Four days after coaching in the national title game, DeBoer is leaving Washington for Alabama. It's a reminder that in college football, even the good guys make cutthroat decisions.
Christian, I just want to say A) Thanks for getting this up. It's really good and helpful and B) I'm really sorry. You've been working your butt off covering this amazing season and I'm pretty sure you were looking forward to a break after two weeks away from your family...and now this happens. And, well, I guess there's no rest for the weary as they say. Anyway, thanks for keeping us updated. Thanks for all the hard work. I know that vacation will come soon, even if it's now being delayed a few weeks. On Montlake is still the best. Thanks, man.
Time will likely change things, but I have absolutely nothing positive to say about KDB right now. He is an absolute POS, and I can't imagine how the players are feeling right now. He just cratered this program and leaves it in a worse place than when he took over.
I am not as extreme as you are but as I stated above, He absolutley played our program and the UW for suckers. Repeat....had Lanning, Sark or anybody accepted Bama's offer KDB would plaster that smile on his face and happily accepted the UW deal....in a heartbeat. Yes UW was played for suckers.
emotions are raw right now but to say he cratered the program and left it worse than he found it is a bit of stretch. I am not happy about him leaving either. but a 14-1 B1G program even with a lot of roster churn is far more stable and desirable than what jimmy lake left behind.
This is simply not correct. Look at the roster today, departures over the last 24 hours, the timing issues for a new coach to recruit/retain, recruiting failures, and the massively shattered trust. This is much worse than Lake's departure, or any other departure for that matter. KDB is a transactional traitor and I wish him nothing but the worst. Turns out Lanning has principles and KDB doesn't.
I am not arguing it sucks and that he dumped us and its a tough spot. I just don't think he crated the program. one can argue and its valid there was more talent on the team he inherited than he is leaving behind but lake had destroyed the culture. The present culture is a winning culture and a good hire can take that forward.
Everybody should say it every time his name is mentioned forever. All the "this is about people, relationships, and love" stuff was BS. We all got fooled.
I thought DeBoer was like Petersen, with a better understanding of what it took to compete at the elite level. It turns out he is just like every other sociopath, ladder climbing football coach, just with better PR.
It's not BS. He raised up Fresno State players and left after two years. And he raised up Husky players, too. You can be an honest, decent person and still have a burning desire to reach the top.
Anger like this is expected when a coach bolts. I expect that over time, DeBoer will be remembered more fondly when the initial sting subsides. At the same time, he’s made himself an easier target by preaching all that family and loyalty stuff. At least we knew who Sark was.
Are you saying the family stuff our players raved about was fake? They were just suckers? Christian just wrote that he thinks Deboer is a good and decent guy. Has Christian been suckered too?
I think that KDB is a combination of several different things that really cannot truly coexist very well in one human being. He is totally driven to win at the highest levels of FBS football - he has been ever since he left USF after winning two or three NAIA Titles there. He was on a race, quite literally, to get to the very top of the coaching totem pole in as short of a time as humanly possible. Because he knew that he had begun his career at a very low level of football. I do think that he loves his players and wants to give them the best possible experience - and winning is a very big part of that. But I would have to say that his all-out drive to win overwhelmed him at this point in time. The funny part of that is that the loss to UM really hit him super hard, so it actually promoted the side of him that just burns to WIN no matter what. He can certainly do that at Bama if he is truly a good enough coach. If not he will get fired if he loses just three games, in all likelihood! He has made a bargain with the devil. Bama will just eat him alive if he fails there.
The word that I got earlier today is that something like only about 25% of the UW players even bothered to attend his final meeting with them - where he supposedly broke down and cried. If that is true it is very, very telling as to how they feel about being conned into sacrificing everything for him and his program. There were a number of Husky players that played in games with pretty serious injuries this season - including Penix and Johnson and Odunze. How does all of that look at this point?? Not very good, if you ask me. Coach Pete had the integrity and character to know how to keep his drive to win in balance with other things that are actually more important - certainly so in the longer run. The overwhelming drive to win actually worked to drive him out of coaching, as he allowed himself to accept that he simply did not like doing it any longer! He decided NOT to just keep chasing more wins and more money. KDB has put himself into the toughest coaching job there is in college football, in the sense that losing just a game or two is a major negative at Bama. Losing three games in a season could well be a firing offense for KDB. And not recruiting very well, which was the case for KDB at the UW - that would absolutely be a firing offense at Bama.
interesting point you made about players playing hurt.. and it sure made wonder.. It brought to mind old movie Varsity Blues and the Coach played by Jon Voight. for the sake of the players he will coach I hope your assessment is wrong. And spot on about coach Pete, man I sure miss him on the sidelines.
As Maya Angelou says; when people reveal themselves to you, believe them. Not going to denigrate KDB but he is revealing that his burning desire to win is more important than being seen as loyal person and educator so in that sense, he will be an apt successor to Nick Saban. I do wonder what DeBoer will say if he runs into Will Rogers today? In reflection, this whole scenario makes me miss Chris Petersen more than ever; I don't believe he would have followed the path that DeBoer has chosen but then I was wrong about DeBoer. Go Dawgs!
