Washington’s Chris Petersen all class after loss to Boise State

By Doug Carey | Sep 5, 2015

Former Boise State head coach and current Washington head coach Chris Petersen was all class after losing to his former team on Friday night.

Washington coach Chris Petersen could have offered a quick handshake Friday to Bryan Harsin and ran off the field. Nobody would’ve blamed him, especially following a tough 16-13 loss to Boise State. Instead, Petersen took a few extra minutes and greeted many of his former recruits. Class move, and something not every coach would have done.

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There were a lot of takeaways from the Pac-12-Mountain West showdown — starting with Huskies freshman QB Jake Browning’s promising debut — but afterward we were taken by Petersen’s uncommon grace.

The second-year Washington coach led the Boise State to a 92-12 record from 2006 to 2013 and recruited many of the current Broncos. He didn’t make a big deal about his return to Boise, but he’s clearly welcome back anytime.

Petersen embraced many of the Broncos players and even caught Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson (at the 2:34 spot). Best of all was the way the lingering Boise State crowd showed their affection as the understated Petersen headed for the locker room.

Boise State appears headed toward another conference title even without the 50-year-old Petersen, but it was nice to see Broncos fans haven’t forgotten the man who took them to another level during his eight seasons on the blue turf.

As for Petersen, you have to wonder if he has any regrets about leaving the place he was 92-12 in eight years for the Washington job and a roster left pretty bare by Steve Sarkisian who took the USC job that could have/should have gone to Petersen.

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