46 JANUARY2OO8 COACH niRPTTOR

C OACH: How did your

interest in football and
athletics develop grow-
ing up in Ytiba City, CA?
PETERSEN: My (lad, Ron. was a
junior college football aiach al Yiiba
College in Maiysville, CA, so as young
;i.s I wa.s, I remember my dad watcbing
10 mm films willi the football slalV.
•0 Tbat's probably whete it all started. I
wenl to Yiiba (^ity High School, where
I played basketball and football.
But 1 have to tell you, as 1 got older,
the one thing in life I knew 1 u"asn'l
going to lie was a football coach. Il's

WWCOACHAD.COM 2008 JANUARY 4 7

PERSON TO PERS Chris Petersen
funny, because when I got older I was
so competitive and so itito the games
and watching the struggles that coach-
es go through, thai I said to myself,
"rrii not going to let these 18-year-olds
control my happiness." It wasn't until I
went to college and hooked up with
some awesome coaches at the
University of California-Davis that it
really opened my eyes to what coach-
ing was all about.
COACH: At UC-Davis you domi-
nated Division II football as a quarter-
back, named the Northern California
Athletic Conference (NCAC) Player of
the Year as a senior and rated the top
D-II passer in the nation. Are there
any qualities in your athletic career
that helped translate that success to
your coaching career?
PETERSEN: I think the one
thing is that I have just always been
very, very competitive. As a kid I
played tennis a lot. I played competi-
tive tennis, played in a iot of totiriia-
ments, and as 1 look back at some of
those days my behavior was very poor.
! could almost not control myself out
on the tenni.s court. Through my par-
ents and some good coaches I kind of
got my.se!f harnessed and channeled
lo how a guy is suppo.sed to compete
and act. You can be a serious competi-
tor but there's still a correct way to act
and behave.
It seems like there are a loi of
toaches who are ex-quarlcrbacks. But
I certainly don't think it's limited to
just that position. There are a lot of
former linemen who ai e head coaches
- those guys who are aiways thinking.
COACH: You graduated with a BA
in Psychology and immediately started
your coaching career as UC-Davis'
freshman head coach. What made you
decide that coaching was going to be
your future vocation?
PETERSEN: The only reason I
did that was because I was going to go
to C^anada and play in the Canadian
Football League. I signed a contract
with Montreal. I th<}Ught I was all set
48 JANUARY 2 0 0 8
to go and about two days before I was
supposed to leave, the organization
folded. So I was kind of stuck with
nothing to do and decided to go back
to graduate school. In Llic rneaniime,
we had a freshman team and I knew
that was kind ofa hard gig to get.
Usually you had to coach with the staff
at UC-Davis for a few years - be sort of
an assistant/GA type of guy so they
could see that you could coach.
Well, as it just so happened, they
didn't have a guy in the rotation that
they wanted. So they asked tne to do
it. I knew, having just finished playing,
that that was a good opportunity until
I figured out what I really wanted to
do. And it was a very mtich an eye
opening experience for me in so many
ways, I had just got done playing,
thought I had all of the answers, and
within two weeks of coaching I real-
ized 1 had no answers.
Without question, 1 think thai being
that I was yotinger helped me relate to
them. Bnt in terms of how to coach
guys, what coaching was all abotit. and
how to teach, I had no idea. And you
don't know until you start doing it
yout"se!f. A.s a player you know how it's
supposed to be done. But to actually
teach the game to somebody and how
you are supposed to conduct yourself
and all those types of tilings, it's a com-
pletely different experience.
I was the freshman coach for one
year and was then going to coach the
varsity receivers at UC-Davis. Bui I felt
1 had to coach the treshman team
again becatise I had learned so many
things that I felt I needed to do it
again. So I woiuid up coaching the
freshman team for two seasons. Then 1
coached the varsity for three seast»ns.
From there I went to the U. of
Pittsburgh and worked under Paul
Hacketi. Technically I was the GA, but
I was also the quai terbacks coach.
1 was in grad school at UC-Davis
and got my Master's in Educational
PsychoUtg). I was going to be a scbool
psychologist. But then I slowly began
to feel that my pa.ssiori was more into
coaching than the psychology Held.