You have stated it correctly in my view. DeBoer does really like his players but his desire to win is so overwhelming that it ultimate governs what he does. If he has to not do right by his players in order to win more he will choose that path! That is really not a very good thing IMHO, it is putting way too much importance on winning alone.
This is a gut punch, but not a betrayal. We all know we're fans of people participating in a cutthroat business. We are not recruiting at the level of Alabama, USC or even Oregon. We got pushed around against Michigan, and I suspect that was enough to show DeBoer it was going to be difficult, or at least a protracted effort, to win it all at UW.
With a very good staff, we can continue to win at a very good clip, but getting to the very top is going to be difficult. It will be much easier at Alabama. They play by a different set of rules, and have a different set of parameters.
I'm not happy with DeBoer's decision. It hurts. But I'm not going to attack him personally. As much as it hurts, it also makes sense for him. The claims of fraud are just hurt feelings IMO.
If AD Dannen makes a good decision, and provides the new staff with the tools DeBoer was asking for, we can and should stay in the upper echelons of college football. I have my opinions of who to go after, but they are kind of uninformed right now, so I will refrain from making declarative statements on the coaching search.
I do know that a ton of us had fun at Oregon's expense once Chip left. They went through this process and came out doing well. It took a little while, but they appear to have come out the other side. We now have to take the same lumps we dished out, and hopefully get the same results. I've enjoyed beating them 3 times in a row, and I want that streak to continue. Unfortunately, 2024 is probably going to be a rougher season than we want it to be, but if good things happen quickly, and the bleeding can be reversed, that doesn't have to happen. Here's to hoping it doesn't get too bad over the next few days or weeks.
Yup, the comments here tearing into KDB character are sad to see. This is college football for God’s sake. You gonna go rip into UW players that jump into portal today too? Cause they didn’t put roots down long enough? Some serious snowflakes falling in here
How about the fact that only about 25% of the UW players attended KDB's announcement meeting today?? What does THAT tell you?? It tells me that perhaps 75% of the roster might decide to transfer out at this point! That would be real great. The players are very angry at KDB and I do not blame them one tiny bit for being angry. He gave them tons of stuff about how the TEAM was everything and they had to sacrifice everything they had for that - and then he is history four days after the NC game??? Sorry, but that is pretty much beyond belief to me. KDB's high school recruiting at the UW was very mediocre at best and now he is gone before he has to try to field a top team with that talent! He got everything that he possibly could have gotten out of Coach Pete's recruits and then fled for Bama. Leaving the talent cupboards not very well stocked right now. He will probably recruit Austin Mack to follow him to Bama. Maybe even Rogers, the transfer QB from Mississippi State. All of the players that can are jumping into the NFL draft as fast as they can now. Johnson and Roger Rosengarten jumped today. Powell and Muhammad entered the portal already today! There will be many more to come. The talent hole from this will be deep and will take quite a bit of time to repair going forward. Anyone who thinks the team will be good within a year or two now is nuts.
It tells me they are very hurt. I am too, but not nearly as much as they are. Their world just came crashing down on them. In my twenties I would not have been able to go to that meeting either. I’m not sure I could have gone yesterday.
Don't buy this idea that KDB handled things well and we should just wish him well. He could have handled this differently. He could have recognized his tenure at Washington and what the experience meant to him. He could have shown respect to the traditions and history that he professed to love. The way he handled things is what bothers me and it was not in a way that was respectful or helpful of UW. So no...I don't wish him well.
"This is a gut punch, but not a betrayal." I like that, Tuengel. We've watched successful coaches climb the ladder our whole lives. We saw DeBoer do this exact thing at Fresno State. He treated the Bulldogs well, raised the program, and left after only two years. How come we didn't complain then about UW hiring a duplicitous conman?
It's not just that KDB isn't who I thought he was. He's not who he sold himself as, and I don't think he's who HE thinks he is. He was hired as a program builder - "Build it the right way" he said. He would not have been hired if he hadn't presented himself that way, hadn't so convincingly sold himself that way. And boy did he convince - he completely seemed like the farm boy version of Chris Petersen, the really good guy with maturity who can compete at a super high level while maintaining his perspective on life. But I've realized this week that that is not really who he is; it's just the role he plays. This week Coach DeBoer fulfilled some of his greatest personal ambitions, but he failed at a basic character level by turning out to be no different from the smooth operators like Lincoln Riley, guys who don't mind being deceptive and misleading, breaking promises, breaking hearts, leaving former programs in the dust without a care.
I wonder what most Husky fans would say if offered the choice: Would you take a coach who will give the program two great years, then leave it in shambles as he used us as a springboard to catapult himself to a higher level? Or would you prefer a true program builder, a coach and staff who will build it properly from the ground up? Kalen DeBoer said he was the latter and we believed him. Turns out he was the former, and all we have are these National Championship t-shirts.
The big problem with KDB at the UW is that his high school recruiting was not very good at all. Moving forward that looms as a very large problem for the UW. The new coach will have to hit the portal extremely hard and in a very large way to try to replace all of the talent that jumps to the draft or transfers out. There has been quite an exodus already today. There will be more every day now for awhile. It is a very bad situation, that much is for certain. A new hire with some serious punch will need to be made very soon or it could take years to dig out of the resulting hole. Seattle fans are not very tolerant of that at all - they just stop buying tickets and going to games. The NIL $$$ will dry up pretty fast without a lot of winning. It is an ugly kind of situation for a school that is not and never has been a football blue blood program. Dannen has to make a great hire very quickly.
