Posted by: Chris Vannini on February 11, 2013

The combined age of Utah's two co-offensive coordinators is 91.

That doesn't seem like anything special, until you realize the age difference between Brian Johnson and Dennis Erickson is 39 years.

On Monday, Utah announced the hiring of the 65-year old Erickson, the former Arizona State and Miami (FL.) head coach. The 26-year-old Johnson just finished his first season as offensive coordinator for the Utes, in addition to his third as the quarterbacks coach.

With injuries to the quarterback position, three players threw more than 37 passes in 2012. As a result, the Utes finished No. 75 in scoring offense, No. 100 in passing offense and No. 108 in total offense.

Enter the veteran offensive mind in Erickson.

"Dennis Erickson brings a wealth of knowledge and coaching experience to our program," Kyle Whittingham said in a statement. "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."

In his final two years at Arizona State, the Sun Devils finished in the top 30 in total offense. He won two national championships as head coach of Miami in 1989 and 1991 and won at least nine games in a single college season with Idaho, Washington State, Miami, Oregon State and Arizona State.

The hope is Erickson can boost the offense for a Utah program that missed its first bowl since 2002 in an improving Pac-12 Conference.

Re: Utah hires Dennis Erickson> Many of the biggest off. innovators in today's game of FB used Erickson as a big influence

— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) February 11, 2013

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Chris Vannini is the lead writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered Michigan State sports for The State News, The Oakland Press and MLive.com. He writes a weekly column for the Detroit Free Press on behalf of SB Nation. Vannini lives in Big Ten country, so his foot speed is far from SEC caliber, but his pulse on coaches is hard to match. Be sure to follow @CoachingBuzz on twitter and send your feedback to chris@coachingsearch.com