COACH AND ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
Then that opportunity opened up at
Pittsburgh. Paul Hackt'tt had been a
UC-Davis guy. So I felt that was the
righi thing to do. I did lhat for a year
and then I went to Portland Stale for
two seasons.
COACH: When did you begin to
develop yotir offensive-minded acu-
men?
PETERSEN: It started at UC-
Davis because Jim Sochor, who was my
offensive coordinator and quarter-
backs coach, also coached Paul
Hackett. He had been at Davis forever
and is one ofthe winningest coaches
in Division II histojy That really got
me started. And then getting with Paul
Hackett was a tremendous experience.
The gtiy is as good a teacher as I have
ever been around. You listen to him
talk abotit football and you know he
could be a world-class biology teacher.
That was beneficial lo me - to be
around a teacher and a football coach
of that caliher for a year.
COACH: What does it take to
maintain longevity as a coach?
PETERSEN: A coaching gig is so
hard, and I've said this all along, that
in Older lo stay in this field and cer-
lainty in college coaching, it has to be
something you can't not do. It has to
be such a passion that you say to your-
self. "I can't do anything else." There
are so many tiint' commitments. It's so
hard on your family. It's so hard on
you and your life. So at each stop I
would figure it oul, learn from each
and eveiy experience, to the point
where I reali/.ed lhat this is something
1 can't do without.
COACH: After serving as an assis-
tant under Tim Walsh at Portland
State, you worked for Mike Bellotti at
Oregon where you helped turn the
Ducks into an annual Pac-10 con-
tender as well as a major force on the
national level. How did learning under
both Walsh and Bellotti influence your
own coaching philosophies?
Pc. rLR:=.trv: The rea.son that I've
 Chris Petersen
gotten to this position and have some
success as a coach is because I have
been so fortunate. Every coach that
has been placed in my path has
shaped me into the coach I am today.
Tim Walsh was great to work for. And
I learned .so many different things
from Mike as far as how to conduct
yourself and how to organize. Plus
he's a good football mind. The other
thing tbat I had at Oregon, that was
so beneficial, was that I was with three
ofthe best football guys in the coun-
try in my opinion.
I was the wide receivers coach and
tbe offensive coordinators were Al
Borges, who is now at Auburn; then
Dirk Koetter, who is now with the
Jacksonville Jaguars; and then Jeff
Tedford, who is at Cal, Those are my
buddies and the guys from whom I
learned how to do so many things.
They all had very different styles and
methods of doing things, and all very
successful in their own way. I was able
to glean a htUe from each of them.
COACH: What brought you to
5O ANUARY 2OO8
Boise State? There seems to he some
interesting lineage between yourself
and the two previous Broncos coaches.
PETERSEN: Dirk Koetter
became the head coach here while I
was at Oregon. And my wife and 1
thought about coming here, too. But
we just really liked Oregon a lot and
decided to stay put for some time. U
was three years later that Dan Hawkins
got the job. Dirk took him with him
from Oregon. And Dan Hawkins and I
go back to our UC-DaNis days together.
Dan probably just pushed me harder
than Dirk did to get tne to come here.
I already knew most of the staff that
was in place. I think I was one ofthe
last guys to get hired. It was a chance
to be an offensive coordinator,
although that wasn't a huge motiva-
tion to tell you the truth.
COACH: As the new OC, what was
your mindset? Were you beg, borrow-
ing, and stealing from the great offen-
sive minds you had learned from or
did you develop your own philosophy?
PETERSEN: There is so much
COACH AND ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
football there with al! of those people
that 1 had to kind of hone it dttwn to
what 1 was going to be all about. That
was a big challenge right away. But the
thing that was such a perfect fit for me
to come over here was that we were
running the same style of offense we
had run at Oregon. So I was very
familiar with it. As we have gone
through the years we have sort of
added a different spin and added
things here and there. Now it looks
quite a bit different but that's because
of all of the other great assistants that
we have had here that have all had
input into what we are doing.
COACH: At Boise State you have
had two excellent quarterbacks in
which to huild your offense around, in
Ryan Dinwiddie and Jared Zabransky.
As both a former college QB and QB
coach, what are some of the funda-
mentals that you preach for that posi-
tion?
PETERSEN: That's the whole
thing. In our style of offense, our
quarterback has to play at a high level.
