Dennis Erickson Named to Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
Former Idaho head football coach Dennis Erickson was today named to the college Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta as one of 15 inductees for 2019. The announcement was made by the National Football Foundation.
Erickson, who had two stints as Vandal football coach, joins former quarterback John Friesz as the only Vandals in the College Football Hall of Fame. Friesz, who was played under Erickson for one year, won the 1989 Walter Payton Award. He was inducted into the hall of fame in 2006.
Erickson began his head-coaching career at Idaho in 1982, leading the Vandals to two I-AA playoff berths in four years, claiming the 1985 Big Sky championship and becoming the first coach in program history to post four consecutive winning seasons. He was a two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year during his first stint with the Vandals.
Following stops at Wyoming and Washington State, Erickson went on to win two national championships as the head coach at Miami. He would add NFL head coaching positions to his resume with Seattle and San Francisco, but continued to find success at the college ranks with Oregon State and Arizona State. His career record as a collegiate head coach stands at 179-96-1, for a .650 career winning percentage.
Erickson has come out of retirement to coach the Salt Lake Stallions in the Alliance of American Football, a new professional league that will kick off next month.