Chris Petersen, former Washington Head Coach

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That's Stamps.com Code Program. And now joining us on the hotline is a man that was the head coach at Boise State and also with those Washington Huskies, and that is Chris Peterson, kind enough to join us on the Zach Yelp Show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, appreciate the time. How are you? I'm good.

My pleasure, Zach. How are you? Well, I'm doing fantastic. So, I actually thought of you the other day because I was perusing through Twitter on New Year's Day and I saw it was the anniversary of that great Fiesta Bowl when you were at Boise State. All these years later, when you look back at that night and what that season meant to you, what are the memories that come back to mind? It was a good night.

No doubt about it. Yeah, in some ways I was talking to somebody about that the other day. You know, certainly the people from Boise, you know, talk about that game still a bunch. But, you know, in some ways it feels like it just happened a couple years ago and in some ways it felt like, man, that was a long time ago. And I guess that's kind of how life is in general, but that's what that game feels like to me. Kind of, yeah, I remember so much of it, like it was yesterday, but yeah, that was a long time ago.

There were so many iconic memories from that game, but I always wondered this. Did you know that Ian Johnson was going to propose to his girlfriend afterwards? Did you know that? No, no clue.

None whatsoever. And, you know, it's so awesome that they're doing so well. He and Chrissy are still, you know, married and doing great and all those things. But it was so weird because, you know, half the nation or so much of it was just so enthralled with that great game. But then there was a whole other side of things that people were just so enthralled with the marriage and the proposal and how that was going on. The next day, I think those guys got invited back to New York to one of those morning shows to talk about the proposal. And I'm like, wait, we're talking about that or not? We're not talking about the game? We're talking about the marriage proposal?

So it was just kind of one of those things where it was just like a culmination of all kinds of craziness that all happened at one time in Arizona. That was a blur, probably, when you're living through it in the moment and then you look all these years later and you're like, holy heck, now we're in the year of 2024 and so many people have changed from that game. But in all the chaos in the aftermath of that game, when did you realize that the proposal did go down? Like, did you realize right away or did someone have to tell you?

Well, right away, but didn't think much of it until the next day. And then they're getting all these interview requests for the wedding. And what even gets even more wild, I mean, we get talking for so long about this, but what even gets more wild about this, Zach, is I think we fast forward six months later. Ian was only, I think, a sophomore at the time, so he's coming back.

The wedding's going to be in the summertime. I'm in a compliance meeting with Ian, Chrissy, her parents, our compliance office, to make sure all this is legal in terms of fans wanting to send them gifts. And I remember thinking, is this for real, that I'm sitting in this meeting right now trying to figure out how to get next year's team ready to go and we're talking about wedding gifts? But that's how it was back in the day. Oh yeah, that's just how ridiculous Chris Peters to the NCAA was. Like, I used to read an article, I once read an article that you could give players a bagel, but then if you supplied them with cream cheese or butter, it would have been an infraction.

Yes, as well as trail mix was fine as long as there was not M&Ms in it, and you'd have to take that out to give it to them. I mean, it was just all kinds of stuff. And that's part of the reason we are where we are right now, basically with no rules, no restrictions, no nothing, because the NCAA was so far behind on the times and wouldn't adjust and adapt.

And so after a while, you know, that's just not going to, that's not going to fly. And so here we are. And with everything in life, there's good and bad things.

I do think though the transfer portal and NIL, it's very good for the players, even though it's an adjustment for the coaches. But it feels like there's no structure right now in college football and there's no rules. And if we really knew everything that was going on, it does come off to me as like the wild, wild west right now. Well, there's no question. I mean, it is the wild, wild west.

Players are getting recruited out of their own locker room by other coaches. It's not right. What's going on?

If people really knew, it's just you shake your head and we're all, you know, at fault on this whole thing. And like you said, you know, you know, what is best? I think it needs to come back. What is good, best for the good of the game, the good of the kids, those type of things. In my opinion still, like I'm not in it. So I try to look at this from objective landscape, an objective lens, and I get the coaches, you know, maybe old school mentality. And if you have that, you should get out of coaching because you're not winning that battle. Like you need to adjust and adapt with the times. But I also don't think just wide open anytime kids are going to, when it gets hard, they're out, they're going to transfer.

Like I know that doesn't work. I think all the teams that we had through Boise State and even at Washington, you know, us getting to the college football. I can't tell you how hard it was the first two years at Washington before the third year we went to the college football playoffs. And I, you know, I know if you just carte blanche open up to, I don't know if anyone would even stay, they would not have gone through those hard things. And I go back in my career at Boise State where, you know, we had a run there when Kellen Moore was the quarterback, you know, at 50 and three. Even for those guys where it's going good, we would have lost a lot of guys because it was just too hard. And I think you look back on it and so many people were like, man, I'm glad I stayed.

