Washington is about attention to detail, not attention
PULLMAN, Wash. — Immediately after the clock ran out on No. 5 Washington’s 45-17 Apple Cup win against No. 23 Washington State on Friday afternoon, a small stage was placed in the east end zone of Martin Stadium.
A number of dignitaries took their positions and were joined at last by Chris Petersen, coach of the victorious Huskies. As he was handed the Apple Cup trophy, the purple, gold and white partisans in the adjacent stands chanted “PE-TER-SEN! PE-TER-SEN!”
It was exactly right and wrong choice of cheer, all at once.
It was right because the Huskies had just won their championship since Petersen and his staff had swept into Seattle prior to the 2014 season. It was wrong, in terms of current Dawg dogma, because it focused so much attention and praise on one person in the program — a person who doesn’t want it nor need it.
But he does deserve it.
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“He’s more than a coach,” said Trey Adams, Washington’s sophomore left tackle and a two-year starter. “He’s more like a father figure in my eyes. He’s there for you, he’s going to get on you when things aren’t going right, but he’s the definition of what I think a coach should be and how a coach should act, and I’m blessed to have him as a coach.
“He’s not just an offensive coach, he’s not just a defensive coach, he’s an all-around stud of a coach who just really cares about you.”
Washington is the Pac-12 North division champion for the first time and has 11 wins for the first time since 2000 and the fourth time in its history. Yet even with the irregularity of those occurrences, the Huskies could have expected them once the Petersen administration came aboard. Seven of the 11 teams for which he’s been a head coach have won 11 games, and another won 10.
“We said it was a dream hire when we did it, we feel even stronger now than we did back then about what he brings to the table,” said Jennifer Cohen, Washington’s athletic director. “There’s so much more substance and depth to him than we ever knew we were getting when we hired him.
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Cohen was the athletic department’s sport administrator for football when Petersen came aboard and joined her predecessor as AD, Scott Woodward, for the 90-minute interview in Boise three years ago that initiated Petersen’s migration to Seattle.
Cohen said she believes a football coach’s leadership and teaching style can set a tone for an athletic department, and she embraces that style too. She can even sound like a football coach.
“I think that you focus on the process,” Cohen said as she stood among exuberant players and families Friday. “You do the right work every day and you hope that the outcome like this happens. But we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the outcome at all. We want them, we want those goals, we want to dominate the Pac-12 in all of our sports, but it’s not so much thinking about that every day as it’s doing the little things really well and trying to get better every day.”
Despite occupying the relatively prominent position of being the third-winningest active coach in college football, there continue to be misconceptions about Petersen. Namely, that his disinterest in public attention means a disinterest in interacting with people. In fact, it’s the opposite. He might not espouse an “enthusiasm unknown to mankind” — to borrow a phrase from another highly successful college football coach who happens to receive more attention than anyone in his field — but he does exude it. Just ask coaches who have witnessed his rugby tackling seminars or the players who witness his weekly talks on personal conduct and growth.
“You know, everybody has, what do you call them, a character development guy or whatever,” Petersen said in a conversation last spring. “I mean, that’s what I am. I mean, it’s got to come from me. It’s something were are attacking every day right between the eyes. Every day.”
That said, there are some topics that can briefly wrinkle his nose. The money-driven aspect of college athletics (“I’ve said this forever. You know, the money ruins everything. It just does”), individual accolades (“If any of our players start playing for individual awards, it goes south fast”), and speculating on the Huskies’ place in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s minds.
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“I don’t know about that stuff, I really don’t,” Petersen said after Friday’s game, employing his most well-worn Petersen-ism and one adopted by players like star safety Budda Baker and quarterback Jake Browning. “I hear that they don’t really care about how teams win, which I really hope that’s true because I don’t think that’s what this thing is all about — trying to score as many points on somebody. I think it’s about just trying to win the games.”
But Petersen’s players, assistants and bosses know that through what he prioritizes on a daily basis, he’s made it about more than trying to win the games. “It all comes back to the details Coach Pete preaches,” Adams said.
Cohen said, “There’s no question that after his first year, being around him and watching his discipline to the whole process — he made really difficult decisions on kids, he laid down the line and said this is how we’re going to behave in this program and I assure you if you work towards that, good things will happen — and to see him three years later …
“I mean, what he’s done is really remarkable and a huge credit to the kids.”
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On that stage Friday, just before he handed the trophy to the throng of players celebrating in front of the stage, Petersen pointed out to them a sharp, golden metallic U-shape jutting from the top of the goblet. It was, until Thursday night, the setting for the golden apple decoration.
“It broke off last night,” Petersen said. “One of the guys touched it and it fell off and he was panicked. And I was like, ‘We’re going to win it, bring it home and get it fixed. Just make sure we win.’ ”
Petersen’s reaction in that small moment showed in two ways what the Huskies have come to know. He’s the “father figure” who is “there for you,” as Adams said. And he’s a coach who finds ways to motivate you.
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