I never knew why we took Jimmy. He satisfied one of Sam Jankovich's requirements: he had head coaching experience. After a bad experience at one of the other schools where Sam was AD, he swore he would never hire someone who had no track record as a head coach. Other than that, I'm not sure what Jimmy had to offer. He was a bit over 500 at Oklahoma State. He did have pretty good coaching experience under other head coaches. He worked at various places under Chuck Fairbanks, Johnny Majors, Jackie Sherrill, and Frank Broyles. One of the starting LBs on the 76 NC Pitt team, Al Chesley, told me that Jimmy was a great coach when he took over the defense under Sherrill in Pitt in '77. Jimmy served as Asst HC and DC at Pitt. I remember reading, years ago, a former Pitt AD said that during his time, which spanned years at Pitt, the top two assistants during that period were Jimmy and Foge Fazio.
But when Jimmy came to UM after Howard left, I was like, "Who's this guy?" I was befuddled. Boy, was I concerned. I could see the wonderful emergence of our program the year before under Howard as beginning to crumble. I didn't know that Jimmy would become one of the greatest college coaches in history, despite only winning one NC. I still believe how he built on what Howard left and introduced a defensive philosophy that would revolutionize college football and a passion and work ethic that built even higher what Howard left. It made Jimmy one of the greatest ever. He also proved he could also take that to the next level and win almost immediately in the NFL. History is littered with great college coaches who could not do it at the next level.
As far as Dennis, don't be fooled by a mediocre winning record at WSU. He was also a revolutionary coach with his one back, 3 WR attack. His coaching staff at WSU copied the one back of the Redskins under Joe Gibbs during his first era at the Redskins. They didn't adapt the H-back which I guess made it more of a power running attack for the Redskins, but the running attack was the same. They said they watched tons of Redskins film to develop it. Remember how the Redskins just ran over the Dolphin defense back in the '80's Superbowl?
I remember stories of how Sam went to meet with Terry Donahue after JJ and most of his staff left and they needed to find a new head coach. Dennis Erickson was considered one of the best new young coaches in college football. His last year, 1988, at WSU, I think he knocked off then No. 1 UCLA. Many thought Sam was interviewing Terry for the job, but I believe he was talking to Donahue to find out more about Erickson. Sam had been the AD at WSU before Miami, and I think he might have actually been over Dennis at either WSU or another school in the Pacific NW. I do recall that Donahue was quoted as saying Dennis had the "best conceived" offense in the Pac-10. So, many were unhappy with Dennis at the end of his tenure, it seemed like the program was headed downhill, but he is the only coach to win two NCs for us.
So, the respective records of Jimmy and Dennis were not dispositive in how they were regarded. There was a lot more to their respective qualities, and I think both were seen by Sam and those who really knew as guys who were building their programs with upward trajectories.
