Utah hires Erickson as co-offensive coordinator

Feb 11, 2013 - 4:42 PM Salt Lake City, UT (Sports Network) - The Utah Utes have hired Dennis Erickson to be their new co-offensive coordinator.

Erickson joins a Utah program that finished 5-7 last season and ranked 97th in passing yards per game, 91st in rushing yards per game and 73rd in points per game. He will be sharing the coordinator title with 26-year-old Brian Johnson.

"Dennis Erickson brings a wealth of knowledge and coaching experience to our program," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. "He has been labeled as one of the original architects of the spread and we are looking forward to the impact he will have on our offense. Coach Erickson also has recruiting connections across the country which should benefit us on that front as well."

The 65-year-old Washington native has a 179-96-1 record over 23 seasons as a collegiate head coach and guided the Miami Hurricanes to national championships in 1989 and 1991.

Erickson's last head coaching stint was with Arizona State, where he went 31-31 from 2007-11. He also coached two other Pac-12 schools, Washington State and Oregon State, in addition to stops early in his career at Idaho and Wyoming.

Erickson also has NFL head coaching experience, compiling a 40-56 record with Seattle (1995-98) and San Francisco (2003-04).