Agreed! We keep hoping for the long-term quality and fall for the right words and promises. It's been a traumatic roller coaster for 3 decades. I remember being at the Sugar Bowl badmouthing Sark for abandoning us at a moment's notice and praising KDB - and now this slap in the face to all of Husky Nation!
for those who want a few things to be bitter about KDB repeatedly mentioned that he wanted to wait until AFTER the season was over to talk or discuss the contract situation. Interesting coach, the first raise you got back in 2022 was finalized and announced prior to The Apple Cup. SO what made this year so special? KDB absolutely played UW. His agent knew Saban was retiring but needed to wait to see if DeBoer got the offer. What REALLY STINKS??? Had Lanning or Sark etc accepted an offer from Bama then KDB would have gladly accepted the UW money and let us know how much he and his family loved Seattle and the UW blah blah blah.
Face it Huskies, our program and university were absolutely played by this guy. Pretty sad.
No, we were not played. Dude just got a better job offer in his profession. He is doing what we all might do if given the same life changing opportunity. We can for sure be disappointed but it’s not like he’s Howard Schultz selling the Sonics to OKC. He’s going to bring the same culture & ways to Alabama that he brought to UW & every stop before that. And those kids will be better humans and fellow citizens as a result.
You nailed it, Matt L. Unless he told these players he would never leave, where's the betrayal? He did the exact same thing two years ago at Fresno State. How come we didn't complain about him then?
You know, watching Jen Cohen work this situation for a "better deal" at the "ONLY" school she would EVER leave the UW for (remember all that "I bleed purple" crap) probably made it clear that Husky-land will live through the jilted lover thing anyway...
“Everyone” was saying three days ago that Lanning was first choice. Then he announced he was staying put, and all of a sudden DeBoer popped into the picture as the favorite.
This is a lesson to UW: commit to football at the highest level or face permanent irrelevance. Getting angry at DeBoer is like getting mad at someone telling you to hit the gym when you are out of shape. What UW does next will determine whether it will regain its status as a premier program or accept second-tier status. I, for one, don't buy season tickets to watch second-tier football.
I completely disagree. Alabama is not a good school. Football is all they have. It's their identity. That's not UW. That's not who we are. We can be competitive in CFB and maintain our identity which is being a holistically superior institution. I love college football, but I love UW as a whole far more.
I have the misfortune of living down here and it's really sort of pathetic how so much of individual identeties are tied up in the local college football teams. That's not how I want UW or its fans to be. We should root for UW because it's a great school, not just because it has a good football team.
Bingo. Poam and Ian, you're correct -- UW is a superior institution as a whole. For that reason, I think Washington is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. It is a question of will, not ability.
Agreed. And Michigan is not an all in for football school. Maybe we need our marginally successful NFL QB alums to come back and coach. What is Jake Locker doing these days?
Michigan is 100% all in for football. As is almost every Big10 school. If thats your model you need to understand that. They understand football is entry portal to the entire alumni base and marketing for the university. ROI on that investment is huge. They just offered Harbaugh $15 M and have gone huge on NIL
I lived there too. Nothing compares to the south when it comes to being completely obsessed with football. They love their football in the Big10 for sure, but they have lives outside of that.
Great analogy Chris. I wish nothing but the best for KDB. He came here and gave it his all, and the culture built was real. No Michael Penix Jr. without KDB. That is fact. And without Penix, no 21 straight wins and still in it during 4th Q of National Championship game. Some posters here are just too emotional and apparently haven't been around CFB long enough. Once UW poaches our next coach from another program though, I invite them to visit those fan sites and have a look into the mirror.
I have some news for you. The UW has never been a blue blood football program. NEVER. It only has won one or two National Titles in its history. Bama has won EIGHTEEN of those! UM has won ten of them. Etc., etc. The UW is at a level well below that of the true blue blood college football schools. It has had relatively short flashes of greatness, but that is not even remotely the same as being in serious contention for a National Title year after year. This year was a flash in the pan, which happened in large part with players recruited by Petersen and then mostly developed by KDB and his staff. But guess what? KDB and his staff did very poorly in recruiting high school talent! They did pretty well in portal recruiting, but that is a very temporary fix. The only thing that KDB did for the UW that has some staying power - maybe - is that he put the program in the national spotlight for one year. He raised its national profile for ONE year. But now he is nothing but history at the UW. It will be entirely up to some other coach now to build a sustainable program that can win a lot over a significant period of time. KDB really did not leave a whole lot in the football cupboards at the UW! He knew that next season was going to be a very, very challenging one because so many players were leaving after this year. He much preferred heading to Bama where there is tons of talent on the roster than staying at the UW and having to actually build a sustainable program. That is the truly hard thing to do. KDB has not done that anywhere yet! KDB had no chance at all to do what he did at the UW in his short two year tenure without all of the talent that Coach Pete recruited.
Committing to "football at the highest level" won't get you first round line talent from the south. Money and facilities don't negate the power of geography.
