Washington blasted Colorado 54-7 at home Saturday night to cap off a perfect home stand on the year and give coach Kalen DeBoer a school-record nine wins in his first season with the program. It also kept the Huskies in the race for a berth in the Pac-12 Championship Game with one game still to go. After, DeBoer met with reporters to break things down. Here’s what he said, with video of the full press conference below:

Opening statement

“That was a good win for us. We talked a lot at halftime, we did what we were supposed to do in the first half, we did what we were supposed to do for the whole game. It starts with the seniors and the leadership and trying to get them going out on top. We accomplished that. They did an awesome job buying into everything. It was about establishing home-field advantage again. That goes both with us as a team and doing what we were supposed to do and starting fast, giving Husky Nation something to cheer about. Husky Nation showed up and was there for us from the beginning. It has been an awesome year being at home. Glad that we could send the seniors out on top. You guys just saw Wayne (Taulapapa) up here. Emotional week for a guy like him. To have him go over 100 yards is something super special, especially being a senior as well. Proud of the guys. I think we got through on the most part unscathed and looking forward to next week.

On Wayne Taulapapa playing through tragedy

“That is what I was thinking about on the first touchdown he scored, the second touchdown he scored. I was hoping that he would have gotten in there on the third one. He had a couple of long runs and we had a couple of tempo plays and that would have been a good time to get CD (Cam Davis) in there and he just ran out of gas. The team has just been great with him all week. He has been so critical to our success just the leadership that he brings and the consistency on who he is as a person, not just as a football player.

On Apple Cup Week

“We definitely don’t have that trophy in our trophy case right now. I know that it means a lot. It is one of those two games that all of Husky Nation circles each year and we are looking forward to having a great week. I think that we are playing for a lot of stuff, it is not just that trophy. Looking forward to seeing the energy and a fun week of really understanding from alumni and everyone that has been a part of this what it does all mean.”