Kalen DeBoer makes case for coaches at lower levels of college football to get more recognition

Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer has led the Huskies to their first national championship appearance in school history, facing Michigan on Monday night in Houston, Texas for all the marbles.

In just his second season as the Huskies head coach DeBoer has helped guide Washington to the pinnacle of college football, but the beginning of his journey as a coach starts at his alma mater, the University of Sioux Falls.

After playing for the Cougars in his college days DeBoer worked his way up the coaching ranks at Sioux Falls before becoming the team’s head coach ahead of the 2005 season. In his five seasons at the helm DeBoer led the Cougars to three NAIA championships and four conference titles before working his way up the FBS ranks to Washington. And ahead of the national championship game on Monday, DeBoer was asked how that experience has translated to his current success at the highest level of college football.

“I’d say just working with people. Football is football,” DeBoer said. “I think there’s just the number of people that help you with the details and from the breaking down of film to the game planning. But when it comes down to it, football is football. And working with people has also just been a transferrable piece of it where you want to empower your staff. You want to empower your team to be able to go out there and have a great atmosphere that facilitates an environment they want to be a part of.”

“That’s a lot of the pieces, just making the time that they have together enjoyable, trying to pull out the best in each of them, tap into each other’s strengths. To me it’s just a lot of how you build confidence going throughout the year, going throughout the week, leading up to a game that gives you the opportunity to go out and be successful on game day,” DeBoer explained.

Coaches at the levels below the Power Five are faced with a different set of challenges in order to achieve success, sometimes making some of their transitions to the highest level of college football easier when provided with a new level of resources.

But DeBoer isn’t the only head coach to translate his small school success to the Power Five, as he was asked about former Division III head coach and current head man for the Kansas Jayhawks Lance Leipold and others who may not get their fair share of recognition for program building.

“There’s so many great coaches at the small college level. I’m certainly great friends with Lance and he’s done an amazing job. And at that level you’re wearing a lot of hats. You’re doing a lot of different things. I think as you go through the different levels, you have an appreciation for what those small-college days are like and everything that you have now compared to then, DeBoer said. “But there’s so many great just people, but great coaches that they just stay the course and keep working, maybe catch a break here and there. There’s no doubt that they can get to moments like we have right now.”

DeBoer led Sioux Falls to the first NAIA Championship appearance of his tenure in 2006, and 17 years later he’s doing the same thing at Washington. That game in 2006 ended with a 23-19 win over Saint Francis, as DeBoer and the Huskies are hoping for a similar result in their national championship game matchup with Michigan on Monday night.