Washington is 3-0 and ranked No. 18 in the nation entering Pac-12 play.
But there’s plenty left to prove.
Before UW hosts Stanford inside Husky Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, here’s a full transcript of everything coach Kalen DeBoer said in Monday’s news conference.
“All right, good afternoon. I know we kind of recapped it in a lot of different ways, whether it was Saturday night or with the coordinators here. But it felt good to wake up Sunday morning and see that flag flying — that W. We fly it after every win the whole week. We fly the W and it’s dubs up all week long. But we’ve already moved on. Last night, after we met as a team and knocked out our meetings and made our corrections, we spent a little time on the field, moving around, getting the bodies going, and it’s time to move on. Less than 24 hours after a nice win, a big win for us, we’re on to Stanford. We’re excited about the energy that existed yesterday, that should exist tomorrow in practice when we get back on the football field. We’re also understanding that there’s so many things that could have been even better than what happened Saturday night. So I know we’ve got a group of guys that felt that way at the beginning, that this could be where we’re at. And now they see, stacking days on top of days, practices on top of practices, and now games on top of games, they seeall the hard work paying off and the belief and trust in each other coming through. They’re in a good spot. But we can’t get full of ourselves. We’ve got a big game this weekend, starting conference play. We know Stanford had the weekend off, so they’re going to be fresh. They had a time to get ready to play us this weekend, had a chance to watch us and do some prep even before this weekend.”
On the program re-establishing itself:
“Week one, we had to play, just to get on the football field and see where we’re at and feel that continuity. You could tell we were stacking plays on top of plays. Week one and two were very similar, because of who we were facing. And then a test against a top ranked team, a team that’s coming cross the country, that’s very well recognized and respected. For our guys to prove that, it showed in their preparation that there was confidence. You can hear confidence through communication. You can hear it just in the way they are throughout the week. ‘Respect all, fear none’ is certainly a common theme that we have in our locker room. But it still can’t just be words, and we needed to prove it (wasn’t just) words. We respected them throughout the week. As much as we want to prove things to other people, first we have to prove it to ourselves. We did that. Guys are fired up. I don’t think they’re surprised, but I know they’re really in retrospect thinking about where they’re at and their confidence now compared to where they’ve been in the past weeks, months, years. So it’s pretty cool to see. That’s why you do what you do as a football coach, not just building a great team but helping guys realize you can become even more than what you think you can. We’re on that path.”
On the goal-line offense and Richard Newton being limited:
“Yeah, a little bit. You saw, the guys that were on the field were the guys that took the most reps in those spots, offense and defense. The execution certainly could have been better. We had to have been inches (away) on the one where the ball actually fell out of Wayne’s hands right at the goal line. That literally had to have been an inch or two (away), because I know his foot crossed the goal line. The ball did not. We tempo’d, and Ryan (Grubb) talked about how sometimes the execution can go both ways. We just have to stay lower with our pads. The scheme was there. We just have to execute a little bit better. Looking back on it, you always wonder in the moment, ‘OK, should we have done something different?’ I feel good about what we were trying to do. You can still continue to second-guess and say, ‘Oh, we could have done this and probably would have been fine.’ But we had the amount of numbers we needed, and we just have to coach it up a little bit better and put those guys in those spots and make it happen next time and learn from it.”
On what makes Ryan Grubb a good play-caller and how he has evolved:
“It’s just been awesome, seeing it. I was going to say work ethic and how hard he works at making sure he knows and has a plan in place and knows what defenses are going to do. But first, it starts with humility, that you don’t know it all. He just constantly is asking questions, learning, meeting with people. As proud of a play-caller he is, in the summer months and in the spring he is not afraid to bounce something off me. Nothing too big, nothing too small. It starts with that humility and desire to have a growth mindset and always continue to get better. Then it goes to just the work ethic he has. There are very few people that are ever going to beat him to the office and be here any later. So him understanding and seeing what’s out there on the football field, he’s locked in. You can see what he’s saying is almost happening before it’s happening. ‘Hey, this safety is going to widen at the snap.’ Oh, yep, there he goes. ‘This linebacker is leaving space for someone to fill that area.’ That’s what’s happening when you click on the film on Sunday.
“What’s really cool is hearing that the checks that Mike makes or the things that happen are pretty much being discussed on the headphones before they’re made — that check Mike might make, or, ‘Hey, this is going to be a throw,’ or, ‘This is going to be a hand off on an RPO.’ That’s happening. I heard coach Grubb talking about the one protection Mike didn’t check. It’s the time he really got hit. That was being discussed on the sidelines over the headphones with coach Grubb and a couple other coaches as well, all in sync. Just the management, the organization leads to great belief in the team. When there’s that belief that goes both ways, between coordinator and quarterback, coordinator and coaches, coordinator and coaching staff and the players, and now the players giving it back to them … we’re able to be really aggressive right now because we’re confident Mike will be OK with checking it down and not forcing it down the field and putting it in a tough spot where the ball is being turned over or holding onto the ball too long.