I'm so glad I stuck this out. I think this is one of the reasons that Washington is where they are today. Because when I stepped away, I know a lot of those kids were thinking, oh, but the transfer portal was not wide open like it is. Then, you know, there's two years with, you know, Jimmy Lake and for whatever reason, it just didn't work. And then Kellen, the board comes in, the transfer reporter starts to open up and so many of those guys could have chose to move on.

They don't know Kellen, the board, his staff. And so, you know, there's a lot of people working to keep these kids in place if they just give them a chance. Like this is part of the growing process.

This thing should get better for you. But you're going to have to trust some things and, you know, go through some hard things. I don't think Washington is where they are today without those kids going through those hard things. I think it's very tough to build a program now and it's going to be extremely tough for some of the smaller schools. But you do look at the last two years and you never know how the first two years are going to go when you take over a program. But Sonny Dykes last year was a coaching veteran, right?

He had multiple jobs. But year one gets TCU to the national championship game. And here we go with Kalen DeBoer where he used to coach at Washington where it's been two years and they've only lost two games.

And both of those games were by less than eight points that they lost. It is amazing, and it speaks to who DeBoer is as a coach, how quickly he was able to trust his players, Chris Peterson, but also his players were able to trust him. Absolutely. And, you know, this is a player's game. And credit to those players for believing, for trusting the message. You know, that's a hard thing these days for these kids to trust messages, trust coaches, because there's just a lot of nonsense going on out there. And so the whole thing that they're growing up in with, you know, NIL and making it all about some money and, you know, and some of the money is for real. And that needs to be paid attention to. But I also think they're chasing, you know, money that's not game-changing money. That it's like you're going down the wrong path for the wrong reasons.

And so there's a lot of confusion going on out there right now. And it's awesome that they did believe the message, that they did stick it out to trust this man and his coaching staff, and there's no question about it. Kevin DeBoer is as good as anybody in the game today.

And it's just amazing what he's done in such a short period of time. And it's impossible to not feel just sensational for Michael Penix Jr. with all the injuries that he's suffered at Indiana for him to now finally get a good bill of health and play at this level. Just what's kind of your view on the quarterback because he seems like he's a coach's dream.

I think it's kind of a shame that so many people really missed how good Michael Penix is all year. Now everybody saw the game and they're like, oh my gosh, how about this guy? And I think everybody that's been with him for the last two years has been saying that, oh my gosh, how about this quarterback?

And, you know, I mean, I just, I think that, you know, I'm not sure if he got his proper due in this whole thing. I mean, we try not to get hung up on external awards and all that because you don't control those things. But the fact that he's a second team quarterback in the Pac-12, he's the second runner up in the Heisman. I mean, none of this makes sense to a lot of people that are watching him and the work that he's put in and how he's elevated this team. It's second to none.

And I think people are starting to see that right now. Do you think he should have won the Heisman over Daniels at LSU? I mean, J.U. Daniels is a spectacular quarterback.

And those stats that he put up, oh my gosh. I mean, most people can't do that stuff in practice. You can't do that on air. So I don't want to take anything away from that. I mean, I think the big question, Zach, is like, what really is the Heisman Trophy? You know, what is it? Is it the truly the best player in the country?

Well, how do you measure that? Is it the best player that elevates his team and they're playing on, you know, for national championship type awards? And so, you know, we're not playing the same schedules, you know, when you wait the schedules in terms of non-season, you know, out of season schedules and those type of things, non-conference schedules.

So it's so subjective that it makes it really, really difficult to say, do you think he should have won or not? I mean, I just know that Washington is not where they are 1000% without that quarterback that they have there. Talking to Chris Peterson right now, the former coach at Washington and also Boise State, when you get to this matchup, I think the biggest talking point when I look at just on the field, is not is this going to be Harbaugh's final game and write the story behind both the teams, but on the field is going to be the Michigan run game because that could be the best defense for Michael Penix Jr. if you get Coram and Donovan Edwards, who's the strength of that Michigan team going and they could get on long drives and kind of bleed out that clock and keep Penix on the sideline.

Yeah, you're 100% right on that. And I don't think Washington has really seen a run game to this magnitude. I will say this, the University of Oregon can run the heck out of the ball. That was the most balanced offense I felt in the country all along and they had a really spectacular run game.

So it's super balanced. They throw it more than Michigan did. I'm talking about Oregon now, but they can run it. Now, I will say this, in the two times that Washington played Oregon, they neutralized that run game, especially the second time. They kept Oregon's offense on the sideline. And if Michigan can do that to Washington, that's going to be one of the keys to success, to keep Penix and company on the sideline. Because if you give them too many chances and they spend too much time on the field, you're not stopping these guys.

