Dismissing Candidates: Chris Petersen
November 30, 2009
Now that Charlie Weis is out for good at Notre Dame the Irish will turn to their coaching search. Finding a successor is going to be tough for AD Jeff Swarbrick as Urban Meyer was the first to say no and today top target Bob Stoops turned down the Irish within two hours of the job opening up.
Until the coaching hire is done we’ll spend some time doing the opposite of what every other website out there is doing. Here at ITB we’ll tell you why the guy you just suggested isn’t the right man for the job. We’ll start with a guy in Chris Petersen who is a hot commodity at Boise State University and work our way through Brian Kelly, Butch Davis, Gary Patterson and should it come down to it we’ll tackle Brian Billick and Jon Gruden as well.
Winning ball games, academics, recruiting nationally are the three most critical areas to Irish fans. While they vary in their priority to fans they are the three spots that they’ll agree matter. Lets examine our list of guys taking this into account.
Here’s the first edition of “Dismissing Candidates”
Chris Petersen
Winning Ball Games
The man no doubt has won ball games. He’s posted back to back undefeated seasons and the 2006 campaign as well, beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl for his first bowl win. The brains behind Dan Hawkins’ promotion to Colorado is 35-4 overall in four seasons of leading the Broncos. He’s won games against the likes of Oregon, OU and Hawaii during his tenure so it appears his win loss record is solid. However he is 1-2 in bowl’s including losing to an unranked ECU team in 2007.
Petersen’s been the product of bad football as he’s built his gaudy record by defeating just three ranked opponents; Oregon twice and Oklahoma in the Fiesta. During his tenure he’s been the underdog just five times while his Broncos have been a double digit favorite some 31 TIMES! The point is Petersen’s never been in a pressure cooker where every game is a battle. If ND was playing the Boise State schedule Weis would probably still have a job.
Read more for the rest of why Chris Petersen isn’t the choice for ND