Erickson back, baggage and all

Last year, at Idaho, Dennis Erickson might have picked you up at the airport for an interview.

This week, at Arizona State, it was more like that candy-store routine: take a number.

Phoning Tempe on Monday morning in hopes of arranging a brief interview with Erickson was tantamount to calling an hour ahead for dinner reservations on New Year’s Eve.

You’re asking now?

Sorry.

Arizona State is 8-0, No. 4 in this week’s Bowl Championship Series standings and on its way to face No. 5 Oregon on Saturday in a game with conference and national implications.

Erickson is in demand again and people are asking questions and wondering if he’ll stick around long enough to pick up the check.

He most recently low-tailed it out of Idaho after a 4-8 year to take a superior position at Arizona State, leaving few friends behind in Moscow. The new Idaho coach ripped the old coach for leaving the program a mess.

Jim Sweeney, who coached Erickson at Montana State and later hired him on staff at Fresno State, jokingly said Erickson was afraid to return to Idaho for a golf tournament for fear “he might get shot.”

There have been few clean breaks for Erickson, now 60.

Arizona State is his ninth head coaching job since 1982. He has coached at Idaho twice and also at Washington State and Wyoming.

He won two national titles at Miami but left under an NCAA sanctions cloud.

He bolted Coral Gables for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and failed. He returned to lead Oregon State to an 11-1 season in 2000 capped by a 41-9 win over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, was later lured back to the pros by the San Francisco 49ers, and failed again.

A man could not have been more “99-cent store” than Erickson was last spring before being ripped off the bargain rack by Arizona State Athletic Director Lisa Love.

“He blew by my expectations,” Love said.

Love was a member of USC’s athletic department in 2001 when the Trojans, seeking to replace Paul Hackett, tried to hire Erickson away from Oregon State.

Love said this week there was great disappointment when Erickson turned USC down, but look how it worked out.

USC hired Pete Carroll and Love, who left USC for Arizona State in 2005, got a second crack at Erickson.

“It worked out magically,” Love said. “I know things work out in funny ways.”

Hiring Erickson has always meant taking a chance. He is known as a players’ coach who isn’t much of a disciplinarian. He signs junior college players to bolster his roster and his teams often lead their leagues in personal fouls.

“He’s got some baggage,” Sweeney said.

Arizona State, already tied at eight with Southern Methodist on the NCAA’s all-time major infractions list, is not looking to take the sanctions lead.

Love said she thoroughly investigated Erickson’s background and felt comfortable with the hire.

“We’re not just on watch, we’re vigilant,” Love said. “And I think vigilance with Dennis doesn’t mean he’s a square peg in a round hole.”

No one has ever denied Erickson’s ability to inspire college players.

“He has the ability to deal with young people and live with their sins,” Sweeney explained.

Sweeney said people often see Erickson through the wrong prism. He is known as an expert in offense, a founding father of the spread, but Sweeney says what sets Erickson apart is his toughness and competitiveness.

As an option quarterback at Montana State, Erickson would play “with a bone sticking out of his skin,” Sweeney said.

Once, Sweeney said, Erickson cried when told he was being benched.

Arizona State is 17th in scoring offense this year but a more impressive No. 7 in scoring defense. The Sun Devils have punished opponents with a second-half, wear-you-out rushing attack.

Sweeney says Erickson could have succeeded in the NFL in the right situation, but his real talent at the collegiate level, beyond strategic acumen, is procuring the one or two key players who make a difference.

“He can really identify junior college personnel,” Sweeney said.

At Oregon State, Erickson coached two of the top JC transfers ever in Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, both now in the NFL.

Love said that, as with a favorite teacher, it’s tough to say for certain what makes Erickson a good coach.

“You just know what you’re watching,” she said.

Erickson has coached a team to every major bowl except the Rose -- a possible destination this year.

Arizona State has played in two Rose Bowls since joining the Pac-10 in 1978. The last Sun Devils team to start 8-0 -- the Jake Plummer and Pat Tillman-led squad of 1996 -- came within a play of winning the Rose Bowl and the national championship.

Arizona State seems to have that desert mojo again.

“I think he’ll win the national championship,” Sweeney said. “Maybe this year.”

If so, will Erickson be out the door?

Sweeney doesn’t think so.

“I think this is the end of the road for him,” he said.

Athletic Director Love hopes so.

“I’d be naive not to know his move-around record,” she said. “I’m aware of it, but I don’t dwell on it.”

You never know with Erickson, but he seems to have already achieved career-high status for fun, frolicking around the field like a kid last Saturday after his team’s breakthrough win against California at sold-out Sun Devil Stadium.

“I’m an emotional person and I love the game of football,” Erickson said this week at a news conference. “I love coaching it . . . you just get caught up in the moment sometimes. That’s OK, isn’t it?”

--

Blitz package

* Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter jammed the thumb on his right (throwing) hand during the Cal game and just how effective he will be against Oregon is in question. Erickson said he expected Carpenter to start against the Ducks. Arizona State’s backup is Danny Sullivan.

* It has been 20 years since Southern Methodist received the NCAA “Death Penalty” but the program is still reeling. Phil Bennett was fired as coach this week after a 1-7 start that dropped his record to 18-48. Bennett will coach the rest of the season. Since resuming play in 1989 after a two-year football hiatus, the four post-penalty SMU coaches have a record of 54-143-3.

“This is a tough job, let’s not lie about it,” Bennett said this week. Two years ago, Bennett called the Death Penalty “a nuclear bomb” to the program. “Nobody knew the devastation,” he said. Bennett said this week the school would have to relax its academic standards if SMU is ever to compete with other powerhouse programs.

* How can a 1-7 team ranked dead last nationally in total offense be favored against a 4-4 team? Answer: when the matchup is Notre Dame vs. Navy. Incredibly, the lowly Irish are favored at home this week. Or, maybe it’s not so incredible given Notre Dame has won the last 43 games in the series.

“We haven’t made them punt in two years,” Navy Coach Paul Johnson said. “I’m sure they can’t wait to play us.”

* The combined league record of the six schools in the Southeastern Conference East Division is 17-16, yet it is clearly the toughest in college football. Georgia and Tennessee lead the division with two losses; Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt all have three losses.

“I have never seen anything like what is going on in the SEC East,” Florida Coach Urban Meyer said.

Conversely, Ohio State is 9-0 and No. 1 nationally in part because the Big Ten Conference is down.

The Big Ten ranks last among the six major conferences in four of the six BCS computer indexes: Sagarin, Anderson & Hester, Massey and Wolfe. The Big Ten is No. 3 in the other two computers: Billingsley and Colley.

Two schools the BCS computers definitely don’t like are Hawaii and USC.

Hawaii (8-0) is No. 10 in this week’s Harris poll but is pulling an average BCS computer ranking of only 34.3. The only BCS computer that gives Hawaii any credence is Peter Wolfe’s, which has the Warriors at No. 14. Hawaii is No. 55 in the Massey computer. Hawaii is No. 14 in this week’s BCS standings and can secure a major bowl berth with a top-12 finish.

USC (6-2) is No. 38 in Massey and No. 37 in Sagarin’s rankings. Sagarin this week has I-AA North Dakota State ranked 21 spots higher than USC, at No. 16. USC’s BCS computer average also dropped four spots to No. 25 after a quality loss at Oregon.

--

chris.dufresne@latimes.com