Thank you for your excellent work this season. Reading your articles helped me feel closer to the team. As a Husky alum, this is not as bad as the 0-12 experience, but it hurts almost as much. We came so close and I began believing in DeBoer and his message. I feel betrayed, even though I understand bama is an elite destination. I think I was still getting over losing Coach Pete to be honest. The Huskies will rebuild. It may take some time. I remain a DAWG for life.
I'm already moving on. I hope Ryan Grubb gets the job and keeps a lot of the staff here. I want to see this offense and culture continue. The list of possible replacements is pretty uninspiring. Jedd Fisch? Arizona had a great year, but that guy has moved every year or two for his whole career. After listening to TV interviews with most of UW's possible targets, the guy who impressed me the most was Kansas State's Chris Klieman. He has a lot of presence, won four national championships at North Dakota State, and he looks like DeBoer's brother. Fun days ahead!
I feel like I got suckered. Turns out we just had another lane kiffin, full of crapt, sleazy football coach. Cam Cleeland said on kjr less than 25% of players showed up to DeBoers final, I’m a liar & leaving “team” meeting. Players mocking DeBoer on Twitter w “crocodile tears” etc. I can’t stand him. Hope he tanks horribly at Ala
If you feel like you got suckered then college football may not be good for you to continue watching cause’ this happens all the time. Me, I feel like we had the greatest 2-years of UW football fandom in 3 decades and it’s all because of KDB & Penix (plus some other great dudes!). I’ll take all of that anytime, any day for the gut punch of today. The sun comes up again tomorrow. Go Dawgs
KDB or any other coach jumping for another opportunity is exactly the same as the player portal doing the same. There is total free agency in CFB from coaches to players now. If you don’t like this then yeah, probably best to find another hobby because you might find yourself getting upset again in future over stuff you or I have no control over.
Husky Fan, I feel for you. The moon is down in Seattle today, but the sun will rise again. UW remains a premier football programme and research powerhouse. It's going to be okay.
The UW values academics and research vastly more than football, since those are what any really good university is supposed to be all about. Football at the UW does not affect those things one tiny bit, one way or the other. It never will.
Great piece. I actually really like the articulation of how UW signed up for this cutthroat world when they decided to leave for the Big 10....the sword does cut both ways. I don't blame him for going, but the timing of when he did it and how he handled it were not good. If he had left in a couple more years...even a couple of decent seasons not as good as this one...I think it would've been fine. As it is, with a deep run it leaves UW crippled and scrambling at the last minute and it will torpedo next years season...that's pretty awful. He's a mercenary like anyone else and should've laid off all the "culture" and "family" rhetoric if he was willing to leave so quickly. He should send Mike Penix 50% of his paycheck and the rest to Lake and Petersen for building the roster he had. What a mess he leaves behind. CFB is a pretty gross business.
why do people dream that UW had some choice about its future? Go cal the Beavs or WSU. If a program can join the BIG 10 get $30+ million per year or stay in the PAC and get NOTHING what would you do??? Idiotic to even pretend any of the PAC had choices. Beavs and WSU simply got no offers. They both would have left in a heart beat, quit acting so righteous!
Timing is everything isn’t it? Alabama has perhaps the most resources dedicated to football than any collegiate institution in the country. And the HC job there opens up how often? Gotta run thru the tackles when there’s an opening. And here comes coach who wins 25 games in 2 years @ P5, makes it to NC game and also fosters love among teammates + wholesome culture. It sucks for us, but it’s a perfect marriage for the two. We will get by, we will rise again
You need to know that an awful lot of the UW players really detest DeBoer for what he did today. What do you think about that?? Even his assistant coaches knew nothing at all about this until today!! What about that?? KDB is NOT the guy that he appeared to be, he is just not. In a fairy tale world he would be the guy that he seemed to be, but that is certainly not the world that we actually live in. It is all too easy to be fooled by people today.
Yeah, I get it. Today sucks for us. This is opportunity of lifetime for Kalen and it’s unfortunate that him taking this step leaves us and players holding the bag. It happens sometimes in regular life, and more often in the life of CFB. That’s the way she crumbles on this day. But there’s gonna be tomorrow…. and this could occur again. We are not the first or the last set of players or fanbases to be here. The ol’ cliche of ‘control your controllable’s’. Well this one is outside anyone’s control except Kalen and his family — and he’s gotta do what’s best for the next 20 years of his career. I can’t blame the guy for not taking this challenging and pressure filled job. It’s the pinnacle of his profession, he’s worked his ass off to get to this point, and I’m happy to have been beneficiary of his journey w/ gift of last 2 seasons.
Christian, I just want to say A) Thanks for getting this up. It's really good and helpful and B) I'm really sorry. You've been working your butt off covering this amazing season and I'm pretty sure you were looking forward to a break after two weeks away from your family...and now this happens. And, well, I guess there's no rest for the weary as they say. Anyway, thanks for keeping us updated. Thanks for all the hard work. I know that vacation will come soon, even if it's now being delayed a few weeks. On Montlake is still the best. Thanks, man.
I'll second Nelson's sentiment Christian. Good grief, you deserved a little R&R and now this.
Time will likely change things, but I have absolutely nothing positive to say about KDB right now. He is an absolute POS, and I can't imagine how the players are feeling right now. He just cratered this program and leaves it in a worse place than when he took over.
