Dennis Erickson spent 15 years coaching in the Pac-12, 11 of those as a head coach.
Erickson's half-century in coaching was spent mostly out west, with the exception of six years at Miami when he won two national titles.
When the Pac-12 ran out of lifelines last week amid the ongoing college football conference realignment, few were as disheartened, and nostalgic, as Erickson. At least few as decorated as the retired 76-year-old Hall of Famer.
"It's really, really sad to see," said Erickson from his home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. "The thing that upsets me the most, besides the conference falling apart, the reasons for it. You got all these presidents that talk about academics and talk about loyalty and the bottom line is they move because of one thing … money.
"It had nothing to do with education. It had nothing to do with players. It had nothing to do with the school. It had to do with money."
Erickson was the head coach at Washington State (1987-88), Oregon State (1999-2002) and Arizona State (2007-11), and an assistant at Utah for four years. He is the only person to be named Pac-10 Coach of the Year in football at three different schools: Washington State (1988), Oregon State (2000) and Arizona State (2007). The league later became the Pac-12.
In 2019, Erickson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He is a member of at least six Halls of Fame, including the University of Miami, where he was 63-9 from 1989-94, leading the Hurricanes to the national championship in 1989 and 1991.
Erickson was 179-96-1 as a college coach, including stints at Idaho and Wyoming. He spent six years as a head coach in the NFL, four with Seattle and two with San Francisco.
Two of his former schools, Washington State and Oregon State, are in no-man's-land when it comes to realignment. With USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington headed to the Big Ten next year, and Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah jumping to the Big 12, the Huskies and Beavers join Stanford and Cal as the four remaining Pac-12 teams.
"That's just sad because they've been such solid members of that league for such a long time and they've been very competitive," Erickson said. And now they are left ... wherever they are left. I don't even know where they're left."
One option is the Mountain West, currently a Group of Five conference, and Pac-12 leftovers aligning. But Erickson believes any Pac-12/Mountain West union needs to be selective in which MWC schools are invited beyond the upper tier of San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State and UNLV.
"They could survive that and I think they'd have a pretty good league," he said. "You got to look at who they shouldn't take in that conference, too."
Erickson believes Oregon State and Washington State have more to offer than believed. He knows the hard work it has taken to build programs in Corvallis, Oregon, and Pullman, Washington.
"We developed a culture, we knew who we could get recruiting-wise to be very competitive," Erickson said about his time at Oregon State and Washington State. "(OSU's) Jonathan Smith has done it, too. He's not on the transfer portal every day, he's built a solid program at Oregon State. Same thing with Jake Dickert at Washington State.
"Now, it's gone in a year."
Erickson has the best winning percentage in UM history, .875. He has the second-most wins behind Andy Gustafson, who coached for 16 years. He left Miami for Seattle, his first NFL job.
Now, he wonders what will happen to the school that has won five national titles, although he believes the ACC, where the Hurricanes currently reside, is much better positioned to take on realignment than the Pac-12 was.
"They'd be very attractive for a lot of (conferences)," he said. "The SEC kind of matches with where they are right now. But I got to think the ACC will hang in there. They got to do some things but you got some pretty good teams in that ACC."
While he's not happy with what is happening in major college football, Erickson is very happy where he is right now. He still enjoys watching football, especially Montana, where his son, Bryce, is coaching receivers. He spends time with his grandchildren, golfing and attending practices to talk to coaches.
And he believes coaches like Bryce are in a good spot at FCS (formerly Division I-AA) schools. It's not just the topsy-turvy world of realignment. Erickson is not a big fan of Name, Image and Likeness legislation, or the transfer portal.
"I'm starting to think the best jobs in college football right now are I-AA, the Big Sky and those guys," said Erickson, who played at Montana State. "They're playing for the right reasons. And it's fun. The football is pure, you got a playoff, they'll get a little TV. Nobody's outbidding anybody to get players. You recruit guys, you build programs and let 'em fly. That's what it's all about."
Tom D'Angelo is the senior sports columnist for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].