Getty Washington Huskies Head coach Kalen DeBoer
The day after Pete Carroll was fired by — excuse me, “amicably agreed” to “evolve” his role with — the Seattle Seahawks, suggestions for the team’s next head coach started pouring in. Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who held the same role on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl team, seems to be the frontrunner for the position. However, former Seahawks and Washington Huskies quarterback Brock Huard has some other suggestions. Specifically, two coaches from his alma mater, Kalen DeBoer and Chris Peterson.
Could the Seahawks Raid the Washington Huskies?
The Seahawks are now looking for a new head coach for the first time since 2010. Fourteen years ago, the franchise eschewed the then-current crop of NFL coordinators in favor of a successful college coach, USC’s Pete Carroll.
That led to the franchise’s first Super Bowl trophy and Carroll becoming the winningest head coach in Seahawks history. Not bad.
So, instead of barking back up the Carroll coaching tree, could the team go after another successful college coach? Brock Huard thinks so.
“I know Kalen DeBoer’s name has been mentioned, and there’s a great fear in Husky nation and probably people throwing something right now at their radios,” Huard said on Seattle Sports Radio on Wednesday, Jan. 10. “That would be outside the box. Chris Petersen is another name. Would an NFL job be a job that would actually intrigue him? Where the field is level, where that methodology of development matters. Where playing young people does matter. I’d be fascinated. I would absolutely interview Chris Petersen if he wanted it.
These are outside-the-box ideas, and interesting ones coming from Huard who has played QB for both the Seahawks and UW and whose job it is now to talk about each on television and radio.
Does either make sense for the Seahawks, though?
Kalen DeBoer and Chris Peterson’s Resumes Aren’t a Fit
It goes without saying that Pete Carroll is one of, if not, the greatest college and pro head football coaches of all time. Along with Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, he is one of only three coaches to win a Super Bowl and a national championship.
And the road of college head coaches trying their hand at coaching in the NFL is littered with failures. Lou Holtz, Steve Spurrier, (the Seahawks own) Dennis Erickson, Chip Kelly, Urban Meyer, Matt Rhule, and many more are all examples that prove just how special what Carroll pulled off was.
One of the things that made Carroll a success in the pros is that he had 16 seasons as an NFL assistant and head coach under his belt before he came back to the league. He was a defensive backs coach for the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings, defensive coordinator of the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, and head coach of the Jets and New England Patriots before his USC excursion.
Neither Kalen DeBoer nor Chris Peterson have any pro coaching experience on their resumes.
Peterson, who by all accounts is happily retired from coaching and enjoying his advisory role in the Washington Huskies athletic department and TV analyst work, spent his entire coaching career at the collegiate level. He spent time as an assistant at his alma mater, UC Davis, as well as at Pittsburgh, Portland State, and Oregon before getting head coaching gigs at Boise State and Washington, per GoHuskies.com.
DeBoer also started at his alma mater, the University of Sioux Falls, first assisting and then becoming the head coach of the program after graduating. From there, the school’s website has him with assistant stints at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, and Indiana followed before DeBoer was named the head coach at Fresno and then UW.
This is not to say one of these two UW coaches could buck the trend and become another successful coach of the Seahawks. However, the odds are hugely stacked against that happening if history tells us anything.