Kalen DeBoer shares feelings of being part of final Pac-12 game

Following the victory in the Pac-12 Championship, Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer reflected on playing in the final game of the conference as we know it.

What comes of the Pac-12 in the future remains to be seen. Oregon State and Washington State have a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West for 2024, but that’s it for now.

So as Washington defeated future Big Ten opponent Oregon for the second time this season, DeBoer took a look back.

“I think probably two things, just the historic tradition of what this conference has done, the great teams throughout all the years,” DeBoer said. “We’ve had many of ’em at U-Dub, historic moments there. Conference championships, national championships.

“It is sad to see it happen, that be the last football game. But I think the other part is, just understanding how strong the conference was this year. There were eight teams at one point I believe that were ranked in the top 25. We played the best ones. We played one of ’em twice.”

DeBoer mentioned how good his team was to get to this point: 13-0 and the College Football Playoff. It was all against top tier Pac-12 teams

“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the country that’s gone through what we went through,” DeBoer said. “We did it not just at the beginning of the year, it was spread out, we did it at the end of the year. We won four games against four top teams here in November, and now in December.

“That’s tough to do. We did it at home. We did it on the road. We did it in wind, we did it in rain. This team, okay, can do it because we have all those different pieces. We got a defense that will take advantage of opportunity, and we have an offense, you get in a fast track like we had tonight, you see how explosive they can be. We can do it in the air and on the ground.”

If there was a year for the Pac-12 to go out on a high note, it was the 2023 season. How it looks in the future remains to be seen.

However, Deboer’s statement rings loud: it might not happen like this again.

“Being back to the Pac-12, we did it against one of the best years ever the Pac-12 has had when it comes to the depth of the league,” DeBoer said.