Kalen DeBoer Has Raised the Bar at Washington
In this story:
After the 24-7 loss against Alabama at the Peach Bowl following the 2016 season, Chris Petersen said that "the bar has been moved," in terms of expectations for the program and what it takes to win at a high level.
Petersen did a great job moving it in terms of both on-the-field performance and recruiting, resulting in two more New Year's Six bowl berths, including Washington's first Rose Bowl in nearly 20 years before stepping down following the 2019 season.
Kalen DeBoer raised that bar even higher, becoming the first Husky coach to win 11 games in his first year at the helm. Not only did he resuscitate a team that was on the brink of irrelevance following the disaster that was the 2021 season under Jimmy Lake, but he brought it to new heights both on the field and on the recruiting trail.
How did he do it?
With an elite offense and an infectious personality.
That personality started to show during the final weekend of June, when the school hosted 15 recruits for their official visits, and earned eight commitments over those three days, including Anthony James.
At the time of his commitment, James was a four-star defensive lineman from Texas, who was rated among 247 Sports' top 50 overall recruits in the country.
James, who held 23 offers from Texas A&M, Utah, and Auburn among others, said after his pledge that the coaching staff "earned" his commitment. After he told DeBoer that he was coming to Washington, James said the head coach ran out of his office shouting, "We've got a Dawg!"
Since that point, it has been very clear what kind of impact DeBoer's leadership and mentality have had on this team. While there's still an abundant amount of talent on the team from Petersen's 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes, the 2021 season proved this roster needed an elite coach, and that's exactly what DeBoer is.
He also went 4-0 against ranked opponents in 2022, including arguably the best win for the Huskies in recent memory, when they walked into Autzen Stadium as two-touchdown underdogs and upset the No. 6 Oregon Ducks 37-34. That game changed the entire outlook of not only the final third of the season, but DeBoer's entire tenure.
Although he instilled a newfound confidence in the fanbase, it was clear his players never wavered in how they felt about their coach. It also appears that this is just the beginning, as every draft-eligible underclassman outside of Rome Odunze, who still hasn't announced his future plans, has declared their intentions to return to school for the 2023 season.
With a loaded roster and still a lot of movement coming in the transfer portal, DeBoer has an opportunity to raise the bar even higher, and take Washington to heights it hasn't seen since the Don James era.
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.
Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12
Follow Roman Tomashoff of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @rtomashoff34 or @UWFanNation
Have a question? Message me on Twitter!
