If you were going to craft a syrupy feel-good tale to counteract the knives-out free-for-all of college football in 2023, you could start right at the very top. When a coach inherits a 4-8 program and overhauls it so dramatically that it reaches the College Football Playoff title game in two years, that’s worth noticing. And when that coach is an itinerant go-where-the-job-is lifer, an overnight success two decades in the making, a product of the country’s most overlooked region, well … you’ve got yourself the ingredients for a fine little tale of ambition achieved and effort rewarded.
Monday evening, Kalen DeBoer will lead the Washington Huskies into the national championship to face Michigan. It’s the culmination — so far — of a career that’s spanned half the country, one coaching gig at a time. While the entire sport of college football barrels forward into an uncertain future, DeBoer represents the best version of a throwback.
Washington has overcome long odds to make the national championship. But DeBoer has faced much longer odds to get to this point, starting with the state of his birth.
Read Jay Busbee’s story on Kalen DeBoer’s unlikely roots.
2024-01-09 00:46:00
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