Peterson steps down at UW

If you paid attention to their fanbase, they were calling for Petersen’s head after the Utah loss. Husky fans are almost as arrogant as USC fans and apparently their memory is even shorter. After all the crap coaches they’ve been through since Don James, Petersen was a shining star. Hell they even had that Tyrone Willingham guy whom Beth Moens undoubtedly confused with Kyle Whittingham.

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Four years ago we met up with some Wisconsin fans on a bike trip and they weren’t sad in the least that Andersen left. They just thought he wasn’t up to their expectations for performance and the beat down Ohio St. put on them in the Big 10 title game proved to them he wasn’t the guy.

Add that Mike Leach is being talked about to take the Arkansas job (most speculate more so do to his outburst after the Apple Cup) the P12 is going to have a very diff look next season.

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Oregon State fans couldn’t get rid of him fast enough either. He built USU and maintained Wiscy, “they” say it’s more difficult to maintain a program than to build one so his best effort might have been at Wisconsin. This year at USU will probably be typical for Logan.

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I lived out there for 10 years; they are.

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I concur. Although I will say I’ve had mostly positive experiences at the Coliseum. My friend’s willful ignorance is pretty amusing on that topic.

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I agree; never had a problem with them or UCLA fans. And when I moved out there in '85, on my way to a UCLA/AZ game I was wearing a red/blue striped rugby shirt and my friend, who went to AZ, asked if I knew what I was wearing. I had no clue, but everyone was nice, including the AZ fans that kept asking when I graduated from there.

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He is/was the highest paid coach in the PAC12 at $4.8 million/year plus $1 million in bonuses. I wonder how much his ‘administrative’ job will pay.

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What are your odds new coaching job vs health issue? I started out thinking school change, but wonder about treatment…

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He’s burned out. He might come back in a few years, but you see it all the time in coaching (and business for that matter). Boise took a lot out of him, and then he had to maintain and put that same sort of energy into turning around Washington.

I think often when a coach goes from having success at a smaller school and “flops” at a larger school it’s because they just don’t have the energy to do it again. He definitely hasn’t flopped at Washington, but he’s burned the candle at both ends for a bit too long and it looks like he needs to recharge.

Just my thoughts on it.

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Probably wants to play catch with his son and sign a family contract.

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Interesting take. Makes me appreciate Whitt even more. But I still think Peterson is an amazing coach.

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Deseret News article quotes Petersen as saying: "I’ll be a Husky for life, but now is the right time for me to step away from my head coaching duties, and recharge.”

This is from a press release, so you can’t really expect it to tell the whole story. One wonders if he needs months or years to recharge. Hard to believe that he is just going to ride off into the sunset, but maybe he will stay at Washington for a while in a less demanding capacity.

Whitt had kind words and respect: “Chris Petersen is one of the finest coaches in the country. You’ve got a handful of coaches that you respect and admire, and Chris Petersen is one of my guys."

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He’ll be a Seahawk by March.