SEATTLE -- Then-Washington athletic director Scott Woodward learned of USC's earnest pursuit of his football coach, Steve Sarkisian, at the end of the 2013 regular season, while he was sitting in Sarkisian's office inside Husky Stadium. Immediately, his mind switched gears and looked forward. This was business, not personal, and Woodward was already thinking about who would sit behind the desk next.

"[Sarkisian] was saying, 'Hey, it’s going to be a tough decision,'" said Woodward, now the athletic director at Texas A&M. "I said, 'No, it’s not. I get it.' And he said, 'No, it really is. I’m really torn.' And I said, 'OK, but I’m moving on like you’re going to take this job.'"

USC announced the hiring of Sarkisian on Dec. 3, 2013. Three days later, Washington announced Chris Petersen as his replacement. It came as a surprise to many who thought Petersen would never leave his incredible success at Boise State. He interviewed for the USC job, but it was not offered to him.

Chris Petersen interviewed for USC's head-coaching vacancy in 2013. Days later, he was announced as Washington's head coach. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The programs meet Saturday in Seattle, and in myriad ways, their fortunes have diverged based on that hiring decision. Sarkisian is now an offensive analyst at Alabama, where he isn't permitted to coach players. He remains mired in litigation with USC over his firing in October 2015 due to alcohol-related issues. The case has been sent to binding arbitration, and the Los Angeles Times reported last week that a hearing is scheduled for January.

USC is under first-year coach Clay Helton, who was the Trojans' interim coach after Sarkisian's termination. The Trojans are 6-3 and 5-2 in Pac-12 play and winners of five in a row since an awful start that included Alabama's 52-6 beatdown in the season opener.

Meanwhile, Petersen, who led Washington to an upset win at USC last season, before Sarkisian was fired, is the toast of Seattle. The Huskies are 9-0, ranked No. 4 and squarely in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff, and Petersen is a front-runner for national coach of the year honors.

A lot of dominoes had to tip over to arrive at this point, and there were more than a few unexpected plot twists. The Point A, though, predates Petersen's decision to leave Boise State after going 92-12 in eight seasons.

It starts with then-Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier's trying to convince Petersen that he'd be a good head coach. Petersen had left his job as Oregon's receivers coach after the 2000 season to become offensive coordinator at Boise State under Dan Hawkins. The Broncos' offense ranked Nos. 18, 1, 1, 2 and 9 in scoring in FBS from 2001 to 2005. When Hawkins left to become Colorado's head coach after the 2005 season, Bleymaier turned to Petersen.

“He had expressed some hesitation at becoming a head coach," said Bleymaier, now the AD at San Jose State. "He enjoyed what he was doing as the coordinator, and he enjoyed that role. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to become a head coach, at least at that time in his career. The only question I had when I offered him the job was whether he would accept it or not.”

Petersen did, and he went 13-0 and won a fairly memorable Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma in his first season. Almost immediately, his name began circulating as an up-and-coming coach. Through the years, he was connected to a variety of high-profile openings, most notably UCLA and Stanford, but Petersen insisted he was content and not looking to change jobs.

When asked what advice he might give a hot, non-Power 5 coach such as Houston's Tom Herman about dealing with rumors, he said, “It’s hard for me to say because I don’t know his mindset. It was never hard for me because I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wasn’t going anywhere. They can say all they want to say. I had no anxiety, no nothing. I had no thought on other stuff."

Then things changed. Bleymaier was fired in 2011, after an NCAA investigation that resulted in a finding of a lack of institutional control and sanctions against the football program. Although incoming athletic director Mark Coyle said upon his firing, "My No. 1 goal is to keep Chris Petersen at Boise State University," the advent of the College Football Playoff brought even more uncertainty for the future of Group of 5 programs.

When Steve Sarkisian left Washington to become USC's head coach in 2013, it opened the door for the Huskies to bring Petersen in from Boise State. Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Boise State went 8-5 in 2013, by far Petersen's worst finish. That season began with a 38-6 loss to Washington and Sarkisian in a newly remodeled Husky Stadium. Petersen admits he then started thinking about finding a new challenge.