You may slow them down a bit and the best way to do that is to keep on the sideline. Well, it got hairy at the end of that game up against Texas. It looked like Washington was going to cruise to a victory and then they almost choked that game away. How did you kind of process the final three minutes, Chris Peterson?

Yeah, it was crazy because I felt like you did too. It's like, yeah, they got this thing wrapped up. And then it was kind of this series of unfortunate events with all, you know, it's like they took no time off the clock. The injury time, I don't like that rule, by the way. Yeah, I think everybody's kind of starting to open their eyes on that whole thing.

So the offensive player gets hurt, clock stops. That really had a huge effect. But it wasn't any one thing. It was a couple of things and credit to Texas for battling back. But it did feel like that. You know, it was kind of like an NFL game. You know, you see these NFL games and one team has control. And then in late in the fourth quarter, you're like, this is a one score game. These guys can go down the field and score if they do that. It seems like so many NFL games are like that when you get these evenly matched teams. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday night in Washington defense, which they've done all year long. They swell up and they make plays when plays need to be made. You know, we always have this phrase that we've used forever that stats are for losers.

And that is the perfect example of that. Like if you compare stats, Michigan's defense versus Washington's defense, like the stats, they don't they don't add up at all. And in so many ways, like if you just look at stats on teams, that's Washington teams, certainly on the defensive side, you're thinking, ah, no. But yes, they just come through when plays need. They need to get a turnover. They seem to get one. They need to get a stop. They seem to get it. If they have to slow down the run game, they seem to do that.

And it's been phenomenal to watch all year long. Coach, last thing I'll ask you, wrapping up with Chris Peterson, when you elected to walk away, I think it shocked a lot of people and you know that if you wanted a job tomorrow, you could easily get one. There'd be a lot of schools that would be hitting you up to try to get you back on the sideline. Do you have any interest of returning to coach college football? You know, I don't at this time.

I think if I did, I would have returned. What I do have interest in is the good of the game and really trying to help coaches navigate this changing landscape that's going on and really how to stay healthy and at their best. Because I don't think people realize how all-consuming this job is. It's really not even like pro football. Pro football, you have your season and then you have your off-season. You know, you have your draft and then you have your off-season and you're doing things but on a normal pace, normal type hours. You know, a seven to six type job. In college football, you don't have that. It is 24-7, 365 from recruiting your own team to stay put.

The next, you know, round of recruits that starts in their freshman year all the way through their senior year. It's just so much constant chaos at all times and it's very hard to stay sane in this job for the most part. You lose perspective so quickly in this job because I always say that arena will continually squeeze and restrict you from your best self.

And unless you take steps to really build in healthy mechanisms in your life, it becomes a very, very difficult job. And so that's a little bit where my passion is now. Zach is helping guys try to navigate that and figure that out. Would you want to see it turn into one just 60, 65 team conference and you have divisions inside the conference and just have one commissioner of college football? Do you think that would be a good idea for the future of the sport to get everyone under one umbrella? Yeah, you know, I think Chip Kelly had been talking about that.

Separating maybe 65, 60 and 60 or whatever it is. You'd be a good commissioner for it, by the way. Pardon me? You'd be a good commissioner for it. I mean, Chip might be a good commissioner for it. Yeah, you know, I think it's something like that. I mean, the thing is so, you know, like, again, even with like the collectives at NIL, nobody's playing by the same rules. Like, I think that's the one thing that everybody wants.

It's like, what are we doing here? Let's all play by the same rules. So if we take 60 teams and we say it's going to cost this much money and everybody, you know, is going to put in at least as much money and you can't go over this much and there's probably going to be collective bargaining with the players.

And I don't think anyone has a problem with players making money at all. I think what everybody has a problem with, there's no guardrails. There's no guidelines. There's no what are we doing? Everybody's just making it up as they go.

And there truly is not any governing body. I mean, they're not even paying attention to the stuff that's going on out there right now. They're not even paying attention to the NCAA. They're not even kind of worried about that.

They're just going. And so nobody likes it, but they don't know what to do. So I do think something needs to happen. I do think something in the next couple of years will probably happen where a group of teams or some leagues break away.

And then there could be a fallback mechanism and we can make some rules to make sense for everybody. And let's play by the same rules and get back to where everybody's feeling better about things. Coach, really do appreciate the time today. Enjoy the national championship game on Monday night.

And UB ball, right? You got it. All right, Zach. Thanks for having me on. Have a great day. You got it.

Thanks so much. There he is. Chris Peterson joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Did a sensational job, but he was coaching at Boise State and also Washington. And the Huskies will play Michigan on Monday night.