Texas Football: Impact Chris Petersen UW departure has on Longhorns

Yet another big time coaching departure could shock the national landscape, even going as far as impacting the Texas football program.

The rampant coaching carousel keeps churning out news after the conclusion of college football’s Week 14 action. The college football regular season is pretty much in the books, and the attention now turns to this crazy coaching news cycle and the conference championship weekend ahead. But the Texas football program has plenty of other head coaching news to watch as it continues to drop on Dec. 2.

It seemed like most of the coaching news that was relevant to the Texas Longhorns football program transpired on Dec. 1, but it didn’t stop heading into Monday morning. The impact that all the coaching shakeups for the Longhorns had on the recruiting trail continued to sop through on Dec. 2, as did the candidates that head coach Tom Herman would try to find to fill the new vacancies on his staff.

Texas is now without either coordinators or a wide receivers coach heading into the 2020 offseason. But the coaching search is sure to begin soon to fill the voids left by former offensive coordinator Tim Beck (demoted to just quarterbacks coach) and defensive coordinator Todd Orlando (let go entirely).

Could any of these voids be filled by departing head coaches at other big time college football programs?

It might be too early to tell who will be available on the coaching market this offseason just two days after Week 14 concluded. But it is surely something to watch for Longhorns fans.

One report that might’ve shook the college football landscape more so than anything else since the end of the regular season is the shocking step down of Washington Huskies head coach Chris Petersen. Per a Bruce Feldman report on Twitter, Petersen is to step down as the Washington head coach after bowl season and defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake is to take his place at the helm in Seattle.

Petersen was one of the better head coaches in the entire country. He led Washington to their first ever College Football Playoff berth back in 2016. And he’s won them numerous PAC-12 Championships in the last four years. He finished up the regular season with a career record at Washington of 54-26.

Prior to taking the job at Washington, Petersen was one of the Group of Five’s best head coaches. He finished up with the Boise State Broncos with a career record of 92-12.

Yet, what impact will the departure of Peterson in Seattle have on the Longhorns?

First of all, anytime a big time head coach steps down like Petersen did it will send shock-waves throughout the college football landscape. It goes without saying that even if the Longhorns don’t play against the Huskies on the gridiron in the near future, a head coach as well-known and respected as Petersen stepping down will still draw a lot of attention in Austin.

Moreover, there are two big time recruits for the 2020 cycle that are committed to Washington that were targets of Herman and the Longhorns. The first, and most realistic, for Texas to try and draw away right now is four-star athlete/running back Sam Adams II. He had a Texas offer, and slotted them among his finalist schools, before he committed to Washington back on July 14.

The other insanely talented recruit that the Longhorns were pursuing that committed to Washington is five-star outside linebacker Sav’ell Smalls. With Lake stepping into the head coaching role after Petersen’s departure, it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to keep the commitment of Smalls, but it is still a storyline worth following.

Other programs like Texas and the Alabama Crimson Tide would be wise to jump on this opportunity to pursue Smalls very quick.

All in all, this is also news that could be a further detriment to the PAC-12. Washington recently is one of the PAC-12’s strongest programs. Losing Petersen could hurt them through and through. The PAC-12 dropping down even further among the stature of the Power Five conferences could create additional opportunity for the Big 12 in the national landscape.

Also, maybe Washington tries to nab Orlando to be on their defensive coaching staff now.