I am not as extreme as you are but as I stated above, He absolutley played our program and the UW for suckers. Repeat....had Lanning, Sark or anybody accepted Bama's offer KDB would plaster that smile on his face and happily accepted the UW deal....in a heartbeat. Yes UW was played for suckers.
UW wasn't suckered. Do you think the athletic department doesn't understand big-time football?
emotions are raw right now but to say he cratered the program and left it worse than he found it is a bit of stretch. I am not happy about him leaving either. but a 14-1 B1G program even with a lot of roster churn is far more stable and desirable than what jimmy lake left behind.
This is simply not correct. Look at the roster today, departures over the last 24 hours, the timing issues for a new coach to recruit/retain, recruiting failures, and the massively shattered trust. This is much worse than Lake's departure, or any other departure for that matter. KDB is a transactional traitor and I wish him nothing but the worst. Turns out Lanning has principles and KDB doesn't.
I am not arguing it sucks and that he dumped us and its a tough spot. I just don't think he crated the program. one can argue and its valid there was more talent on the team he inherited than he is leaving behind but lake had destroyed the culture. The present culture is a winning culture and a good hire can take that forward.
Really? You needed to say that?
Everybody should say it every time his name is mentioned forever. All the "this is about people, relationships, and love" stuff was BS. We all got fooled.
I thought DeBoer was like Petersen, with a better understanding of what it took to compete at the elite level. It turns out he is just like every other sociopath, ladder climbing football coach, just with better PR.
It's not BS. He raised up Fresno State players and left after two years. And he raised up Husky players, too. You can be an honest, decent person and still have a burning desire to reach the top.
Anger like this is expected when a coach bolts. I expect that over time, DeBoer will be remembered more fondly when the initial sting subsides. At the same time, he’s made himself an easier target by preaching all that family and loyalty stuff. At least we knew who Sark was.
And Sark gave us FIVE seasons. Sark did almost as much good for UW as KDB did AND left the program in MUCH better shape.
Are you saying the family stuff our players raved about was fake? They were just suckers? Christian just wrote that he thinks Deboer is a good and decent guy. Has Christian been suckered too?
I think that KDB is a combination of several different things that really cannot truly coexist very well in one human being. He is totally driven to win at the highest levels of FBS football - he has been ever since he left USF after winning two or three NAIA Titles there. He was on a race, quite literally, to get to the very top of the coaching totem pole in as short of a time as humanly possible. Because he knew that he had begun his career at a very low level of football. I do think that he loves his players and wants to give them the best possible experience - and winning is a very big part of that. But I would have to say that his all-out drive to win overwhelmed him at this point in time. The funny part of that is that the loss to UM really hit him super hard, so it actually promoted the side of him that just burns to WIN no matter what. He can certainly do that at Bama if he is truly a good enough coach. If not he will get fired if he loses just three games, in all likelihood! He has made a bargain with the devil. Bama will just eat him alive if he fails there.
The word that I got earlier today is that something like only about 25% of the UW players even bothered to attend his final meeting with them - where he supposedly broke down and cried. If that is true it is very, very telling as to how they feel about being conned into sacrificing everything for him and his program. There were a number of Husky players that played in games with pretty serious injuries this season - including Penix and Johnson and Odunze. How does all of that look at this point?? Not very good, if you ask me. Coach Pete had the integrity and character to know how to keep his drive to win in balance with other things that are actually more important - certainly so in the longer run. The overwhelming drive to win actually worked to drive him out of coaching, as he allowed himself to accept that he simply did not like doing it any longer! He decided NOT to just keep chasing more wins and more money. KDB has put himself into the toughest coaching job there is in college football, in the sense that losing just a game or two is a major negative at Bama. Losing three games in a season could well be a firing offense for KDB. And not recruiting very well, which was the case for KDB at the UW - that would absolutely be a firing offense at Bama.
interesting point you made about players playing hurt.. and it sure made wonder.. It brought to mind old movie Varsity Blues and the Coach played by Jon Voight. for the sake of the players he will coach I hope your assessment is wrong. And spot on about coach Pete, man I sure miss him on the sidelines.
It sounds like he has, yes.
Don’t you dare take this anger from me with your high quality writing.
Well said Christian.
As Maya Angelou says; when people reveal themselves to you, believe them. Not going to denigrate KDB but he is revealing that his burning desire to win is more important than being seen as loyal person and educator so in that sense, he will be an apt successor to Nick Saban. I do wonder what DeBoer will say if he runs into Will Rogers today? In reflection, this whole scenario makes me miss Chris Petersen more than ever; I don't believe he would have followed the path that DeBoer has chosen but then I was wrong about DeBoer. Go Dawgs!
You have stated it correctly in my view. DeBoer does really like his players but his desire to win is so overwhelming that it ultimate governs what he does. If he has to not do right by his players in order to win more he will choose that path! That is really not a very good thing IMHO, it is putting way too much importance on winning alone.
This is a gut punch, but not a betrayal. We all know we're fans of people participating in a cutthroat business. We are not recruiting at the level of Alabama, USC or even Oregon. We got pushed around against Michigan, and I suspect that was enough to show DeBoer it was going to be difficult, or at least a protracted effort, to win it all at UW.
