3. Chris Petersen
Alright, time to pick your jaw up off the ground. Yes, the enemy could become the hero, and it would be a fantastic hire for the Ducks.
Chris Petersen coached Washington as recently as two years ago and he had the Huskies at the top of the Pac-12 for darn near his entire tenure. Petersen went 55-26 during his time as Washington head coach and didn’t finish any lower than second place in the Pac-12 North in his final four seasons.
Petersen was 0-3 in New Year’s Six bowls, including a playoff appearance in 2016, but he knows how to get there and he’s won big games before. He has a history of success at Washington and Boise State and he absolutely could excel with the resources at Oregon.
The real question is would he come out of retirement to lead the Ducks? He’s just 57 years old so it’s not like his career would be over in a couple of years, but he retired for a reason. It’s definitely worth kicking the tires because I think he’s a championship-caliber coach. It’s not easy to lead a Pac-12 team to the playoff and he did just that.
Petersen was born in California, spent six seasons as Oregon’s receivers coach back from 1995-2000, and has plenty of recruiting ties to the West Coast. This would be a great fit.