DeBoer Said Early UW Losses Helped Team Handle Adversity Later
When you look at it now, the Kalen DeBoer's first University of Washington football team stands 15 points from going unbeaten.
Basically two touchdowns, an extra-point kick and a two-point conversion to prevent eight- and seven-point defeats.
Near perfection for a reconfigured Husky lineup that was basically the same in manpower from a 4-8 season except for a starting quarterback, a running back and a linebacker.
Asked about those midseason road losses to UCLA (40-32) and Arizona State (45-38), DeBoer is careful to single out bad luck rather than point fingers at anyone's performance.
His team had a significant amount of injuries, particularly on defense, in Tempe, Arizona, with four freshmen or redshirt freshmen on the field together at one time. Cornerback and defensive linemen that day largely were new faces.
Even with the Sun Devils without their regular coach, their starting quarterback helped off the field with a concussion and headed to a 3-9 season, the Huskies would be hard-pressed to stop anyone with so much youth on the field.
"After the second loss, I guess unfortunately, we were at a time where our health was a big issue, a couple of positions in particular," DeBoer said this week at an Alamo Bowl news conference as he readies his team to play Texas. "We've gotten through it. We've lost some guys for the year who were playing then."
Notably fill-in cornerbacks in junior Julius Irvin and redshirt freshman Davon Banks had their seasons end either that day or not long after it.
The Husky corners who started the season, sophomore Mishael Powell or senior transfer Jordan Perryman, still either weren't playing or at full strength following injuries.
At defensive tackle, sophomore Jacob Bandes started against ASU and was backed up by freshman Jayvon Parker, with the normal first-teamer in junior Tuli Letuligasenoa banged up and greatly limited in what he could do.
Rather than bemoan these games lost, DeBoer saw something good come out of the adversity, to the point maybe his Huskies don't win a couple of games coming down the stretch if they didn't suffer the earlier hardships.
"We've been able to at least sustain a positive vibe through all of it," he said. "The resiliency of our guys I think really showed up in the last half of the season."
In particular, these battle-tested Huskies were able to sweep their Northwest rivals and rally to beat both Oregon State (24-21) and Oregon (37-34) in the final minute of each game.
"I think we learned how to play team football and how to trust and believe in each other and, as the year has gone on, we've really gained a lot of confidence that, when times are tough, we'll pull through," DeBoer said. "Those critical moments that we've had, especially in the month of November, that's exactly what we did. ... [The injuries] kind of came to a head, but I credit our guys — they really stuck together."
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