DeBoer Shares Secret to Taking the Huskies to Next Level
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For most of an hour, media members offered up the occasional question at a Friday news conference, but mostly they just sat back and listened to Kalen DeBoer talk about building a potential University of Washington football empire.
In subtle terms, the Husky coach told how a year ago his players were fatigued and somewhat bewildered when he and his staff arrived and first introduced them to a much more concentrated winter training regimen, and how that no longer is the case.
He spoke about players assuming leadership roles and standing up in front of everyone else and passionately speaking their minds. He mentioned how their desire to succeed, after being rewarded with an 11-2 season, couldn't be stronger.
He talked about he and his staff changing the Husky culture to higher expectations, and then doing it a second time.
Yet for all of the wisdom he imparted to his audience of note-takers and camera operators in Don James' old football team room, DeBoer kept revisiting the strength and conditioning aspects involved in all of this, and nothing he said was more important than that.
"You hear me talking a lot about the physicality piece — and that's what's going to take to take us to the next step," he said.
Now except for the occasional 1991 national championship team and the Orange Bowl winner from 1984, where those overly physical James teams collectively beat Oklahoma, Nebraska, USC and Michigan twice, the Huskies through the decades have seemed forever stuck one level down. Even with all of the inroads that Chris Petersen's UW teams made, they were still a decided notch below the most powerful entities of the Power 5.
Remember, Petersen's Huskies played Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State and Penn State, and lost to each one. They could run and catch with these teams, but they couldn't win the physical battle up front against any of them.
While DeBoer could just sit back and tinker with his high-powered offense that no one has been able to stop, and suggest that he needs nothing more than that, he's wise enough to know the secret to success in claiming the biggest victories and subsequent championships are won up front.
He seems greatly encouraged by the Husky progress made in the weight room, and rattled off a series of numbers describing player improvement in the vertical leap, the broad jump, number of repetitions at 225 pounds in the bench press and maximum lifts in the bench and in the squat.
"It's been really cool seeing the growth of our team," DeBoer said. "It all comes down to the investment. They see this as a great opportunity and believe in what we're doing."
The coach told how his players will continue to lift weights three days a week during spring football, have another five-week block of conditioning that leads up to the summer, take a short break and then put everything to the test next season.
Rather than wilt at the sight of all the hard work put in front of them and after continually being asked to stretch limits, DeBoer said his players have fully embraced the requests and welcome the rewards, which, who knows, might involve beating someone bigger than say Michigan State, Oregon or Texas, all impressive conquests last sesaon.
"We've kind of redefined," he said, "what hard is."
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