"I don’t know if stale ... I don’t know if that’s the right word," he said. "But it was just like, ‘I need to get out of this comfort zone.’ Maybe that’s a better way to put it. I need to get out of this. This place is awesome. We had it completely dialed, in terms of how we do everything, for a long time. Everybody was on the same page, and it was great. But it was just like, I need to grow some more, and the only way I do that is get myself into a totally different situation.”

The dominoes started to fall toward that "different situation" when, in the early morning hours of Sept. 29, USC athletic director Pat Haden fired Lane Kiffin after a blowout defeat at Arizona State. Petersen almost immediately entered the rumor mill, along with Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio and Sarkisian.

Negotiations were under way between USC and Petersen, and according to a source, general financial terms were agreed upon, but Petersen would not formally interview with Haden until after the regular season -- on Sunday, Dec. 1, in a Boise hotel.

It didn't go well, for Haden or for Petersen. The source compared it to a "bad date." Haden turned down an interview request, as did his top lieutenant, J.K. McKay, so the reported differences in that lengthy interview typically fall into a range between speculation and rumor.

Another source explained it like this: “I think it was a mutual idea that it might not have been a good fit. ... There were some things about the job that didn’t excite him too much, and there were things he said about how he viewed things that didn’t excite them.”

Petersen said it was clear during the conversation that he wasn't "the right fit" for Haden's vision of what USC's coach needed to be and do, and vice versa.

“It’s just like recruiting: Fit's got to be right on both sides," he said. "I think it was, you know, kind of obvious after talking. You’ve got to have your way and know the strengths and weaknesses and the details of everything you’re doing.”

Whether because of Petersen not aggressively selling himself for the job, the L.A. lifestyle, the media demands, Haden's management style or concerns about whether Petersen's coaching and recruiting would translate from Boise State to the Pac-12, Petersen withdrew his USC candidacy. Shortly after the meeting, word leaked that USC was going to tap Sarkisian, a hiring that generated a lukewarm response from the Trojans' fan base.

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That choice, however, resonated positively in Petersen's camp. Although speculation was prevalent that Petersen had long been eyeballing the Oregon job, he had identified Washington as a potential destination years before to then-Ducks coach Mike Bellotti.

“Yes, that’s true. It was one of the times when I talked to him about coming back to Oregon," Bellotti said. “He said, ‘I think there are jobs with a greater ceiling.’ He was talking about Washington because at the time, they had been down for a while."

Petersen's interest in Washington was so serious, in fact, that his representatives not only reached out to Woodward but also enlisted Bellotti to call Woodward to make sure he knew how serious they were. Although feelers were put out to UCLA coach Jim Mora, a former Husky player, and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, an assistant under former Huskies coach Don James, and Woodward spoke with Doug Nussmeier and Marques Tuiasosopo, things moved quickly toward a Washington-Petersen marriage.

“It was, 'Petersen’s agent wants to get in touch with you,'" Woodward said. "I said, 'Give him my number!' It went down almost the day after, the conversation with his agent did.”

Petersen had reservations about leaving Boise State, but after eight seasons as head coach, he felt it was time for a change. AP Photo/Troy Maben

By Wednesday, a memorandum of understanding had been composed, and that set the parameters for a formal contract. A meeting was set up for the next day in a Boise hotel, where a formal interview took place with Petersen, Woodward and senior associate athletic director Jennifer Cohen, now the Huskies AD.

Suffice it to say, it went well.

“It was love at first sight," Woodward quipped.

If there was an apparent difference between Petersen's interview with Haden and what went down with Woodward, it's that Woodward made the discussion a recruitment instead of a probing.

“You know how I manage," he said. "It was an easy conversation. The head football coach is in charge. I’m here to make his job easy and good so we can have a great product. He is the CEO of that organization."

Petersen cited "timing and place" for why Washington lured him away from Boise. He added that he'd never seriously considered any job outside the Pac-12 footprint.

Of course, the coaching rumor mill never stops. The success Petersen is having at Washington will raise more than a few eyebrows nationally, particularly among boosters and athletic directors from elite programs who previously wondered if his style would translate to a Power 5 program.

Petersen subscribes to the "never say never" school of thought when asked if he would consider leaving Washington.

“I do like stability, and there’s not one job in the country anywhere at all that I’m going, ‘Oh, that job!’ That doesn’t exist in my mind," he said.

"So, yeah, this place fits me.”