Washington Huskies College Football Pregame Quote, 12/03/2023

JOHN SUDSBURY: We’re going to start with a brief opening statement by Kalen [DeBoer] from Washington. And then we will take questions from Coach DeBoer. Go ahead.

COACH DEBOER: Yeah, first of all, just grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Allstate Sugar Bowl. And just proud of our football team and everything we have accomplished this year.

Got to give a congratulations to Coach [Steve] Sarkisian and Texas for the season they’ve had and their participation in the bowl as well.

So to be part of the final four, we know every team that gets to this point is really good and deserving of being there. And he certainly has led that program.

And we’re familiar with each other from the meeting a year ago, but he’s done an awesome job raising the level of his team to where they’re at this year.

We’re proud of our Pac-12 championship that we just won here a couple nights ago. And just been an awesome experience and proud of our staff, proud of our guys. Looking forward to the challenge here that lies ahead.

Q. Hi, Coach. I know that you’re excited to be in the playoffs, but I’m wondering if somewhere, maybe within your program, the fans or whatever, there’s a level of disappointment you’re not in the Rose Bowl. And what do you think about coming to New Orleans, a place that probably as a coach you haven’t been to many times?

COACH DEBOER: Yeah, first of all, never played in the Sugar Bowl or played in New Orleans for that matter.

I’m sure that across the fan base — and I haven’t had a chance to get a pulse of it. Been too busy here going through the morning. But I’m sure there’s a lot with the Rose Bowl and all that.

But we’re just happy to be in — to have this opportunity and be in the Sugar Bowl, be in the final four. And just being the No. 2 seed says a lot about our team and what we’ve accomplished this year.

So the next game is the most important game, and that’s the one we have here coming against Texas.

Q. Coach, how much does playing them last year in the Alamo Bowl help this year at all? I know the players are different and everything. But how much will you take from that?

COACH DEBOER: I mean, there’s a little bit of familiarity, just with how you see each other, as far as what you saw at least a year ago, I guess the colors that you’re lining up against and all that.

But I think we’ve continued to evolve and change, and I know they have as well. So it is a unique situation, especially not being in the same conference, that we’re playing in a bowl game one year later.

But the familiarity, that would be maybe about it. And there’s some things, schematic carryover and stuff, that certainly applies. But you continue to build. You continue to build on all of that on each side of the ball, and they’ve done the same.

Q. Yeah, Kalen, wondering — it’s a long time before the game. Wondering if you had a chance to sketch out what the next month looks like? And if so, kind of walk us through the general plan.

COACH DEBOER: Yeah, nothing official yet. But this week will just be really some runs and lifting later in the week here. The guys need a break. It’s been a grind, and so giving them a chance.

We have our end-of-the-year banquet, our celebration, happening here in about an hour. So we get a chance to come together. We didn’t have a watch party because we knew we were bringing the guys back just a few hours later, and we’ll get to celebrate then. And a lot of parents have flown up and families have flown up from Vegas. If they didn’t get to Vegas, they’ve flown up here for the weekend. Guys got a chance to spend time with them this morning. So we didn’t have a big watch party, so to speak. But we’ll do some lifting and running.

And by the end of the week, we’ll get into a practice or two. But for sure, practice.

And then we have finals starting Saturday through the next week. And so we’ll try to get a couple practices in right in the middle of that time. And we’ll get the guys away and get them a chance to go home when their finals are over. And then bring them back kind of leading up to some practices before we leave for the Sugar Bowl.

JOHN SUDSBURY: Would you say your program is ahead of schedule from what you had planned when you took over the job? Year two, you have a Pac-12 championship, undefeated season, and you’re in the College Football Playoff.

COACH DEBOER: I don’t know. I think, yeah, if you had told me two years ago that this is what we’re playing for and where we’re at, might have been — I would have been ecstatic. I really would have.

I don’t think there’s necessarily a plan. You kind of know there’s some steps that you have to go through in building a team to get to an elite level like we’re at right now.

But I think I learned at a couple stops along the way, and one in particular at Fresno State, where you should never — don’t underestimate what you’re capable of doing and how quickly you can do it.

And a year ago, I would have put a number on what I thought was the number to get to. And I thought we could have a good, solid season. Getting to 11 wins, I think that was just part of the process. the results came became a part of the work we were putting in, and you catch a couple breaks along the way. And the momentum kind of snowballs in a good way, and we got 11.

