Cohen: Huskies coach Chris Petersen is Washington's kind of guy

Washington Huskies head coach Chris Petersen hands off the the Apple Cup Trophy after a game against the Washington State Cougars after a game at Martin Stadium. The Huskies won 45-17. Washington Huskies head coach Chris Petersen hands off the the Apple Cup Trophy after a game against the Washington State Cougars after a game at Martin Stadium. The Huskies won 45-17. Photo: James Snook/USA Today Sports, /via Reuters Photo: James Snook/USA Today Sports, /via Reuters Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Cohen: Huskies coach Chris Petersen is Washington's kind of guy 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

When Chris Petersen left Boise State to take over the University of Washington football program in December 2013, there were plenty around the country who questioned the move. Petersen, 52, could have had his pick of any number of high-profile jobs over the years, while the Huskies were coming off their first season with more than seven wins since 2001.

Seattle had long since stopped being a destination for college football's elite, but what Petersen and Washington saw in each other were shared values. The mild-mannered, but intense Petersen preached -- and lived -- work ethic, innovation and big-picture thinking, all of which mirrored the Huskies' aspirations.

"He's got very strong values as far as being extremely gritty and tough and detail-oriented and focused on trying to get better every day in a very classy way," UW athletic director Jennifer Cohen said Thursday. "I think that that's just a great description of what our community is like. People work really hard up here, and we're understated."

When Petersen met with reporters this spring ahead of the most anticipated UW football season in well over a decade, he tried to temper expectations. The Huskies, who entered the season ranked 14th in the AP poll, were 15-12 through Petersen's first two seasons in Seattle, but following a strong finish to the 2015 campaign and featuring a roster with key returnees scattered throughout, Washington seemed poised to contend with conference powers Stanford and Oregon in the Pac-12 North.

Petersen wasn't having it.

"Everybody's impatient, starting with the fans," he told reporters before catching himself. "No, let me back up: starting with the coach, going quickly to the fans, going to our players. They want it right now, but true skill takes time and it has to be consistent, persistent, day after day. If we can keep that mindset, we'll go somewhere."

As Petersen's fourth-ranked Huskies (11-1, 8-1 in conference play) prepare for their first ever Pac-12 Championship Game appearance versus No. 9 Colorado at Levi's Stadium on Friday, they appear to have stayed the course.

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A win over the Buffaloes would likely earn Washington a berth in the College Football Playoff semifinals and give the Huskies a shot at the second national championship in program history in just Petersen's third year at the helm. It's been a quick turnaround for a once proud program that found itself out of the national spotlight for the better part of two decades, but Petersen initially thought the change might happen more quickly.

"When somebody told me that it takes about two years to change thought patterns and culture and those type of things, I thought that's true for the normal world, but not for football coaches," he told reporters during a Monday press conference. "We don't wait on anything. Then when I look back, I was like, 'Man, they were a little off. It takes a little bit longer than what they said.'"

It took Petersen a while to leave Boise State after an eight-year run of success, but once he found the right fit, it didn't take him long to make a landscape-shifting impact.

"I knew he'd get there," Cohen said. "I didn't know when he'd get there. And the reality is that you're never there. You have to keep working, so it's a never-ending process trying to be competitive and trying to get better, especially in this league and especially at football at this level."

Petersen began his coaching career immediately after his playing career at UC Davis concluded in 1986, earning a position at his alma mater under hall-of-fame coach Jim Sochor. After five years with the Aggies and assistant positions at Pittsburgh, Portland State and Oregon, Petersen joined new head coach Dan Hawkins at Boise State for the 2001 season. When Hawkins -- who was coincidentally introduced as the new head coach at UC Davis on Monday -- left the Broncos after five years to take over at Colorado, Petersen ascended to the first head coaching position of his career since guiding the Aggies' freshman team from 1987-88.

Hawkins and predecessor Dirk Koetter (now the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) turned Boise State into a winning program at the Division I-A level, but under Petersen, the Broncos reached new heights, boasting a 92-12 record over eight seasons and winning two BCS bowl games, including a memorable Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma on Jan. 1, 2007, that featured a Statue-of-Liberty two-point conversion play in overtime to win the game 43-42.

