I think he would be an odd fit in the Deep South, too. The Pacific Northwest is truly a world away from the South. That might also translate to recuits, as well.
You are spot on StaceyO we need a coach with strong SEC or strong Texas ties, can you say recruiting?
I wholeheartedly agree with you. But look at what he did at BSU. You know damn well he wasn't lighting the recruiting classes up, and still competed with most major programs he played, might not have won them all, but he had them competing. Now he's doing the same thing at UW with far less recruiting classes then ours. I'm not saying he's the messiah, but he does get his kids ready to play, and develops talent far above their recruiting rankings. The PAC is weak this year, but all you can do is win the games you're supposed to and he's doing that right now. My personal choices are Herman, Meyer, Fisher in that order, but there's a few others that should be looked at as B options as well, Petersen and Wittingham comes to mind.
Mutual interest was expressed between Peterson and USC. He and Haden met. After the meeting, both claimed it wasn't a "good fit". What I kept hearing is that Haden had already decided on Sardrunkian and the trip to Boise was a professional formality. Peterson had interest in coming to LA....based on what he would have found in Haden and the BoT, I'm happy for him he got a better situation. I'm still unconvinced that the Huskies are all that. But I always enjoyed playing them and thought the conference was better when they were competitive.
He can recruit Texas. Boise has 13 Texas players on their roster...that's mostly Peterson. I agree. He's proven himself as a coach. I don't know if he's next level....yet, but he could be. The Huskies right now are still a question mark in my book for the reasons you stated. I want to see what he does with a non Pac12 power conference team.
Well good news is we should find out. WSU looks pretty good, as does Utah, if UW gets past them I think they coast through the rest of the PAC. Imo they should be in the top 4 and playoff bound if they run the table. Unfortunately they don't play many ranked teams (Stanford, Utah only 2 ranked opponents on schedule), and might be snubbed based on body of work.
Recruiting doesn't mean shit if you can't coach up and develop said recruits. See Miles for proof of this. LSU's recruiting is the only thing that saved his ass for the last 5 yrs. But Petersen does get the most out of his players.