And then just kind of the continuity of a lot of guys returning gave us a jump on this season. You know, so many guys that chose to stay and not go on to an NFL opportunity in particular. Just really got the momentum going. And we have a lot of guys that put their heart and soul into this program. We have nine guys who are in their sixth year in this program and some more who have put a lot of time into other programs and transferred in.

So I don’t want to say there’s a timeline, but we’re fired up that we’re in this spot here in year two as our coaching staff.

Q. Coach DeBoer, you had 19 years and two days away from your first head coaching job when you coached that job at Sioux Falls. Did you ever think in that time, those 19 years, that you would be standing 60 minutes away from a national championship?

COACH DEBOER: No, not at this level, that’s for sure. It really has never been kind of the way I looked at it. I just always was working where I was at. And my feet were planted in that place.

And just love coaching. Love the game. Love being around people. Bringing them together. Trying to do something special as a football team. And that’s really been the focus. And you end up being around great people in some great places. And you have to say that those are some breaks you catch along the way, some wins that happened that help you get over some humps and you win some championships.

And, again, just goes back to the people, though. I think those relationships is really where it starts. When you pore into it, good things can happen.

Q. Hey, Coach, congratulations. I was curious how many times you’ve gotten to see Texas play even if a little bit on television? And how do they strike you in comparison to the team you saw in the Alamo Bowl?

COACH DEBOER: I don’t have enough to compare to a year ago, I mean, it’s kind of crazy, with west coast and all that.

I caught the end of a couple games. I just caught an overtime game, I think the very end. And I remember Coach Sark (Steve Sarkisian) doing an interview. So I couldn’t even really tell you what all transpired there.

But certainly, you take note here and there when you flip on the TV, maybe in between meetings on a Saturday morning while you’re getting ready and going through your day and your routine. You take note because that’s a team we played a year ago and, obviously, one of the best teams in the country. And so if you get a chance, you flip it to that station.

But as far as really studying and understanding the level that they’re truly at right now, I can’t maybe articulate that at this point.

But just even yesterday, knowing the numbers they put up and how much of a dominating game that was that they played, that’s really impressive. And playing some really good football at the right time, and that’s a lot about what the playoffs are and what you need to win a conference and a national championship.

Q. Coach, just looking at this season, how bittersweet it is to have this swan song in the Pac-12 but at the same time to represent them so well nationally. Just what you can say about going through the schedule, going through those match-ups, and obviously having the opportunity to play for a national championship.

COACH DEBOER: Yeah, as far as us representing the Pac-12, I think that it was just a grind of a year. The depth of the teams and how good they were, just was with so many ranked teams. I think there was eight — maybe not at the same time, but up to eight at one point had been ranked. And really, really, we played the top end of that and had to beat a great Oregon team twice.

So that really says a lot about our guys. It says a lot about the league here. There’s great coaches. There’s some great quarterback play.

We knew it was going to be that going into the year. I think everyone was probably a little bit concerned about how it actually happened where a lot of teams beat up on each other. We were fortunate enough to get through unscathed. But I think there was a lot of those teams in that three-loss area in the league that really did beat up on each other. And it was a matter of who you had healthy on a particular weekend and what that match-up looked like.

But the league was as tough as — and I’m going based off of what a lot of people who have been around here and some of the coaches who have been in the league for a long time say, too, because I’ve only been in it two years. But they said it’s the best they’ve ever seen it.

So us representing the Pac-12 here in the last year, it’s an honor. It’s something we take a lot of pride in as far as representing UW. But we would love to represent the Pac-12 here in this last year in a great way.

JOHN SUDSBURY: How would you evaluate Michael Penix’s play this year?

COACH DEBOER: Yeah, he’s just been elite. There’s a rain game in there. There’s a win game. There’s a couple things with guys missing games that are a big part of the supporting cast around him.

But he’s been constant. He’s been a great leader for us. He puts up the stats. He has the game-winning drives. He’ll lead you down the field when it matters most. He’ll win in the fourth quarter like this last weekend when you had a three-point lead and you get a chance to ramp it up to ten. He’ll get the job done when it matters most.

So our team has nothing but great confidence in him. He’s just become a vocal leader, not just a guy that leads by example, whether it be at halftime or in the fourth quarter when you need it most. I mean, he’s just played with a lot of courage. And a lot of it is tied to everything he’s been through. Means a lot to him.

JOHN SUDSBURY: Thank you very much for your time today, Coach. Look forward to seeing New Orleans in a few weeks.

COACH DEBOER: Awesome. Thank you.