That win established Petersen as a risk-taker, but he played things close to the vest after becoming one of the most coveted head coaches in the country. He was connected to openings at UCLA and Stanford and interviewed for the top job at USC in 2013 before taking himself out of the running. That job was eventually filed by former Trojans assistant Steve Sarkisian.

Three days later, Peterson -- the first and only two-time winner of the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award as the nation's top coach -- was named the head coach of the Huskies. In his introductory press conference, he told reporters he took the Washington job for two reasons: timing and fit.

The timing had to do with Petersen's need to push himself out of his comfort zone, hence the reason he interviewed with USC. But where the fit with the glitzy Trojans just wasn't a match, the straight-laced Petersen was tailor made for a somewhat buttoned-up Washington program that was poised to compete with national powerhouses after investing millions in facilities upgrades.

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Petersen's first two seasons with the Huskies weren't unmitigated successes. While he stocked the Huskies roster with talented, high-character recruits -- what he terms O.K.G. (Our Kind of Guys) -- he suspended starting quarterback Cyler Miles and blue-chip receiver Damore'ea Stringfellow in his first spring with the program after the two players were involved in an altercation near campus (Stringfellow eventually transferred to Mississippi). During the season, he kicked future NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Marcus Peters off the team after a series of run-ins with coaches.

The Huskies finished 8-6 his first year, then lost Peters and two other first-round NFL draft picks on the defensive side of the ball in the offseason. Petersen handed the reigns of the program to record-breaking Folsom High School quarterback Jake Browning in 2015, and while the freshman took about half the season to get his bearings, Washington shrugged off the loss of talent to lead the Pac-12 in total defense.

With a bevy of weapons this season, including running backs Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman and wide receivers John Ross, Dante Pettis and Chico McClatcher, Browning developed into the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year and a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, setting a school record with 40 touchdown passes. A star-studded secondary that might feature as many as three 2017 NFL draft picks led a defensive unit that allowed just under 18 points per game and finished behind only Colorado in total defense in the Pac-12.

Washington rolled through the regular season, with its lone blemish a 26-13 loss to a resurgent USC on Nov. 12. They bounced back from that defeat to paste Arizona State and rival Washington State by a 99-35 margin over the final two weeks of the regular season.

Petersen's success this season extends off the field. Eighty UW players posted GPA's of 3.0 or higher in a recent academic quarter, according to Cohen, a reflection of his "Built for Life" program focuses on preparing players for life after football.

"He doesn't just say it in recruiting or whatever," Cohen said. "He weaves it into basically a four-year life skills program unlike anything I've ever really seen from any coach at any level at any sport."

The Huskies' rise has led to expectations that Petersen's staff will be raided by programs looking for their own saviors, but Petersen himself appears to be settling in for the long haul at Washington, reportedly close to finalizing a contract extension that will keep him as the Huskies' top Dawg through 2030. When asked about the potential loss of assistant coaches on Monday, his answer seemed to channel some of his own experiences as a wanted man.

"I see so many coaches run off to other places," he said. "It's not better in the long run. But when it is better -- and that's really their call -- then it's my job to help them do what they need to do, as long as they've done a great job here. I think what's going on here speaks for the job that these coaches are doing. I mean, they do a tremendous job. So that's my responsibility to them, is to help them.

"But I hope they don't go," he said after a brief pause.

Fans of a Washington program with suddenly heightened expectations are certainly glad Petersen decided to come to Seattle when he did, even if they are a little surprised to find themselves in the rarified air of national championship discussions. And whatever the outcome over the next month or so, it's pretty clear the Huskies found their kind of guy.

"I'm extremely pleased where this program is," Cohen said. "And more than anything just really proud that he's our guy and represents us so well, and that these guys who get to play with him -- and for him -- represent us well, too."

Visit seattlepi.com for more Washington Huskies news. Contact sports reporter Stephen Cohen at stephencohen@seattlepi.com or @scohenPI.