SAN DIEGO - Arizona State prepares for a bowl game bathed in sunlight that shines nearly as brightly as its No. 12 national ranking. A mere stone's throw from the practice field on the UC San Diego campus, the deep-blue Pacific Ocean extends out far beyond the horizon.

Hope for this football program's future seems equally limitless.

To quote fictional Tempe, Ariz., resident H.I. McDonough, these are "the salad days" for Dennis Erickson and the Sun Devils. As they gird to face No. 17 Texas in Thursday's Holiday Bowl, any thoughts of darker, more uncertain times must seem like vague recollections of some past life.

In reality, it was barely over a year ago.

It was roughly 13 months ago that the Sun Devils jettisoned coach Dirk Koetter after seasons of tumult and middling success in which fans in Tempe were more likely to see a summertime blizzard than a signature win.

It was roughly 13 months ago that Erickson's long, storied career as a coach appeared to be in its final chapter in the lonely, frigid college football outpost of Moscow, Idaho.

Now, with Arizona State sporting a glittering 10-2 record - the team's best mark since 1996 - and a date to play one of the nation's premier programs, Erickson still seems somewhat stunned by the journey.

"If somebody said to me (before the season), 'Would you take 10-2?' … yeah," Erickson said. "I'd be on my hands and knees begging."

For Erickson, the return to glory is an unlikely story.

His well-traveled head coaching existence includes two stints at Idaho (1982-85, 2006), a year at Wyoming (1986), two seasons at Washington State (1987-88), a run at Miami (1989-94) that included two national titles, and four years at Oregon State (1999-2002).

His highly-successful tenures at Miami and Oregon State both ended because of Erickson's NFL ambitions. Those decisions to leave resulted in failure, as he washed out as coach of both the SeattleSeahawks and San Francisco 49ers. He still calls leaving Oregon State for the 49ers "the dumbest move I ever made in my life."

When he returned to Idaho after being axed by San Francisco and even being turned down for the vacant San Diego State job in 2005, many surely figured that would be his last stand. But a call from Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love last winter changed all that.

Had Erickson expected he'd ever get to coach another big-time program?

"I didn't know," he said. "I mean, I wasn't getting any younger. … Probably not. But Lisa gave me the opportunity to do it; maybe some wouldn't have."

Arizona State needed a new start just as badly.

In six seasons under Koetter, the Sun Devils went 2-19 against ranked teams and 21-28 in the Pac-10. The program had also endured a divisive quarterback controversy, and a murder trial in which a star player was convicted in the shooting death of a former player.

When Erickson plopped down into the mess following the Sun Devils' loss in the Hawaii Bowl last Christmas Eve, a funny thing happened: His new players greeted the new staff with open arms.

"He walked in the first day and had a national championship bowl ring on his hand," said senior defensive lineman Michael Marquardt, a Rancho Buena Vista High alumnus. "That impressed a lot of people. I think a lot of guys look to his record and where he's been and that did help."

Thanks in part to a schedule that saw them play their first four games at home, the Sun Devils roared out of the gate 8-0, before losses to Oregon and USC ultimately cost them a shot at the Bowl Championship Series.

Nonetheless, the worm had clearly turned in Tempe.

"I think it's our coaching staff and our players really buying into what (they are) trying to do," said quarterback Rudy Carpenter. "I don't think we had players in the past who bought into what has trying to be done before but now they're really buying into it. I think that has a lot to do with where Coach Erickson and his staff has been before. It was instant credibility. I think guys wanted to listen and wanted to be coachable."

As a result, both Erickson and a proud program are basking in the sun once again.

"Obviously, it's a big turnaround in my coaching life, there's no question about that," Erickson said. "When I went back to Idaho, I had every intention of staying there and trying to build that thing, but there were just a lot of things that happened.

"I always felt, from the outside looking in, that you can be more than competitive at Arizona State, with the city and the university and facilities and the weather and all these different things.

"But it's been a journey."

- Contact staff writer Michael Klitzing at mrklitzing@gmail.com.