SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame announced Monday, the 2019 College Football Hall of Fame Class. Former Idaho football head coach Dennis Erickson is among the 15 inductees. The 2019 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be inducted Dec. 10, during the NFF Annual Awards Dinner in New York. Erickson led the Vandals from 1982-85 and in 2006.
 
The 2019 class will be immortalized alongside their fellow hall of famers at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
 
Erickson is one of two coaches inducted in 2019, alongside Joe Taylor. The duo are two of now just 219 coaches in the 150-year history of college football to earn a spot in the hall of fame. The College Football Hall of Fame's first class was enshrined in 1951, and now includes representatives from 311 of the NFF's 778 member colleges and universities.
 
Erickson joins former quarterback John Friesz as the only Vandals in the College Football Hall of Fame. Friesz, who was played under Erickson for one year, won the 1989 Walter Payton Award. He was inducted into the hall of fame in 2006.
 
Erickson began his head-coaching career at Idaho in 1982, leading the Vandals to two I-AA playoff berths in four years, claiming the 1985 Big Sky championship and becoming the first coach in program history to post four consecutive winning seasons. He was a two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year during his first stint with the Vandals.
 
"If it wasn't for the University of Idaho I probably never would have accomplished some of the things I've accomplished," Erickson said last year when he was inducted into the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame. "(Former athletic director) Bill Belknap and (former president) Dr. Richard Gibb gave me my first head coaching job. We still call North Idaho home because of the great people and great institution."
 
Following stops at Wyoming and Washington State, Erickson went on to win two national championships as the head coach at Miami. He would add NFL head coaching positions to his resume with Seattle and San Francisco, but continued to find success at the college ranks with Oregon State and Arizona State. His career record as a collegiate head coach stands at 179-96-1, for a .650 career winning percentage.
 
Erickson has come out of retirement to coach the Salt Lake Stallions in the Alliance of American Football, a new professional league that will kick off next month.