When The Athletic put together their list of the best coaches in college football since 2000, the inclusion of former Boise State and Washington Huskies coach Chris Petersen should come as no surprise. His 14 years between the two programs saw him slot in at No. 10 on the list thanks to his 147-38 record.
Over his six years at Washington, he guided the Huskies to a 55-26 record, which included a pair of Pac-12 championships, the team’s first College Football Playoff appearance in 2016, three consecutive New Year’s Six bowl games, and victories over Southern Miss and Boise State in the Heart of Dallas and Las Vegas bowls.
Petersen’s program also produced 26 NFL draft picks, including six first-rounders and eight second-rounders, while laying a lot of the foundation for Kalen DeBoer’s success at Washington and the march to the national championship during the 2023 season with his final recruiting classes. From the Huskies’ historic 10-man draft class in 2024, eight of those players originally committed to the program while Petersen was still at the helm.
While he laid the foundation on the field for most of Washington’s recent success, he also revived the brand of a program that had been in limbo for a long time. Petersen’s consistency helped revive a program that was stuck in the mud of mediocrity before his arrival. Since Rick Neuheisel’s departure at the end of the 2002 season, the Huskies were 44-78 under the combined guidance of Keith Gilbertson, Tyrone Willingham, and Steve Sarkisian.
However, Petersen helped Washington return to its rightful place among college football’s top programs. Since his arrival in 2014, the Huskies are 93-45, which ranks No. 14 among Power 4 programs, and are the only Pac-12 program that achieved multiple College Football Playoff berths in the four-team era.
After stepping down from his position as the team’s head coach at the end of the 2019 season, Petersen still acts as an advisor for the UW athletic department and works as an in-studio analyst for Fox Sports during the college football season.
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