By Matt Calkins
Seattle Times columnist
List of annoying things.
1. Seeing the bubbles but not getting a text.
2. Your Peloton instructor screaming at you to “push it!” while he sits idle.
3. Sports writers who think they know exactly what’s going on inside a head coach’s head.
Yes, that third one is a preface. I’m not going to pretend to have access to a portal that can place me between Kalen DeBoer’s ears. I’m going to take the first-year Washington football coach’s word that, when it comes to Saturday’s season opener vs. Kent State at Husky Stadium, he isn’t concerned about anything but the W.
However, I know that Huskies fans are curious to see what hand they’ve been dealt in DeBoer — just as I know that the Huskies dropped their should-have-been-easy opener to Montana last year before spiraling into oblivion.
Excluding the forever-disgruntled fringe, a fan base’s satisfaction is generally the best indicator of a college football program’s success. So coach, how important is it for you to make a memorable first impression to the fans Saturday?
“Honestly, the No. 1 thing is just find a way to win. I mean that is the most important thing; just find a way,” said DeBoer, whose team is favored to win by more than three touchdowns. “We’re always going to respect our opponent and everything they have, but we’re going to believe we have what it takes. Respect all, fear none.”
That response isn’t exactly out of the Mike Leach school of originality, but it doesn’t mean it’s insincere. Winning is all the Huskies have to do to keep their fans engaged; and if they do that, DeBoer has little else to worry about.
But it’s human nature to want to impress the UW die-hards — whether they’re underclassmen or 50-year-long fans. We saw what happened to the last coach who didn’t — he got ousted before completing his first full season.
The optimism surrounding Jimmy Lake heading into 2021 might have been guarded, but it was still high. His Huskies went 3-1 in COVID-shortened 2020, and entered the next year ranked in the AP Top 25.
Then the Montana Grizzlies of the FCS beat them 13-7 at Husky Stadium, prompting a downward slope a Tour de France champ would struggle to scale. The delight fans felt toward Lake turned into doubt, which soon turned into disaster.
As most of you know, Lake was fired before the season ended as Washington finished 4-8. DeBoer is no less proven than his predecessor at the Power Five level — but can he offer some hope in his debut on Montlake?
The 2022 Huskies, after all, are an inkblot at this point. They’re coming off their worst season since 2008, and their starting quarterback, Michael Penix Jr., has never played more than six games in a season over his four-year career. But when he was healthy, Penix set passing efficiency records at Indiana while consistently winning, and he has dynamic receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan as targets, and one of the country’s best left tackles in Jaxson Kirkland as protection.