PERSON TO PERSON Chris Petersen
We're all about making the qtiarter-
back successful around here. Anything
we can do to get that done is what our
focus is on offense. That starts with
ninning the ball. 1 know when 1 came
here, one of my first couple of games I
think we threw 13 passes in a game.
We've always believed in the ninning
game to make our offense successful.
But our quarterback has to be a great
decision-maker, an accurate pa.sser,
and a guy that doesn't put us in bad
situations. That's the thing we contin-
ually harp on.
We put a lot on that guy's shoul-
ders. And we want him to really simpli-
fy the game for us. He needs to be a
smart guy because we game plan a lot.
We tweak our game plans. We change
them from week to week depending
<3n his experience and intelligence
level. Everything is based on whai he
can do.
When we are recruiting a kid there
are some tangible things we look for
on tape; His throwing mechanics and
his accuracy. But really what is going
to make him successful is all of the
intangibles: How are his instincts for
the game? How sharp he is, his leader-
ship skills, and his drive to be the best.
,\ll ol' those things are truly hard to
know until you get him into yottr pro-
gram for a year or two. We try to do a-s
mtich homework as we can on those
issues and see if he fits our mold, then
we go from there.
COACH: After five years working
as an a.ss).stant to Dan Hawkins, who is
now at Colorado, you were elevated to
the top job. How did you handle the
transition from overseeing the offense
to directing the entire team?
PETERSEN: First of all. 1 was
able to keep and then recruit some
awesome assistant coaches, guys I had
tremendous confidence in. Otu" offen-
sive coordinator, Bryan Harsin, had
been with us for a long time and is m\
right hand man. I was still going to be
involved in the offense but as the heafi
coach you certainly can't do it all.
Brvan did a tremendous joh last sea-
52 ANUARY 2 0 0 8
son in his First season as OC Then I
was able to get Justin Wilcox. our
defensive coordinator, who played at
Oregon when I was there. He wa.s the
linebackeiii coach at Cal before I
hired him. Both of those guys were 29-
years-old at the time. I didn'l think
twice ab(ini it unli! everybody started
to make a big deal about how these
were the two yoimgest coordinators in
the cotintry. But they are fabulous
people and excellent coaches and I
knew ihose were the guys that we had
to have and we were able to get them.
COACH: A head coach is only as
good as his staff. What do you look
for in assistant coaches?
PETERSEN; It starLs with the
type of person that tliey are. It really
does. We need to have a person of
high character, low ego. and high out-
put. Then, I look for a guy who is on a
continual quest for improvement; a
person who is always tiying to find a
better way to do things. I want some-
one who has a passion for this game
and wants to do better each and every
flay. And then someone who is a
knowledgeable football coach/teacher.
Those are the things that we are always
looking for around here.
COACH; TTiroughout your entire
career, you have had tremendous suc-
cess coaching offense. What offensive
keys do you stress to yotir players?
PETERSEN: First and tort-mosi
are turnovers. You can make stats
work for you anyway you want. But if
you look at ttirnovers every year, the
teams that have winning records, for
the most part, are always good in the
turnover department. The second
thing is, in our philosophy, running
ihc bail. It's first being abie to run
ilie ball and then stop the run. So
our keys to success don't ustially
change from game to game. We also
like to shift in motion. We get into
multiple, multiple formations. We
feel our offense is balanced enough
that we can acclimale ourselves to
any situation.
COACH AND ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
PERSON TO PERS Chris Petersen
Your dramatic win over
Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl fea-
tured some trick plays in high-pressure
situations, partictilarly the hook and
ladder (hook and lateral) to de the
game and send it to overtime and the
Statue of Liberty play on the two-point
conversion. How much practice time
do you devote to these special plays?
How often do you incorporate them
into your game plan?
PETERSEN: That's a litde bit ofa
rub, the situation at the Fiesta Bowl, for
people who don't know about Boise
State. We really view ourselves as a
hard-nosed, blue collar outfit. There's
probably one percent, if chat, of our
game plan that's, quote, trick plays. We
are very much a wide open style of
ofiense that will take chances and do
whatever we need to do to win a game.
If that means throwing a halfback pass
on fourth down, atid we think that is
our best odds, we'll do it. We won't
blink an eye. Very little of what we do is
trick plays. We run the ball very well.