With a very good staff, we can continue to win at a very good clip, but getting to the very top is going to be difficult. It will be much easier at Alabama. They play by a different set of rules, and have a different set of parameters.
I'm not happy with DeBoer's decision. It hurts. But I'm not going to attack him personally. As much as it hurts, it also makes sense for him. The claims of fraud are just hurt feelings IMO.
If AD Dannen makes a good decision, and provides the new staff with the tools DeBoer was asking for, we can and should stay in the upper echelons of college football. I have my opinions of who to go after, but they are kind of uninformed right now, so I will refrain from making declarative statements on the coaching search.
I do know that a ton of us had fun at Oregon's expense once Chip left. They went through this process and came out doing well. It took a little while, but they appear to have come out the other side. We now have to take the same lumps we dished out, and hopefully get the same results. I've enjoyed beating them 3 times in a row, and I want that streak to continue. Unfortunately, 2024 is probably going to be a rougher season than we want it to be, but if good things happen quickly, and the bleeding can be reversed, that doesn't have to happen. Here's to hoping it doesn't get too bad over the next few days or weeks.
Go Dawgs!
This is exactly the comment I came here to write.
Yup, the comments here tearing into KDB character are sad to see. This is college football for God’s sake. You gonna go rip into UW players that jump into portal today too? Cause they didn’t put roots down long enough? Some serious snowflakes falling in here
How about the fact that only about 25% of the UW players attended KDB's announcement meeting today?? What does THAT tell you?? It tells me that perhaps 75% of the roster might decide to transfer out at this point! That would be real great. The players are very angry at KDB and I do not blame them one tiny bit for being angry. He gave them tons of stuff about how the TEAM was everything and they had to sacrifice everything they had for that - and then he is history four days after the NC game??? Sorry, but that is pretty much beyond belief to me. KDB's high school recruiting at the UW was very mediocre at best and now he is gone before he has to try to field a top team with that talent! He got everything that he possibly could have gotten out of Coach Pete's recruits and then fled for Bama. Leaving the talent cupboards not very well stocked right now. He will probably recruit Austin Mack to follow him to Bama. Maybe even Rogers, the transfer QB from Mississippi State. All of the players that can are jumping into the NFL draft as fast as they can now. Johnson and Roger Rosengarten jumped today. Powell and Muhammad entered the portal already today! There will be many more to come. The talent hole from this will be deep and will take quite a bit of time to repair going forward. Anyone who thinks the team will be good within a year or two now is nuts.
It tells me they are very hurt. I am too, but not nearly as much as they are. Their world just came crashing down on them. In my twenties I would not have been able to go to that meeting either. I’m not sure I could have gone yesterday.
Don't buy this idea that KDB handled things well and we should just wish him well. He could have handled this differently. He could have recognized his tenure at Washington and what the experience meant to him. He could have shown respect to the traditions and history that he professed to love. The way he handled things is what bothers me and it was not in a way that was respectful or helpful of UW. So no...I don't wish him well.
"This is a gut punch, but not a betrayal." I like that, Tuengel. We've watched successful coaches climb the ladder our whole lives. We saw DeBoer do this exact thing at Fresno State. He treated the Bulldogs well, raised the program, and left after only two years. How come we didn't complain then about UW hiring a duplicitous conman?
Both times the Huskies made the CFP, Alabama crushed our spirits.
Have fun in your first SEC game against Georgia, DeBoer. I’ll be cheering for both Dawgs on Sept. 28th.
I am now a very big Georgia fan!
It's not just that KDB isn't who I thought he was. He's not who he sold himself as, and I don't think he's who HE thinks he is. He was hired as a program builder - "Build it the right way" he said. He would not have been hired if he hadn't presented himself that way, hadn't so convincingly sold himself that way. And boy did he convince - he completely seemed like the farm boy version of Chris Petersen, the really good guy with maturity who can compete at a super high level while maintaining his perspective on life. But I've realized this week that that is not really who he is; it's just the role he plays. This week Coach DeBoer fulfilled some of his greatest personal ambitions, but he failed at a basic character level by turning out to be no different from the smooth operators like Lincoln Riley, guys who don't mind being deceptive and misleading, breaking promises, breaking hearts, leaving former programs in the dust without a care.
I wonder what most Husky fans would say if offered the choice: Would you take a coach who will give the program two great years, then leave it in shambles as he used us as a springboard to catapult himself to a higher level? Or would you prefer a true program builder, a coach and staff who will build it properly from the ground up? Kalen DeBoer said he was the latter and we believed him. Turns out he was the former, and all we have are these National Championship t-shirts.
The big problem with KDB at the UW is that his high school recruiting was not very good at all. Moving forward that looms as a very large problem for the UW. The new coach will have to hit the portal extremely hard and in a very large way to try to replace all of the talent that jumps to the draft or transfers out. There has been quite an exodus already today. There will be more every day now for awhile. It is a very bad situation, that much is for certain. A new hire with some serious punch will need to be made very soon or it could take years to dig out of the resulting hole. Seattle fans are not very tolerant of that at all - they just stop buying tickets and going to games. The NIL $$$ will dry up pretty fast without a lot of winning. It is an ugly kind of situation for a school that is not and never has been a football blue blood program. Dannen has to make a great hire very quickly.
