally suited to Boise. There's no guarantee they will translate at Washington, but I believe they will.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...da-state-seminoles-dalvin-cook-mailbag-071515
