Talkin' football with two veteran coaches - and a new challenge for one

Two men with more than eight decades of coaching experience between them, many of it at the highest level, sat perhaps 5 feet apart the other day and swapped stories.

Dennis Erickson, 71, has coached football for 46 of the last 48 years, including six seasons as a head coach in the National Football League, and 30 seasons as a head coach overall — at the pro, college and high school levels.

And he’s not done yet.

Jim Hanifan, 84, coached in college and in the NFL for a total of 37 years, including six-plus seasons as an NFL head coach. He is mostly known in football circles as the guru of offensive line coaches.

Hanifan was in town for last weekend’s annual fundraiser golf tournament for Saundra Dorosh, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a pool accident in 2003.

Dorosh is a good friend of Dale Nosworthy, who organizes the tournament and who was recruited to the University of Utah by Hanifan in 1967 when he was an assistant coach there. ‘Nos’ and Hanifan have remained close since, and Hanifan’s appearance at the event has become pretty much an annual thing.

Erickson, who has a house on Lake Coeur d’Alene, was part of last weekend’s festivities as well.

ON THIS morning, Hanifan and Erickson shared a table at Nosworthy’s Hall of Fame in Coeur d’Alene, talking about what might have been, and what might be.

They’ve never coached together, but what if they did — Erickson the head coach, with his single-back offense which featured lots of throwing, and Hanifan as the offensive line coach? Hanifan once coached Dan Dierdorf and Conrad Dobler with the St. Louis Cardinals, and coached the “Hogs” when they paved the way to a Super Bowl title with Mark Rypien at quarterback in the early 1990s.

“I think we would have worked very well,” said Hanifan, who last coached in 2002.

Added Erickson: “It would have been a marriage made in heaven. Offensive line coaches are, I think, the key to good offensive football … he (Hanifan) was probably one of the best.”

But a coach who likes to pass a lot, teaming with an O-line coach who likes to run the football?

“If you can’t run the football, you’re not going to win,” Erickson said. “All this spread crap … nobody learns to get off the football.

“Even the teams that are in the shotgun, the teams that can run the ball win. Some guys can score a lot of points, but when it comes down to winning it all, the teams that are tough up front win.”

Hanifan agreed.

“You have to have a head coach that’s going to have the final say,” he said. “You have to have a good marriage (working together with the head coach) … you can’t have a coach that’s craving for attention. Enjoy what you’ve got. … a lot of teams don’t have that good marriage; they’re constantly fighting.”

“The thing that’s changed in coaching, if you have a staff that’s close together, that has each other’s back, you’re going to win games,” Erickson said. “From what I see now, at every level, everybody’s trying to stab each other in the back. You can’t win that way. The good coaches and the good staffs, they’ve got each other’s back. That’s why they win.”

ERICKSON RECENTLY agreed to become head coach of the Salt Lake City franchise in the new Alliance of American Football, an eight-team pro league slated to begin its 12-week season in February, right after the Super Bowl, and end in late April, just prior to the NFL draft. CBS is the television partner.

Reps from the league contacted Erickson about coaching. He talked to Bill Polian, former NFL general manager, who along with TV and film producer Charlie Ebersol founded the AAF.

“The thing that’s great about this league is you’ve got pro people involved in it,” Erickson said. “Bill Polian, one of the great general managers of all time. J.K. McKay (son of former USC and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach John McKay) ... they’ve hired some extremely good head coaches — Mike Martz, (Steve) Spurrier, (Rick) Neuheisel, Mike Singletary. I think their business plan is really good, from what I understand. They’re not trying to sign guys to big contracts. It’s just kind of a complementary league to the NFL. Play in the spring, and some of the guys that don’t make it in (the NFL) can have a chance to play (in the AAF). and I’m sure the NFL will look at those guys.”

Also, if marketed right, spring football fills a void for the sports viewing public. Remember the Spokane Shock?

“There are enough players around to make it competitive, and fun to watch,” Erickson said.

ERICKSON’S LAST coaching job in college was in 2016, as assistant head coach/running backs coach at the University of Utah.

Last fall, he was a volunteer assistant at Lake City High, where his son, Bryce, was head coach. Bryce Erickson recently resigned after two seasons as Timberwolves coach.

It didn’t take much to convince Dennis Erickson to coach again.

“I left my ego at the door many, many years ago,” he said. “We’ve got it in our blood; you coach as long as you physically can coach. I think guys that are my age, or even in their 60s and retire, a lot of times when they don’t coach anymore, they run out of things to do. So for me, I love to do it. I loved coaching in high school; it was fun. And I’m going to enjoy this.

“The stress and pressure of winning and losing will always be there, because we as coaches will always be competitive. But it also can be fun; you don’t have to look over your shoulder all the time, worrying about things coaches do.”

Some of the details of the league remain to be ironed out, Erickson said. So far, the league website lists just seven cities — Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Diego. Currently, only Atlanta and the Phoenix area have NFL teams.

The AAF is still trying to figure out how to divvy up the players. They’ve talked about letting teams have first crack at the college players in their area — Utah and BYU players for the Salt Lake team, for example. However, not all Alabama or Auburn players would be allowed to play for Birmingham, and ditto for Orlando and all the college players from Florida. Rosters would consist of roughly 50 players.

AAF coaches would start evaluating prospective players in September. Training camp would start in January; Salt Lake could train in a warm-weather city, and/or use the University of Utah’s indoor facility. The Salt Lake team will play its home games at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the Utah campus.

“We’ve got football in the spring that’s complementary to the NFL,” Erickson said. “And if a guy’s good enough, then a team might pick him up. But that’s not the whole point of it. It’s to have spring football, and put a good product out there.”

THE ILL-FATED XFL is attempting a comeback. Other football leagues have come and gone. Why will this one work?

“Some of these other leagues, it’s like the circus, some of the rules they have,” Erickson said. “This is football. And if you have a good product out there, people are going to come watch you play.”

Of course, the AAF also has a few of its own, unique, rules.

No kicking of extra points — you have to go for two all the time.

No kickoffs.

If you want to “onside kick” after a score, you tell the other team and the ball is placed at your 35-yard line, fourth down and 10, as it were. If you make it, you keep the ball. If you don’t, the other team gets it.

The play clock is at 30 seconds, compared to 40 in the NFL.

No TV timeouts.

“I think it’s got a chance, I really do,” Erickson said. “You have to find the correct cities that are going to come out in the spring, with 20,000, 25,000 fans. “And it’s got to be football, (without) all the bells and whistles, and all the (B.S.) that goes on. It’s not WWE ... ”

Well, maybe the “E” part would be OK, as long as it’s the football that is entertaining, and not the other stuff.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.