Otir quarterback is always among the
leaders in quarterback efficiency rat-
ing. We iike to think that we play
sound, fundamental football. We also
like to be exciting and wide open. It
just so happened that we needed all
three of those plays at the end of the
game.
That Statue of Liberty play and the
halfback pass, we were trying to get to
those earlier in the game, we were just
in the wrong situation, down and dis-
tance, field position, whatever. So it
didn't get called. So then we had them
at the end of the game and we used
them when we needed to.
COACH While offense is your
forte, Miiat kind of defensive philoso-
phies do you employ at Boise State?
PETERSEN; I've said this even
when I was the offensive coordinator:
Our defense has been tremendously,
tremendously underrated. You don't
winfiveWAC Championships in a row
without playing big time defense. And
there's no doubt that our defense was
unbelievable in the Fiesta Bowl against
54 ANUARY 2 0 0 8
Oklahoma. Our philosophy is kind of
the reverse of our offense. On defense
we first and foremost need to stop the
ntn. We want to make the opposing
offense one dimensional. We want to
confuse the quarterback. And we want
to eliminate explosive plays as much as
possible and be very good tacklers.
Those are the things we have done
here very well. I think it's just the old
cliche that tlie offense sells tickets and
gets people excited and the defense
wins championships. I think that's been
pretty applicable to the situation here.
COACH: A lot has been said about
whether the NCAA should organize a
Division I playoff system. Now there is
talk of a PIus-1 format. With Boise
State being the only team that went
undefeated dtuing the 2006 season
{11-0), do you feel that your team
deserved a playoff and a shot at a
national championship?
PETERSEN; It's funny becatise I
don't have a strong opinion on that. I
grew up with the Bowl System, I like
the Bowl System. They keep changing
and tweaking the system to try to
make it as good as they can. For us it
worked out. It worked for Utah a cou-
ple of years before. We just always
believed that if we take care of our
business and do what we're supposed
to do, we will be playing .someone
that's a great program and we will be
very happy about that bowl game.
Whether they change it to a playoff
system, that's really out of my control
and our control. We have great people
in college football that are making
those decision and they are trying to
do right. It will be interesting to see
this thing evolve.
COACH; As your program contin-
ues to grow more sticcessful, height-
ened media coverage can help inflate
players' egos. What steps have you and
your staff taken to maintain emphasis
on the team instead of the individual?
PETERSEN: One ofthe things
that has been the profile ofthe kind
of student-athlete we have recruited
COACH AND ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
here has been a little bit of that
underdog mentality. It kind of feels
like people overlooked him. We really
like that edge and that mentality. One
of the first things we did after we won
the Fiesta Bowl is we didn't allow any
Fiesta Bowl champion gear in our
weight room. Our strength coach said,
"We're not going to wear any Fiesta
Bowl shirts here. That's over and done
with. We're back to square one and it's
time to get our blue collar focus
going. We have to earn everything we
get. Nothing is going to be given to
tis." That has to come from the coach-
es and we preach that a lot.
COACH: How much of a home-
field advantage is Boise State's one-of-
a-kind blue synthetic turf field, which
some have duhbed "Smurf Turf," that
was installed in 1986? As a follow-up,
is it true that you saw a dead duck
lying in the middle of the field, appar-
ently mistaking it for a lake or pond as
it dove from the sky?
PETERSEN; Wlien I first came
here there was a poll taken in the local
paper asking if we should go back to
green turf or keep the blue ttirf. My
thinking was, having only spent one
year in the system, maybe we'll go back
to green. Well, the poll was like 98 per-
cent in favor of keeping the blue
turf— don't even consider changing it.
And that's really how I feel and our
players feel now. We love the blue turf.
It may or may not be an advantage to
us playing at home but it's certainly
part of our identity and we love it.
As far as the dticks landing on it
and stufF, that's kind of myth that's
been going on for many years. But I
do have to say, when we were showing
some people the turf— and we were
all kind of chuckling saying we had
never seen a dead duck— sure
enough as we turned aroimd, if there
isn't a dead duck lying on the turf. It
looked like it possibly could have been
attacked by an animal or something,
but there was one. So they could be
landing on it. I don't know
{lmighler).m