The Sickos Committee explores Journeyman Coaches - Part 4 - Dennis Erickson

At the Sickos Committee, we tend to find ourselves digging through Wikipedia looking for weird and niche information. One of our favorite past times is to look at Journeyman coaches and just go through their stops in their careers while trying to figure out how and why they took this path in their playing and coaching careers. We will do this all throughout the college football off-season, so come along with us on this Wikipedia journey. Also, we will try to map out the path on Google Maps (if at all possible) and track the mileage each coach has journeyed. Follow us on our many deep dives where we try to find “Where in the world is this coach??”

Dennis Erickson - Playing Career

Dennis grew up in Ferndale, Washington and played as a Quarterback at Everett High School and played against his father who was the Head Coach at his school’s rivals at Ferndale High School and later at Cascade High School in Everett. The Montana Bobcats came calling and Dennis traveled 12 Hours and 769 miles to play Quarterback for the Bobcats all four years of his college career. 

Dennis Erickson - The Coaching Journey begins

Dennis found his first job at Montana State as a Graduate Assistant for one year in 1969. He then hopped over to Billings to become a Head Coach at Billings Central Catholic High School for a year. Dennis then returned to Bozeman as an assistant coach with Montana State from 1971- 1973. He then landed his first Offensive Coordinator job at the University of Idaho 1974-1975, just three years after the opening of the glorious Kibbie Dome and the roof being installed for the 1975 season. He then ventured to Fresno State as their Offensive Coordinator from 1976-1978. The San Jose State Spartans then hired him as their Offensive Coordinator from 1979-1981. The Kibbie Dome came calling again and Dennis went back to Idaho to become a collegiate Head Coach for the first time in 1982 for the Vandals. In 1986, Dennis made his way to Laramie and was the Wyoming Head Coach for one year. He allegedly left Wyoming without notice and bounced up to Pullman, Washington to take the Washington State Job in 1987. 

Because he left Wyoming allegedly without notice, we beveled your logo.

In this leg of Dennis Erickson’s Career you’d have to drive 75 hours and log 4,831 miles to match his journey. 

Dennis Erickson - From Big Time College Coach to the NFL. 

Dennis said his dream job was working as the Wazzu Head Coach and in 1988 he led the Cougars to a 9-3 record with an Aloha Bowl win, which was Wazzu’s first Bowl win since the 1916 Rose Bowl. He also earned Pac-10 Coach of the Year.  His success with Wazzu led him to the University of Miami, after Jimmy Johnson left for the NFL. Dennis led the Hurricanes to National Titles in 1989 and 1991 before departing for the NFL in 1995 by taking the Seattle Seahawks Head Coaching job. In 1998, the game came down to a blown call on a short touchdown run by Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde (where he was ruled to have scored despite replay evidence clearly showing his forward progress had been stopped short of the goal line), which cost Seattle the game and Erickson his job.

We beveled the Seahawks logo because that eye saw the Vinny was short of the goal line.

Dennis found himself back in the college coaching ranks at Oregon State in 1999. At Oregon State, the Beavers found a resurgence to a 7-5 record in 1999 and then 11-1 in 2000 when the Beavers won a share of the Pac-10 for the first time since 1964. Also, in 2000 he won Sporting News National Coach of the Year and Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Oregon State decimated Notre Dame 41-9 in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl. After a down 2002 with the Beavers, the NFL came calling for Dennis and he took over the Head Coaching job with the San Francisco 49ers in 2003. Due to ownership issues and poor player management, Dennis’ tenure appeared doomed from the start and it ended in 2004 after he was fired. 

In this portion of Dennis’ career you’d have to drive 107 hours and 7,214 miles to match the journey. 

Dennis Erickson - Back to College again. 

Dennis rested in 2005. 

In 2006, the allure of the Kibbie Dome was calling Dennis again and he returned as the Vandals Head Coach getting off to a 4-3 start but finishing 4-8 on the season. After only 10 months back in Idaho, Dennis then considered Arizona State and took over the Sun Devils Head Coaching job in 2007. In his first year with the Sun Devils they went 10-2 and shared the Pac-10 Title. Dennis earned his 3rd Pac-10 Coach of the Year and the first to ever do it at three different Pac-10 Schools. The rest of his Arizona State tenure didn’t go so well and he was fired on November 28th in 201. Arizona State allowed him to coach the bowl game where the Sun Devils were soundly beaten by Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl. 

Dennis retired from coaching after the Las Vegas Bowl. 

He became a Volunteer Assistant at South Albany high School in Albany Oregon for 2012. 

The collegiate retirement lasted a year and in 2013 he was back with Utah as Co-Offensive Coordinator and Running Backs coach. He became Assistant Head Coach from 2014-2016.

Erickson retired on December 30, 2016 after 47 years of coaching.

Guess who's back? Back again. Dennis is back. Erickson. 

Dennis returned to be the Head Coach of the Salt Lake City Stallions in the American Football Alliance in 2018. The AAF’s first season in 2019 didn’t finish when they went bankrupt and folded the league. 

We really won’t likely get to bevel any more AAF Logos so we did this one.

The final coaching journey for Dennis Erickson you would have had to drive 67 hours and travel 4,226 miles.  

Dennis Erickson Journeyman Totals

College Playing Career

• Drive 12 Hours and 769 miles

Coaching Career

• Drive 75 hours and 4,831 miles. 

• Drive 107 hours and 7,214 miles. 

• Drive 67 hours and 4,226 miles.  

Journeyman Travel Totals

• 261 Hours of Driving for 17,040 Miles driven. 

Dennis Erickson replaced Bart Andrus with the Journeyman Coach travel lead for driving with 261 Hours of driving and 17,040 miles. June Jones maintains the lead with most hours flying and most flight mileage of 63 hours and 28,557 miles. June Jones also maintains the most combined flight & driving with 307 travel hours and 44,906 miles traveled total.