“In the two-minute drill going down the field at the end of the first half, there’s about five or six scenarios that you’ve got to be ready for when you don’t have the timeouts and stuff. There’s 30 seconds on the clock and it’s fourth down. It’s not just that play, but you’ve got to be ready for the next play or two after that. We’re all in sync and it’s really cool and it’s fun to see him. There’s times and places where you just don’t get in his way. You give him the advice he needs to hear or the things he needs to hear, managing the game.
“We won the game. There just comes a mathematical — I believe this doing it for 20-some years and having to close out games — piece where you just got to get that clock running. There’re four possessions that have to have. If you do the math, even worse case scenario there’s going to have to be multiple onside kicks that are going to have to be had for them to win the football game. That’s not the way it feels — it doesn’t always feel good sometimes that way where the gap is close at the end. But what’s most important is there’s a W. He found a way to win the game, and a lot of that is attributed to how great we were in the first three-plus quarters and putting yourself in that spot to where there’s a lot of different options and a lot of different ways the game can play out at the end.”
On Michael Penix Jr. getting Heisman hype:
“Yeah. It doesn’t surprise me. He was in it before a couple years ago at this time in the season. You got to win football games I think is a huge part of anything when it comes to those type of awards. I think if he just keeps his focus on what it’s been and that’s winning football games he’s naturally going to be a big part of us winning. So, if we just focus on winning football games those individual accolades will come. It’s fun. That’s the way it is. Not just with the quarterback position but the other positions as well. Pour into the team. Pour into winning. Pour into being the best you can, and we’d say live with the results, but the results will come in those form and fashions of getting those accolades.”
On if DeBoer jumped into the mosh pit after the game:
“I didn’t. I was just trying to make sure everything was all squared. Making sure the Michigan State guys weren’t in the middle of it. I saw their coaches were kind of trying to check. I was still kind of — I went back into it actually when it came out, so I didn’t realize what was happening right away. Just trying to make sure everything was all good with our players and our team. There’s a lot of energy. About 99.9 percent of it was good. But you always got to be ready for something when high emotions and excitement are all happening. Cool thing for our team. Hopefully there’s many, many more big victories down the road and they all don’t have to result in storming the field because that becomes the expectation in our program.”
On comparing defeating Michigan State with other big wins in his career:
“Yeah this is definitely one of them. Anytime you’re — this is, like you said, it’s in a totally different stage in where we’re at in our program. So that’s why it’s one of those big wins. It was a lot of fun. Biggest joy is always sitting back and watching players high-five, hugs, sometimes tears. It wasn’t tears when we walked in the locker room, but as I talked to individuals there’s guys that became choked up on what they’ve experienced and how they’ve seen themselves grow, this team grow. There’s nothing better when you win championships, when you win big games, just sitting back and seeing the smiles. That’s what I love as a head coach. Just trying to facilitate an environment where the training staff, the equipment staff, the academics, you name the staff or piece of the department where they’re all so happy because they know how much everyone has poured into getting to where we’re at. Hopefully this is just the beginning.”
On Carson Bruener and Davon Banks on special teams:
“No question. That was noticeable. Really noticeable. Made sure I addressed that in a strong way yesterday in the team meeting. Just how Bruener’s hit and Devon had a couple — two weeks ago — and where we’re at now with the improvement we’ve made special teams wise we’re, again, not there yet. But in that area particular we’re trying to get those kicks deeper and deeper and deeper. But, hey, if they’re going to get returned, all right, let’s go down and set the tone and be physical. Understand our assignments, which we’re getting better at every single week. Feeding off each other. It’s more complex than just running down as hard as you can and trying to tackle the ball carrier. There’s a lot happening. If you do that you’ll get out-schemed and out-techniqued and all that. And then, the mindset. You don’t know which way the ball carrier is going to be and all of a sudden, he’s in your lap and you got a chance to make that big hit. Davon and Bruener and those guys all just being ready for the moment it was pretty sweet seeing that. Proud of the guys. Special teams the buy-in some of the biggest field-changing times of the game are on special teams. So, we preach that. I’ve told them for the three National Championships all three National Championships had special teams’ touchdowns in them. So that’s always going to be a big part what’s preached in our program.”
On if this past weekend was the ultimate opportunity to sell the program:
“Yeah it’s huge. We can talk it and what the feel is. Talk about the family and just making this such a great experience for our guys and winning is a huge part of that. Yeah. It was a great advertisement for our program. Whether it be across the country. But even just people that got to experience, whether it be the fans, but in particular as you referred with our recruits that were here — committed, uncommitted. Those guys just really experiencing it. It wasn’t — there was some (parts) I guess that was eye-opening. Like ‘wow, this place is special. This place is different.’ And they got a chance to see it firsthand.”
