I am not saying that Chris Peterson doesn't have reasons to stay in Seattle for medical reasons, I am saying that they might not be as strong as you would think. I am speaking from personal experience.

My son, just as Chris Peterson's, is battling brain cancer. The difference between our son's journeys is that Chris's child was diagnosed at 18months of age and mine was diagnosed last year at 15 years old. Chris's child "Sam" also had his cancer spread to his spine which is truly not a good thing where my son is truly fortunate "knock on wood" that has not happened. That being said I can give a little insight as to what my thoughts are.

Right now in my opinion and from the exhaustive research I have done along with numerous, and I mean numerous, recommendations from experts in the field is that MD Anderson is the #1 cancer center in the world and the fact that Houston is a very easy and short trip from Baton Rouge than Seattle it would make a decision, for me at least, regarding where I would prefer to be in regards to my son's health. If my son's health was involved in my decision regarding my professional career, honestly it would be a very easy decision for me as to whether I would be coaching at Washington as opposed to LSU. Now I am obviously bias towards LSU so I have to take that into account, but if I was in his position and LSU came calling it wouldn't be a difficult decision in regards to my son's health.

I am assuming this but in Sam's continued recovery from brain cancer the fear of recurrence with his brain cancer is always there, but since his cancer spread to his spine the biggest concern would be from that cancer along with secondary cancer's caused from his radiation and chemo therapies. Those cancer's are monitored by regular blood draws along with spinal fluid draws. Those two medical procedures can be done at any hospital with the lab work monitored by any hospital and the results sent over the internet to any doctor at MD Anderson. Now I don't know what Sam's therapy did to him as heavy doses of chemo and radiation can cause massive hearing loss and chemo induced neuropathy but those are more issues with quality of life after the therapies and not medical conditions that need constant medical attention.

Again I am letting you know what I have experienced with my son's own personal experience and there are possibilities that Coach Peterson's experiences could be different, I just don't believe they would be much different than what my son has experienced.

But what I can definitively say is that after researching a little bit as to what people have said that "Chris Peterson can't or won't leave UW because of the medical attention that his son needs is in Seattle" I am saying that should not be as big a factor as people might think because of MD Anderson's proximity to Baton Rouge and LSU. To me if LSU truly wanted Peterson to be it's next coach, his son's medical condition should not be as big a sticking point that people think it is. And in fact the proximity of the #1 cancer institute "MD Anderson"in the world should be a huge selling point to Peterson when it comes to his son's medical condition.

My feeling is, if Coach O is not our next coach I absolutely love what Peterson did at Boise and has done with UW in a short period of time we would be fortunate to have him as our next HC. The only thing that Herman has over Peterson is knowledge and experience in recruiting this area, which is huge, but not a deal breaker by any means.