15 Comments

KDB is a treasure in so many ways. I keep reminding myself to cherish and appreciate what he and his teams have done in less than 24 months. It's no accident. And won't the "smart money" be surprised on Saturday night when our Dawgs once again find a way......

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One of the things I like about DeBoer is that he expects to win, or at least that's what it looks like on the sideline. He gets on the officials now and then, and occasionally has an emphatic conversation with someone, but for the most part he seems to be all business. He knows his system, players and coaches, and just methodically presses the buttons that will win him another football game. Not sure how he does it. I'd be more like Dabo Swinney. :)

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I have been beyond impressed with DeBoer since he was at Fresno and first caught my attention in that Oregon game. It’s quite possible that UW has the best head coach in all of college football. I just hope they can hold onto him. If they do, UW football is just scratching the surface of what is possible.

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Nov 17·edited Nov 17

That Fresno State v. UCLA game stands out for me: flipped on the TV that Friday night and found the game, intrigued that FSU was competitive and even more intrigued to see Jake Haener successfully battling the Bruins.

A family member who lives right up the hill from the Rose Bowl called, and though she wasn't watching she could hear much of what was going on in the bowl from her house. Every time she heard the loud cheers go up (which I could also hear through the phone!) I would tell her who'd just scored, etc. I wondered "how is FSU so competitive and who's leading the team to this kind of success?" Later when we heard that very coach was going to be the new Husky coach, I figured we were in for something good. Thrilled to have DeBoer leading our Huskies !

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UW has to keep that guy. While they may lose Grubb, DeBoer is a brilliant offensive mind. That’s encouraging. Figure out recruiting and UW will continue to be great.

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That's awesome. First-rate reporting.

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founding

Great idea for a story (and Coach James, Coach Peterson and Coach DeBoer would no doubt commend the execution).

Now just to make sure Husky fans are fully grounded and appreciative of who we have running the show (see "Tyler from Spartanburg"), how about interviewing Gilbertson on 2004, Willingham on 2008 and Lake regarding 2021

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Context: after DeBoer left Sioux Falls, the school went D2 a few years later and that Morningside team took over the conference, they've won 3 of the last 5 NAIA titles. But, they were 1-10 against Sioux Falls, 1-4 against KDB who had become 'the standard' at that level.

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what is truly amazing about KDB is just how humble down to earth and kind he appears (granted outward appearance may not meet reality ). But seriously did anyone ever say that about Nick Saban, Urban Myer or many of the other coaches with similarly impressive W/L records? No they have always been viewed as driven, hard, and egotistical I mean even the great Don James was not a coach to be toyed with.. KDB just seems more like successful charismatic CEO than a football coach

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Chris Petersen pretty much said that the losses ate him up as a coach, though he was also very bothered by the direction that college football was headed when he stepped down at the UW. KDB has an amazing ability to find the good in the bad - losses - and then use it to make his players and himself and his coaches better. That is absolutely the best possible mental/emotional trait to have as a head coach in my mind. What he has done at the UW so far is strikingly similar to how things went in his first two seasons as the head man at USF. This team learned so much from last year and they are so much better overall this season. KDB and his staff added a number of key pieces to the team, but the biggest thing was the team learning that you have to just find a way to win each and every week no matter what the situation might be. No excuses! Just win, baby - as Al Davis used to say.

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