On the play of the UW defensive front that limited Michigan State to negative yards per rush before contact:
“It fires me up. There were those questions … I can tell by the way I get asked questions. What’s the run defense? And I understand why those questions are asked. I get it. For us to even go from where we were at week 1 to week 2 and now week 3, different opponents, different styles … a lot of the yards came from the quarterback scrambling. That’s happened a few times, different type of quarterback scrambles, not as much with the designed run game, a lot of the yards came that way. But when it came down to what Michigan State was trying to do, run the football? We were pretty locked in and loaded on being where we needed to be, understanding who was going where and how we all needed to play off each other and just being physical when it came down to it. A lot of gang tackling that I saw, even a back spinning out or trying to fight loose and more guys there … that’s knowledge of what we’re trying to accomplish and how we do it, but also just effort and desire. I thought we really rose to the occasion. I love it, because that’s going to be an important piece of us going through conference play starting this weekend, to be able to stop the run and make teams one-dimensional. I still feel like a huge strength of ours is getting after the quarterback. We’ll be able to do that as we go through the season making teams one-dimensional.”
On guarding against a letdown against Stanford:
“I don’t care where you’re at. You can make it about this program, the history … this is a totally different staff, lot of new players. To me, what has happened in the past isn’t about now but I know the fan base and I understand why that’s discussed and talked about. That’s fair. I think it’s the experiences you’ve been through and how you set it up. We’ve set this up not just this week for this moment. We’ve set this up ever since we got here, the 1-0 mindset and just moving forward. Whether it be the adversity, and we talked about adversity and the response to adversity, making it temporary — which, by the way I thought we were phenomenal in our responses to scores they had, we were great — but now when things are good, the response. Our response is … people let up. They fall below the standard of preparation, work ethic. We’ve set this up for this moment to make sure we have a good week. We don’t take anything for granted. All those principles and concepts that we discuss from day one are built into these moments too, not just in the moments where our backs are up against the wall.”
On the run defense and what stood out about the DL:
“Honestly, I thought they all did a really good job and I think they are straining … the word I liked using a couple times here … they’re straining. They knew they had to raise their game. All those guys; Tuli, Faatui, M.J … I was excited for M.J. (Ale) because I told him this too either Friday night or Saturday morning … I remember getting on the elevator at the hotel and asked him how he was doing. I really thought he had a next level … coming off his injury, now his recovery has been good and now he’s actually thriving again. He’s actually progressing physically. I was really excited to see him get out there and I think he had a great game, 15-20 snaps, I can’t remember the exact number. Just did a really nice job. They’re playing within the scheme. They’re doing what they’re being asked to do. They’re not going to get a lot of the tackles, other guys are going to get those tackles, but they’re eating up blocks, and a guy like M.J. in particular, he’s going to eat up a lot of people. We know how hard that is, and I know how hard that’s been over the years to block guys that size. Tuli’s snapping off the ball at the line of scrimmage and causing problems. Tui has also been consistent and constant every single play.”
On how satisfying it is after a big win to see that the players know there’s room to improve:
“That’s the exciting piece, because a couple of fourth down plays on both sides of the ball really, is what it came down to. A couple more of those and the game gets out of control even quicker. But you’ve got to credit Michigan State making those plays and being physical … our guys just see it. They see what they are capable of. They see the potential that exists within this 2022 football team. They’re just going to keep coming. Right now the next man up mentality is what’s really cool also. Just the next guy stepping in and us not hesitating or flinching is a pretty neat thing. It goes along with the mindset we have, just keep fighting, keep swinging.”
On the northwest Pac-12 teams doing well and any tangible benefits when all of them are doing well at the same time:
“I would think we’re bringing notoriety obviously to our programs but good football is being played and it tells us we have to be at our best, and that’s why we’ve got to keep improving. Those games down the road are going to be big ones and they’re going to be against really good football teams. It’s for us internally to understand we’ve got to keep getting better. And then we represent each other in a way too, especially when we’re playing these nonconference games too and that the Pac-12 Conference is very strong. Speaking out of both sides of my mouth here, it’s great to see but it’s also an understanding that we’re going to have our hands full throughout the entire 12-game season.”
On winning the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week award:
“Oh really? OK. I didn’t know that. We’ve had a lot of prospects on campus, so … finishing that up. The awards, just like we’re talking about with Mike and the Heisman, it goes across the board. There’s no way without this staff … I know I get a lot of the credit here and when things don’t go right it goes the other way too. This staff has been awesome in their preparation and the team has been incredible. Those awards are all team things to me. I appreciate these guys.”