“We’ll have a plan….pare things down so we’re more precise at what we’re doing”, Chris Petersen said following the Rose Bowl, summing up the entire 2018 football season.
“It all comes down to execution, is what it is”, the coach said.
Petersen was talking about the ever-so-common redzone issues the Husky offense suffered all season, but it was still just a microcosm of how the entire offense performed.
Of course, the internet thugs felt some satisfaction when Matt Lubick left; deciding it was all because of recruiting — rather than just a matter of a coach and a program going their separate ways.
Go back and read the quote by Petersen again — and then we’ll dissect this a little more.
One pundit who works for another site chastized his readers recently on the message boards for making references to Don James, and what worked for James.
But sports is all about comparisons; what worked under what circumstances and who did what?
But looking back be damned — we’re going to do just that.
Coach James is and was the best coach Washington ever had — we all know that. But he was married to his Power-I offense, and even his wife Carol, knew that. One year the Huskies beat Oregon 10-7, and only had two first downs in the entire game.
We’ve all read the archives about how James won his national title because he went and recruited speed, etc. blah blah blah. And James did know he needed more speed, but one thing he did to get them out of the hump and finally into an undefeated, national title season, was to bring in Keith Gilbertson and a one-back offense.
Gilbertson came to Washington as an offensive line coach in 1989, and even though Gary Pinkel was still the coordinator, Gilberston was working right alongside him — implementing some new blood into the Husky offense.
There was a new concept called the One-Back offense; a 360 angle turn away from the Power-I.
Example: In 1988 the Husky offense averaged 23 points per game (11 games). In 1990 they averaged 35.5 points per game (11 games). And in order to keep Gilbertson on his staff, James gave him the job as offensive coordinator.
So what does it all mean?
If you’ve been watching ESPN, or even the USC dumpster fire go down — why does a 5-7, fired Texas Tech head coach suddenly get a red carpet job at USC, only to leave for a head coaching job at the NFL?
They call the NFL the “copycat league”. An example of this is the “Air Raid” offense that Mike Leach has made popular at Washington State.
Leach and the Cougars have won a lot of football games with this offense. It was at its most prolific this past season with Gardner Minshew lining up behind center. The Cougars won 10 games, losing only to USC (talent up the gazoo) and Washington (who’s had Leach’s number for the past six years).
Coach Petersen has been compared to Don James; he’s stubborn, gets the most out of his talent, is detail-oriented, etc. But one of the bigger comparisons lies in what we’ve been hearing from behind the scenes at Montlake right now.
As we posted late last night, Petersen has been interviewing coaches to take over the vacancy of co-offensive coordinator and either the receiver coach or quarterbacks coach. Everyone who has a vacancy right now is trying to get their hands on that up-and-coming or well-established guy who can bring a touch of that Air Raid to their program.
Think Washington State and/or Oklahoma State.
So having said all that, let’s look at the following names:
Graham Harrell
Harrell first started coaching by accepting a quality control position at Oklahoma State when Mike Gundy hired former Tech offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen to run the Cowboy offense. Harrell helped tutor the OSU quarterbacks with the new Air Raid system that Gundy had hired Holgerson to run. Harrell left OSU to play football in Canada. After not playing in the NFL during the 2013 season, Harrell joined the coaching staff at Washington State in April 2014, re-uniting him with his college coach Mike Leach. Harrell was given the position of offensive analyst. In February 2015, Harrell was named the football program’s outside receivers coach, replacing Dennis Simmons. In December 2015, former Texas Tech running backs coach Seth Littrell was named head football coach at the University of North Texas. Harrell became one of Littrell’s first hires, as he was named offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UNT. Despite being named OC at North Texas, Harrell said he would honor his contract with Leach and WSU and coach the Cougars in the Sun Bowl.
On December 7, 2018, UNC-Chapel Hill sports site Inside Carolina claimed that Harrell had accepted the role of offensive coordinator for the Tar Heels. Inside Carolina retracted the claim hours later.
Robert Anae
Also from the Leach tree. Anae began as offensive line coach at University of Hawaii in 1986 and continued through the next year. He came back to BYU for 1990 and 1991 as an offensive line graduate assistant and followed up at Ricks College from 1992 through 1995 as its offensive line coach. He coached offensive line at Boise State University in 1996, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 1997 and 1998, and Texas Tech University from 2000 to 2004. In 2005, he returned to BYU where he served as offensive coordinator until his resignation Dec. 30, 2010. Anae served the 2011-12 season as the offensive line coach and running game coordinator at the University of Arizona, under head coaches Mike Stoops and Rich Rodriguez.In January 2013, Anae returned to BYU as the offensive coordinator.
On December 9, 2015, Anae announced that he had accepted the offensive coordinator position at the University of Virginia, following former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall who had been appointed the university’s new head football coach.
Phillip Montgomery
He is currently the head coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team. Montgomery was hired by Tulsa on December 11, 2014. He was previously the offensive coordinator of the Baylor Bears. In 2013, Montgomery was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top college football assistant coach.
He’s not doing great as a head coach at Tulsa, so he could be poached, but he has been the author of some very prolific offenses throughout his tenture.
Seth Littrell
Littrell started his coaching as a graduate assistant for the Kansas Jayhawks football team for two seasons from 2002 to 2004. Under Mike Leach, he was running backs coach at Texas Tech from 2005 to 2008. From 2009 to 2011, Littrell coached the offense at Arizona. Then from 2012 to 2013, Littrell was offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Indiana from 2012 to 2013. From 2014 to 2015, Littrell was assistant head coach for offense and tight ends coach at North Carolina under Larry Fedora. In Littrell’s last season at North Carolina, the team finished 11–3 and first place in the ACC Coastal Division. On December 5, 2015, Littrell was named the head coach at North Texas.
What do all these guys have in common?
They came from the Air Raid, Mike Leach coaching tree. They know that offense in and out.
There had been two other names we were aware of earlier in the week, but one took a job elsewhere and the other has not been willing to reciprocate interest. So we had to re-think where Coach Petersen may be going on this search.
What we do know (from a reliable source) is that the main candidates aren’t the “obvious” names.
Recruiting is just a small part of this hire. Look at Alabama and how Nick Saban’s staff has been ripped since the loss to Clemson because his young, charismatic “great recruiters” were all out-coached by the less sexy coaches at Clemson.
So with Petersen and this hire, it’s more about his system and where he will take it going forward. You see, Washington State has a great offense — but they don’t have the athletes on both sides of the ball that Washington has. Washington’s defense is already the best in the conference and among the best in the country — but the offense needs to become equally strong.
That’s what makes a champion.
