SEATTLE — One coach, Jim Owens, has a statue out in front of Husky Stadium. Another coach, Don James, has a sculpture of his own a few dozen yards away. A third coach, Chris Petersen, has a pair of Pac-12 titles and a College Football Playoff appearance.
And then there's Kalen DeBoer, who's having a start to his Washington career that blows them all away.
The current era of UW football is perhaps the most pleasant surprise to ever grace Montlake. A program that went 4-8 in 2021 — the season before DeBoer arrived — has gone 24-2 since and is riding a 20-game winning streak.
The Huskies' New Year's Day game vs. Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal awaits, as does the program's opportunity to play for its first outright national title. If there were futures odds for this happening 25 months ago, the line might have been 10,000-to-1.
But here stands Washington, two seemingly winnable games from a national championship with first-round talent spread throughout the roster. And it begs the question: Is this the peak for DeBoer's Huskies? Or just the beginning?
I doubt that's on the minds of most UW fans right now, whose thoughts are squarely on Washington taking down the Longhorns. It's quite possibly the biggest game this team played in seven years, when it met Alabama on the same stage.
But sustained success is far more enjoyable than that of the isolated variety. So, can this possibly keep up?
Well, the first question is whether Washington will be able to keep DeBoer long term. Kalen's annual salary of $4.2 million is well short of any other coach in the CFP. Alabama's Nick Saban makes around $11 million per year, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh about $8 million and Texas' Steve Sarkisian about $5.6 million.
DeBoer's salary is also less than that of other 2023 Pac-12 coaches such as Oregon's Dan Lanning and Utah's Kyle Whittingham, each of whom makes north of $6 million. There have been reports of ongoing contract-extension negotiations for DeBoer — and there is a $12 million buyout in place should he leave for another job before late January 2025.
But donors have been known to make buyouts disappear, and there are other programs that can likely pay more than Washington. Doesn't mean Kalen is looking, but it is something worth noting.
The second question is whether DeBoer can ever replicate the talent — particularly on the offensive side — that he's had these past two years at Washington.
Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. finished second in the Heisman Trophy race and led the nation in passing the season before. Wide receiver Rome Odunze is a first-rounder on just about every draft board you can find. Fellow receiver Jalen McMillan also is likely to play Sundays — and all three were crucial in UW topping Oregon in the Pac-12 title game.
On one hand, you could argue that DeBoer — alongside offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb — have installed such a dynamic offense (fifth in the country in yards per play this year, second in the country in total offense last year), that transfers and recruits will be salivating at the chance to play for him. On the other hand, until it happens, we don't really know.
There are other factors, too. How long will Grubb, the offensive guru, stick around? Is that 13-0 record really indicative of how good the Huskies are considering their past nine wins have come by 10 points or fewer, and seven were by just one score? Will the move to the Big Ten — headed by the trio of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State — squelch UW's conference-championship potential?
All legitimate concerns. The thing is ... DeBoer doesn't really do the whole losing thing. At Sioux Falls of the NAIA, he went 67-3 in five years, went 49-1 in conference and won three national titles. He went 3-3 in the COVID season of 2020 in Fresno State, but in his second year, led the Bulldogs to a 9-3 record. I realize that just about any coach who ascends to a Power Five conference had great success on the lower levels. But DeBoer has essentially had zero failure.
Look, I remember when Huskies men's basketball coach Mike Hopkins won back-to-back Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards in his first two seasons at UW, which included an NCAA tournament win. And I remember him getting a massive extension before finishing last in the Pac-12 the next season, and 11th in the Pac-12 the one after that. But Hopkins didn't have the history of program-building that DeBoer does.
In short: It's hard to know if it is going to get much better than this for the Huskies under DeBoer. It would be hard for it to get much better than this for any program.
But this isn't a fluke. Kalen has proved he can succeed repeatedly. Little reason to think the success won't keep coming.
