On February 8, 2006, the University of Idaho announced the re-hiring of Erickson as its head football coach. Erickson had won 32 games in his first four seasons as a head coach (1982–85) to establish Idaho as a top I-AA program in the Big Sky Conference. The Vandals moved up to Division I-A in 1996 but had not had a winning season since 1999. Idaho had just completed its first season in the WAC in 2005 when previous head coach Nick Holt resigned in early February, after just two seasons. He left to take a higher paying assistant's job in the NFL, as the defensive line coach for the St. Louis Rams under new head coach Scott Linehan, a former Vandal quarterback and offensive coordinator. After a few days, Holt reconsidered and accepted another job back at USC, as defensive coordinator under Pete Carroll for even more money, more than double his salary at Idaho.