At the college level, Dennis Erickson has enjoyed incredible success. He built a winner at Washington State. He won a national championship at the University of Miami. After a four-year stint with the Seahawks, Erickson turned a building program at Oregon State into a team good enough to go to the Fiesta Bowl and beat Notre Dame.

What gnawed at him for years was not being a winner in the pros. Erickson is competitive and used to winning. Though his program was set at Oregon State, Erickson jumped at the chance to interview for the head-coaching job with the 49ers. General manager Terry Donahue called Monday morning with the offer.

	“	For me, it was hard to leave Oregon State, but I always wanted the chance to get back in the league. That's the one thing in my career that I was still not happy about. ”
		— New 49ers coach Dennis Erickson

Erickson accepted the five-year deal worth a little less than $2.5 million a year. He was ready.

"For me, it was hard to leave Oregon State, but I always wanted the chance to get back in the league," Erickson said Tuesday. "That's the one thing in my career that I was still not happy about."

Erickson coached four years in Seattle the hard way. In 1995, he took over a Seahawks team that was in a tough transition. The franchise hadn't made the playoffs since 1988. The talent pool was done, but Erickson tried to rebuild the roster with better athletes. Unfortunately, he was in a tough ownership situation.

Ken Behring owned the team and was trying to work out a deal that would eventually move the Seahawks to Los Angeles. At one point, Behring forced the team to hold its offseason workouts in Orange County while the league tried to force the team back to Seattle.

Eventually, Paul Allen bought the team to keep it in Seattle. By that time, though, it was hard for Erickson to keep all the distractions and problems from affecting the team. His four-year record was a mediocre 31-33, and he lost his job when Allen hired Mike Holmgren as coach-general manager.

"Dennis had the decks stacked against him, and he had a lot of bad luck," said Randy Mueller, who had hired Erickson and was his general manager. "Still, his record was good. He had one unlucky experience when officials made a mistake in a game against the Jets. They gave Vinny Testaverde the touchdown thinking that the ball was over the goal line instead of the helmet. It cost the Seahawks a chance to make the playoffs, and it cost Dennis his job."

The Seahawks finished 8-8, a game out of the playoffs. The NFL ended up using the Testaverde play to solidify the need to bring back instant replay. Erickson, meanwhile, was off to Oregon State.

"It was tough," Erickson said of his Seattle days. "We had a change in owners, but the toughest thing was not winning. That's what I wanted to get back to doing. You never like to leave a place and not feel that everything was done. You want to win and compete for a national championship."

Erickson believes the 49ers are the right fit because the organization is sound. Unlike his Behring years, Erickson will be working for an owner, John York, whom he can see around the office at times. Terry Donahue is in control of personnel, and Bill Walsh is around as a valuable asset as a consultant.

Unlike a lot of coaches, Erickson doesn't demand to be in charge of personnel even though he has a good eye for talent. From that standpoint, he's a good fit with Donahue, whose job it is to get him the talent. How good of an eye does Erickson have? He spotted Jon Kitna playing quarterback in college when he was attending college games to watch a relative. Erickson brought Kitna to training camp and eventually molded him into being an NFL starter.

He should have no trouble getting along with Jeff Garcia, who may not have the greatest arm strength but is a winner with his ability to improvise while on the run.

"Dennis' biggest strength is his offensive scheme," Mueller said. "His offenses were among the top 10 in most years. His X's and O's are very solid. He has a work ethic that is hard to challenge. He cares. He has a passion for the game."

Erickson's main offense is a three-receiver spread system, but he isn't going to take the 49ers out of their patented West Coast offense. For that reason, Erickson is keeping Greg Knapp as the offensive coordinator and play-caller. Ted Tollner is sticking around to work with the quarterbacks. Erickson's main job will be coordinating the coaching staff and watching tape to self-scout and improve.

"You learn from your experiences, and I think I will be a better head coach having worked in the league for four years," Erickson said. "I don't know if it's anything specific that you learn, but you benefit from being around the league."

Erickson won over Donahue and John York during the interview process over the weekend. Though the 49ers were down to three defensive coordinators -- Ted Cottrell, Jim Mora Jr. and Greg Blache -- the 49ers put out a search for college coaches after last week's letter-of-intent day.

"I think he's a great coach, but I didn't know that beforehand," York said. "I thought of Dennis as a Miami coach who did a great job. There may have been a little bit of chaos around the program. But after we talked face to face, I came out with a great feeling about him. Terry also came out with a different view from what we originally thought. There is a calmness to how he is. He understands what's going on both on offense and defense, and he is aggressive on both sides of the ball."

Erickson was surprised when he got the call and the offer Tuesday. He gets a second chance to complete what he hoped would be a successful NFL coaching career.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.