It was a dark day for Husky fans on November 26, 2021, when the Washington football team was defeated 40-13 in the Apple Cup to conclude an abysmal 4-8 season. Three days later, a surprise hiring occurred when Kalen DeBoer was announced as the new head coach of the Washington Huskies.

Fast forward two years into the future, and Kalen DeBoer has been named the Associated Press Coach of the Year.

No coach in the nation deserved the award more, as DeBoer received 30 of 52 first-place votes, winning the award over Florida State’s Mike Norvell, Arizona’s Jedd Fisch, and Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz.

DeBoer guided the Huskies to an undefeated season despite many doubts over whether the team could survive the daunting November gauntlet. To cap off a perfect regular season, DeBoer won the final Pac-12 Championship as a 9.5-point underdog, beating Oregon a second time and cementing the Huskies as the first-ever undefeated team in the Pac-12 era.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the country that has gone through what we went through,” DeBoer said. We did it not just at the beginning of the year, it was spread out and we did it at the end of the year. We won four games against four top teams in November and now in December. That’s tough to do. This team, they can do it because we have all these different pieces.”

DeBoer is the first Washington head coach ever to be awarded with the honor, and does so in his second season with the team. DeBoer is 23-2 with Washington and undefeated against ranked opponents.

“It’s all about the people around me. This is a team award.” DeBoer said. “When you win, I tell the players this, you win football games, you’re going to get recognized and more awards are going to get shared. I’m fortunate enough to kind of be the figurehead of our team and receive these cool awards. Just really blessed.”

Despite the historic season, the journey is far from complete for DeBoer and this Husky squad.

The Huskies are in the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2016 season, with an Alamo Bowl rematch against Texas in the Sugar Bowl with a trip to the National Championship on the line.

Fortunately for the Huskies, the guy leading them on the sideline is a winner everywhere he goes.

DeBoer has done nothing but win his entire career, starting at Sioux Falls from 2005 to 2009 where he led them to a 67-3 record and three NAIA Championships. He later resumed his coaching career at Fresno State in 2020 and 2021, leading the Bulldogs to a 12-6 record before joining Washington. With a 103-11 overall coaching record, DeBoer has firmly established himself as one of the most elite head coaches in college football.

A major key to his success is his ability to get his players to buy into his coaching style. His attitude and work ethic have his players ready to run through a brick wall if that’s what it takes to win.

“We were open ears to what he had to say, and he was so persistent in his genuineness and his commitment to take this program to the top,” Biletnikoff runner-up Rome Odunze said to AP. “At the end of the day, it was unstoppable to be able to trust him… We’ve gotten here because he’s carried through with everything he said he was going to do with all his effort.”

The accomplishments are endless for DeBoer, who is now a three-time NAIA coach of the year, two-time Pac-12 coach of the year, and was also awarded the 2023 Home Depot coach of the year and 2023 Sporting News coach of the year. Despite the legacy he’s already created for himself, there is one major milestone missing that DeBoer has his sights on.

A National Championship.

With just under two weeks until the College Football Playoffs, DeBoer and the Huskies go in as underdogs and will look to leave an even greater legacy for his coaching career at the University of Washington.