As the Washington Huskies conclude a perfect regular season and look ahead to the Pac-12 Championship, head coach Kalen DeBoer takes it all in as he plans to face the Oregon Ducks for the second time this season.

“You learn from the game before and you know they’re going to make adjustments,” DeBoer said. “We’ve felt since day one that we can beat everyone else in the conference.”

In a historic season to conclude the Pac-12, the job is far from finished. The Huskies are still not satisfied with where they are and they know there is a lot more work to do to get to the finish line.

“Us doing what we’ve done where we ran the table and won every game, I wasn’t aware that we were the only team under the Pac-12 to be undefeated,” DeBoer said. “I’m proud of that but that’s not the goal, the goal is to win a conference championship and to move on.”

The Apple Cup was a battle from start to finish for the Huskies, and they had to overcome adversity along the way. Offensive Coordinator Ryan Grubb made the adjustments needed in order for the Huskies to win the game.

“I knew Washington State had gotten some of our calls and signals,” Grubb said. “We are making some adjustments to that this week to make sure nothing like that happens again.”

The emotional win for the Huskies in the Apple Cup led to players like quarterback Michael Penix Jr. knowing they must get better, and find ways to execute on both sides of the football if they want to defeat Oregon in a rematch.

“For the offensive side of the ball we gotta play better, and we will,” Penix said. “I trust and believe in everybody on that side of the ball and we look forward to the next opportunity. We understand that we gotta play better and it’s gonna come out.

Penix took a hit late in the game that some speculated may have led to an injury, but Penix shrugged it off and is ready to go for Friday.

“I took a big shot?” Penix asked the reporter. “I ain’t take no big shot today. I’m good.”

In the biggest play of the season for the Huskies, They made the bold call to go for it on fourth and one deep in their own territory. The offense executed a perfect end-around to Rome Odunze for the first down and more to set up the winning field goal.

“Coach Grubb was talking about that play throughout the game and he kept saying that play is ready,” Penix said. “We knew that whenever the time would come, we’d be ready to execute.”

It’s been a long, grueling, physical season for the Huskies, but they’ve managed to stay healthy in key areas as they begin to make a playoff push.

“I think relative to where we were at in the middle of the season, I think we are healthier,” DeBoer said. “The receiving core is slowly coming back to being intact, and the offensive line is back to where it was at the beginning of the year. I think we are getting to a good spot when it comes to the health of the team.”

At the beginning of the year, the November “gauntlet” was a stretch that many pundits felt would lead to at least one loss when they faced USC, Utah, and Oregon State in three consecutive weeks. Sitting at 12-0 following that stretch, this team is built for whatever adversity you throw its way.

“We’ve had to earn every single piece of us being 12-0 and where we are at right now,” DeBoer said. “You can easily get caught up in how tough it’s going to be and our guys haven’t. They’ve just buckled in and hunkered down whether it’s a game week or a certain drive, they just hunker down and realize they have to keep fighting.”

Oregon has been on a tear since losing to Washington in week 7, winning every game by multiple scores, including a 31-7 blowout over rival Oregon State last weekend. Because of its recent success, all eyes have been on Oregon to get its revenge in the championship game.

“I think they’ve been just very consistent, they’re a very good football team,” DeBoer said. “Since [Week 7] they’ve had their backs against the wall as far as making sure they get into the conference championship, and with that comes an urgency, and I think you see that from their play.”

DeBoer and the coaching staff know that they are in for the biggest game of the year on Friday, and they will be more than ready to make sure Penix and company have a gameplan ready to take on the Ducks for a second time this season, with a College Football Playoff birth on the line.