Dennis Erickson came in with a whirlwind and turned around an ailing Oregon State football program two years ago.
The coach took a Beaver team that had seen 28 consecutive losing seasons and posted a 7-5 record for OSU in his first year, earning a berth in the Oahu Bowl. Last season, Oregon State only improved, going 11-1 and trouncing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
Now the Beavers have turned back.
Oregon State’s dismal 2001 season — the Beavers are 5-5 overall and will miss the postseason unless they beat the Ducks — cannot be blamed on Erickson, at least not entirely. The coach has certainly proved himself enough in past coaching roles.
“We were picked very high, and expectations were high,” Erickson said in a press conference Tuesday. “For whatever reason, things didn’t work out.”
Things have often worked out for Erickson over his 19-year coaching career. His coaching prowess has produced results, and he is seventh among active college coaches in winning percentage.
Erickson began his journey in Idaho, where he won 32 games in four years. He had less success at Wyoming, where he accumulated a 6-6 record in 1986. He joined the Pacific-10 Conference for the first time as head coach of the Washington State Cougars in 1987-88.

The coach got his big break after steering WSU to a 12-10-1 record in two seasons. He was offered a job by national powerhouse
Miami, where he went 63-9 over six seasons and won two national championships. But Erickson’s reign at Miami was tarnished by off-field problems, and he left Florida for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks in 1995.
Erickson’s biggest project has been the Beavers. He has coached a group of players that he didn’t even recruit — and turned them into winners.
“When you talk about this turnaround — and we’ll keep it going, there’s no question in my mind — you talk about (this year’s seniors) and the seniors before them and the seniors before them,” Erickson said.
The pinnacle of Erickson’s time in Corvallis was the Beavers’ appearance in the Fiesta Bowl last year. The win over Notre Dame came on the heels of Oregon State’s victory in the Civil War, which was Erickson’s first win in the long-standing rivalry.
He was quick to point out that last year’s game means next to nothing this year.
“You can look at last year’s game or the year before’s game and have an idea of what (the teams’) philosophies are,” Erickson said. “But when you’re dealing with different people, different day, different emotion, different stadium — it’s different.”
If Erickson’s team can beat the Ducks, his Beavers will most likely go to the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho. It would be a far cry from the Fiesta Bowl, but it would be the postseason all the same.
For last season’s CNNSI.com national coach of the year , the season has been exasperating.
“We’ve been inconsistent, especially early in the year,” Erickson said. “We didn’t play as well as I thought we would. But we’re where we’re at. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
For the coach who turned it all around, there can only be more turnarounds in the future.