Chris Petersen is never satisfied. And before any fans start going off the rails over that, consider that most of the best coaches ever to coach college football were never satisfied either.
Lou Holtz, prior to a game between Notre Dame and Miami once said, “I don’t know how we can even go out on the same field as those guys. They’re just too good, too fast, and too talented.”
A few days later the Fighting Irish defeated the Hurricanes in the famous “Catholics vs Inmates” game of 1988.
Coach-speak is its own animal, and after covering sports for as many years as I have, I’ve seen coaches who talk too happily about their teams, and lose — and those who are continually complaining about their teams winning.
“We didn’t do a great job early on”, Petersen reiterated today during the Pac-12 media teleconference, “I wish our offense would have repsonded better down the line in the 4th quarter — that last drive was very painful. We’ve got some good players that can make plays against a good team, but we’re not where we need to be.”
This is still in stark contrast to what Petersen said when he was first hired at Washington — that it would take a “couple of years” to take that next step, but if you’re waiting for Petersen to speak about his team with anything but pragmatism, forget it.
Another Husky coach was like this — and his name was Don James.
The only time I ever saw James actually gush over his team was following the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1992. When asked if he felt the Huskies had done enough to covet the number-one spot and the national title, James said, “I think they deserve at least a part of it”.
He also teared up when the trophy was presented — other than that — James was one of those “never satisfied” coaches as well.
Nick Saban is this way. Alabama could win a world championship and he would still say, “We could have done a lot of things better.”
Also, Petersen was asked about Ty Jones today, and while did give Jones credit for a job well-done on Saturday, he recognized all the receivers and was quick to point them all out, ” Ty worked his tail off in the off-season — same with Pounds, Andre Baccellia, and Aaron Fuller”, he said.
The only thing Husky fans should read into the words of Chris Petersen is that he is a coach who will never tip his hand too much, keep it real and pragmatic, and go out his way to not “gush” about any one guy at the expense of another.
He’s not going to put Ty Jones on his shoulders and carry him around in the locker room.
Other Notes:
Petersen was asked about the trend of playing true freshmen at quarterback, and said that it has a lot to do with the learning curve now at the high school level with quarterbacks. That there’s more sophisticated training and that graduating early and enrolling early has been a big factor.