The big problem w/ KDB @ UW is he won 25 games in last 2 years and took us to NC game. Gee whiz, he really screwed us fans over!
Agreed! We keep hoping for the long-term quality and fall for the right words and promises. It's been a traumatic roller coaster for 3 decades. I remember being at the Sugar Bowl badmouthing Sark for abandoning us at a moment's notice and praising KDB - and now this slap in the face to all of Husky Nation!
for those who want a few things to be bitter about KDB repeatedly mentioned that he wanted to wait until AFTER the season was over to talk or discuss the contract situation. Interesting coach, the first raise you got back in 2022 was finalized and announced prior to The Apple Cup. SO what made this year so special? KDB absolutely played UW. His agent knew Saban was retiring but needed to wait to see if DeBoer got the offer. What REALLY STINKS??? Had Lanning or Sark etc accepted an offer from Bama then KDB would have gladly accepted the UW money and let us know how much he and his family loved Seattle and the UW blah blah blah.
Face it Huskies, our program and university were absolutely played by this guy. Pretty sad.
No, we were not played. Dude just got a better job offer in his profession. He is doing what we all might do if given the same life changing opportunity. We can for sure be disappointed but it’s not like he’s Howard Schultz selling the Sonics to OKC. He’s going to bring the same culture & ways to Alabama that he brought to UW & every stop before that. And those kids will be better humans and fellow citizens as a result.
You nailed it, Matt L. Unless he told these players he would never leave, where's the betrayal? He did the exact same thing two years ago at Fresno State. How come we didn't complain about him then?
You know, watching Jen Cohen work this situation for a "better deal" at the "ONLY" school she would EVER leave the UW for (remember all that "I bleed purple" crap) probably made it clear that Husky-land will live through the jilted lover thing anyway...
Lanning and sark were never offered by Bama. Not even considered. If deboer had said no then they might have been b
Lanning wasn’t even considered? I’d like to see your source on that.
everyone is saying deboer was first choice....or 2nd behind norvell.
“Everyone” was saying three days ago that Lanning was first choice. Then he announced he was staying put, and all of a sudden DeBoer popped into the picture as the favorite.
no one was saying lanning was first choice.
Enough were saying it (in hours after Saban announced) that Lanning was prompted to put out a video stating he was staying put
I swear to god, if Alabama poaches Christian too I am going to have to take a self imposed hiatus from college football...
Christian would never take a better job to make more money and advance his career. He has too much character for that. :)
I attended the Natty partly because it was perceived by my (older) generation to be a once in 30 year opportunity. Perception just became reality.
This is a lesson to UW: commit to football at the highest level or face permanent irrelevance. Getting angry at DeBoer is like getting mad at someone telling you to hit the gym when you are out of shape. What UW does next will determine whether it will regain its status as a premier program or accept second-tier status. I, for one, don't buy season tickets to watch second-tier football.
I completely disagree. Alabama is not a good school. Football is all they have. It's their identity. That's not UW. That's not who we are. We can be competitive in CFB and maintain our identity which is being a holistically superior institution. I love college football, but I love UW as a whole far more.
I have the misfortune of living down here and it's really sort of pathetic how so much of individual identeties are tied up in the local college football teams. That's not how I want UW or its fans to be. We should root for UW because it's a great school, not just because it has a good football team.
You can do both. Michigan is the example.
Bingo. Poam and Ian, you're correct -- UW is a superior institution as a whole. For that reason, I think Washington is capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. It is a question of will, not ability.
Agreed. And Michigan is not an all in for football school. Maybe we need our marginally successful NFL QB alums to come back and coach. What is Jake Locker doing these days?
Michigan is 100% all in for football. As is almost every Big10 school. If thats your model you need to understand that. They understand football is entry portal to the entire alumni base and marketing for the university. ROI on that investment is huge. They just offered Harbaugh $15 M and have gone huge on NIL
I lived there too. Nothing compares to the south when it comes to being completely obsessed with football. They love their football in the Big10 for sure, but they have lives outside of that.
Great analogy Chris. I wish nothing but the best for KDB. He came here and gave it his all, and the culture built was real. No Michael Penix Jr. without KDB. That is fact. And without Penix, no 21 straight wins and still in it during 4th Q of National Championship game. Some posters here are just too emotional and apparently haven't been around CFB long enough. Once UW poaches our next coach from another program though, I invite them to visit those fan sites and have a look into the mirror.
I have some news for you. The UW has never been a blue blood football program. NEVER. It only has won one or two National Titles in its history. Bama has won EIGHTEEN of those! UM has won ten of them. Etc., etc. The UW is at a level well below that of the true blue blood college football schools. It has had relatively short flashes of greatness, but that is not even remotely the same as being in serious contention for a National Title year after year. This year was a flash in the pan, which happened in large part with players recruited by Petersen and then mostly developed by KDB and his staff. But guess what? KDB and his staff did very poorly in recruiting high school talent! They did pretty well in portal recruiting, but that is a very temporary fix. The only thing that KDB did for the UW that has some staying power - maybe - is that he put the program in the national spotlight for one year. He raised its national profile for ONE year. But now he is nothing but history at the UW. It will be entirely up to some other coach now to build a sustainable program that can win a lot over a significant period of time. KDB really did not leave a whole lot in the football cupboards at the UW! He knew that next season was going to be a very, very challenging one because so many players were leaving after this year. He much preferred heading to Bama where there is tons of talent on the roster than staying at the UW and having to actually build a sustainable program. That is the truly hard thing to do. KDB has not done that anywhere yet! KDB had no chance at all to do what he did at the UW in his short two year tenure without all of the talent that Coach Pete recruited.
