Inside The Huskies

Turning the Tide: DeBoer Exits UW for Alabama After 2 Seasons

The coach lasted just two seasons in Montlake, two glorious seasons.

Dan Raley

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That crashing sound you heard was similar to Husky Stadium's north deck coming down hard in 1987 in a roar and a steel heap.

Only in this case, it was the hard to handle news of Kalen DeBoer leaving his newly elevated University of Washington football empire on Friday and becoming Alabama's next head coach, replacing Nick Saban, who retired after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa and six national championships.

At 12:30 p.m, ESPN reported that DeBoer had informed UW school officials that he was leaving for the top-tier SEC school, and going from one College Football Playoff qualifier to another. A UW team meeting was called for 1:30 p.m.

The DeBoer-to-Alabama deal was done in startlingly quick fashion, coming only four days following the Huskies' 34-13 loss to Michigan in the CFP championship game and just 48 hours after Nick Saban announced his retirement.

DeBoer's glorious stay in Montlake lasted just over 26 months and 28 games over two seasons with his Huskies winning 25 of them, including beating Oregon three times, Texas, Michigan State and Washington State twice each and USC once. 

In the postseason, his UW teams captured the Alamo and Sugar bowls, plus the final Pac-12 championship in its old configuration. 

That was a lot of positive stuff in an absolute hurry.

The biggest question now is will the Huskies slide back into a mediocre state while entering the Big Ten, with players no doubt fleeing the roster who came to play for DeBoer?

Who will be the next UW coach? 

The school recently has been hot and cold in finding football leaders, scoring big dividends with Chris Petersen and DeBoer, and missing badly with elevated defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake.

An obvious move to limit the damage from DeBoer's departure would be to promote offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who turned down a chance to join Alabama a year ago in the same role and take a lateral move.

Grubb, a glib personality and DeBoer assistant coach dating back 17 seasons, has made it clear his next move is to be a head coach, and not a coordinator elsewhere.

His continued presence in Montlake would limit the roster defections and keep the offensive entertainment value high for both players and fans.

Either way, the UW finds itself seeking a third coach in four seasons, with Lake and DeBoer running the team for two seasons each, or parts of two.

For a week that started with unreal excitement, with nearly all of the top Husky football legends descending on Houston in anticipation of the UW winning a national title, the developments since that time have been incredibly mind-numbing.

DeBoer's unbeatable Huskies lost by 21. 

Nearly a dozen players with eligibility have moved on.

Michael Penix Jr. no longer has any eligibility remaining.

DeBoer reportedly called a Thursday team meeting and then canceled it.

The coach canceled out of a KJR radio interview set for Friday morning.

Reports said the UW offered him everything to keep him, doubling money offers.

DeBoer exits.

The South Dakota native will be remembered for returning Husky football to greatness after it hit bottom with a 4-8 season in 2021, and for refusing to start over and rather reload after Lake ran the program into the ground.

He'll be recalled for being a refreshing UW coaching personality, operating in an above-board fashion where is was hard for opponents, especially rivals, to dislike him. He welcomed all of those Husky legends back to share in his success.

When he was introduced as the 30th Husky coach on Nov. 30, 2021, DeBoer initially made people wonder if his conservative South Dakota style was a good fit. After all, USC and Oregon had made Hollywood hires in Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning, respectively.

But the UW players immediately were drawn to him because he spoke the truth to them and his messages made sense and were inspirational.

It should be noted the last time someone was hired from the Northwest to head up the Crimson Tide football team, Washington State's Mike Price never coached a game. He was fired in the spring of 2003 for a drunken outing that involved a Florida topless club, someone charging $1,000 of room service to Price's hotel room and later the suggestion that he had been set up by team boosters who simply didn't want him in charge of their team.

While Husky fans are no doubt feel abandoned by DeBoer's career move— much like another generation was surprised when Darrell Royal left for Texas after the 1956 season and just one year in town — it's still hard to dislike the man for moving on because he was always genuine, a serious competitor, a winner.  

Just like that deck that crashed, ultimately it was raised, secured and put back in place. The Husky coaching job will undergo similar treatment.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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