O’Neil: Chris Petersen is the coach Huskies fans have been waiting for

To say I’ve been waiting for this moment since I enrolled at Washington would be an exaggeration.

I’ve seen the Huskies enjoy success before. I’ve watched them win the conference. I’ve gone to cheer them on at the Rose Bowl and it was every bit as glorious as I imagined it would be.

But that was about a player in Marques Tuiasosopo.

This is about a program under Chris Petersen.

That was a moment.

This is a movement.

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I realize I might be getting carried away, but forgive me. I attended the school during two years of bowl probation and after that I was subjected to three years of the purple-helmet debacle in which the Huskies could have been mistaken for the grapes from a Fruit of the Loom ad.

But I’m not bitter.

It hasn’t been all bad.

I’ve seen talent from Lawyer Milloy (my favorite Husky ever) to a team with eight NFL draft picks (eight!) that went all the way to the 1997 Aloha Bowl (ugh) to the 2000 Huskies that Tuiasosopo steered to the Rose Bowl in a season that was inspiring as it was tragic (Curtis Williams, rest in peace).

I’ve talked myself into all manner of coaches from Jim Lambright, who had all of Don James’ salt but none of his presence, to Rick Neuheisel, a flim-flam man who strummed on a guitar and proved surprisingly adept at coaching the street toughs that Lambright recruited. Trouble was, Neuheisel’s own recruits weren’t all that good, though his own predilection for interviewing elsewhere without telling his boss combined with an unfortunate gambling controversy meant he didn’t have to see the whole thing through.

That brings us to Keith Gilbertson, who was everyone’s favorite uncle but was buried by an absolutely impossible situation, and he gave way to Tyrone Willingham, who had all of the credentials and none of the passion. Then there was Steve Sarkisian, a gifted strategist we’ve come to learn suffered from a drinking problem. That brings us up to the present.

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And of all the head coaches at Washington since I enrolled in September 1993 – and there have been six – Petersen is the one I soured on the quickest. He’s also been the best. By far. Without question.

Except I questioned him.

His first season at Washington, I thought the Huskies underachieved with four players on that team who were chosen in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. That total included Marcus Peters, whom Petersen kicked off the team.

Over the course of that season, the Huskies didn’t win a single game they weren’t supposed to win. Three players from that defense were drafted in the first round and the Huskies didn’t notch a single upset. It didn’t help the Huskies faked a punt at a most inopportune moment in a slugfest with Stanford that year.

I’m not sure when the exact moment my opinion of Petersen flipped. Might have been the season-opener at Boise State in his second year when the Huskies were amazingly competitive in spite of starting a true freshman quarterback. Could have been a few weeks later when Washington hung tough despite being utterly inexperienced on offense.

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What I do know is by the time the Huskies upset USC on a Thursday night I was absolutely, utterly sold on Petersen. Washington had four different starters chosen in the first two rounds of the NFL draft after his first season yet the Huskies were better on defense in Petersen’s second season, and we haven’t even gotten to an offense that was surprisingly competent in spite of starting a true freshman at left tackle, running back and quarterback in 2015.

And when Washington takes the field in Atlanta on Saturday for the Peach Bowl, I will be entirely hopeful. Not just for what happens against Alabama but for what lies ahead. This isn’t just the team I’ve been waiting for, it’s the coaching I’ve been waiting for.

Go Dawgs.

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