Committing to "football at the highest level" won't get you first round line talent from the south. Money and facilities don't negate the power of geography.
Thank you for your excellent work this season. Reading your articles helped me feel closer to the team. As a Husky alum, this is not as bad as the 0-12 experience, but it hurts almost as much. We came so close and I began believing in DeBoer and his message. I feel betrayed, even though I understand bama is an elite destination. I think I was still getting over losing Coach Pete to be honest. The Huskies will rebuild. It may take some time. I remain a DAWG for life.
I'm already moving on. I hope Ryan Grubb gets the job and keeps a lot of the staff here. I want to see this offense and culture continue. The list of possible replacements is pretty uninspiring. Jedd Fisch? Arizona had a great year, but that guy has moved every year or two for his whole career. After listening to TV interviews with most of UW's possible targets, the guy who impressed me the most was Kansas State's Chris Klieman. He has a lot of presence, won four national championships at North Dakota State, and he looks like DeBoer's brother. Fun days ahead!
I feel like I got suckered. Turns out we just had another lane kiffin, full of crapt, sleazy football coach. Cam Cleeland said on kjr less than 25% of players showed up to DeBoers final, I’m a liar & leaving “team” meeting. Players mocking DeBoer on Twitter w “crocodile tears” etc. I can’t stand him. Hope he tanks horribly at Ala
If you feel like you got suckered then college football may not be good for you to continue watching cause’ this happens all the time. Me, I feel like we had the greatest 2-years of UW football fandom in 3 decades and it’s all because of KDB & Penix (plus some other great dudes!). I’ll take all of that anytime, any day for the gut punch of today. The sun comes up again tomorrow. Go Dawgs
So much wisdom here. Stop watching college football, that’s the tip, if this DeBoer fiasco pisses you off.
KDB or any other coach jumping for another opportunity is exactly the same as the player portal doing the same. There is total free agency in CFB from coaches to players now. If you don’t like this then yeah, probably best to find another hobby because you might find yourself getting upset again in future over stuff you or I have no control over.
Did you feel that way two years ago when he abandoned his players at Fresno State to come here?
Husky Fan, I feel for you. The moon is down in Seattle today, but the sun will rise again. UW remains a premier football programme and research powerhouse. It's going to be okay.
The UW values academics and research vastly more than football, since those are what any really good university is supposed to be all about. Football at the UW does not affect those things one tiny bit, one way or the other. It never will.
Great piece. I actually really like the articulation of how UW signed up for this cutthroat world when they decided to leave for the Big 10....the sword does cut both ways. I don't blame him for going, but the timing of when he did it and how he handled it were not good. If he had left in a couple more years...even a couple of decent seasons not as good as this one...I think it would've been fine. As it is, with a deep run it leaves UW crippled and scrambling at the last minute and it will torpedo next years season...that's pretty awful. He's a mercenary like anyone else and should've laid off all the "culture" and "family" rhetoric if he was willing to leave so quickly. He should send Mike Penix 50% of his paycheck and the rest to Lake and Petersen for building the roster he had. What a mess he leaves behind. CFB is a pretty gross business.
why do people dream that UW had some choice about its future? Go cal the Beavs or WSU. If a program can join the BIG 10 get $30+ million per year or stay in the PAC and get NOTHING what would you do??? Idiotic to even pretend any of the PAC had choices. Beavs and WSU simply got no offers. They both would have left in a heart beat, quit acting so righteous!
Timing is everything isn’t it? Alabama has perhaps the most resources dedicated to football than any collegiate institution in the country. And the HC job there opens up how often? Gotta run thru the tackles when there’s an opening. And here comes coach who wins 25 games in 2 years @ P5, makes it to NC game and also fosters love among teammates + wholesome culture. It sucks for us, but it’s a perfect marriage for the two. We will get by, we will rise again
You need to know that an awful lot of the UW players really detest DeBoer for what he did today. What do you think about that?? Even his assistant coaches knew nothing at all about this until today!! What about that?? KDB is NOT the guy that he appeared to be, he is just not. In a fairy tale world he would be the guy that he seemed to be, but that is certainly not the world that we actually live in. It is all too easy to be fooled by people today.
Yeah, I get it. Today sucks for us. This is opportunity of lifetime for Kalen and it’s unfortunate that him taking this step leaves us and players holding the bag. It happens sometimes in regular life, and more often in the life of CFB. That’s the way she crumbles on this day. But there’s gonna be tomorrow…. and this could occur again. We are not the first or the last set of players or fanbases to be here. The ol’ cliche of ‘control your controllable’s’. Well this one is outside anyone’s control except Kalen and his family — and he’s gotta do what’s best for the next 20 years of his career. I can’t blame the guy for not taking this challenging and pressure filled job. It’s the pinnacle of his profession, he’s worked his ass off to get to this point, and I’m happy to have been beneficiary of his journey w/ gift of last 2 seasons.