Kalen DeBoer says he’d be a fool not to pick the brain of former Washington coach Chris Petersen.

So, the Huskies’ current head coach makes sure to text the former head coach often.

In fact, he texted Petersen Monday morning about how quickly camp had come and gone. DeBoer told reporters on Monday at his first game week press conference that he picks the brain of Petersen frequently and has an open-door policy for the coach.

“He’s been amazing,” DeBoer said. “First off, I said it from the beginning, you’d be foolish not to take the insight and any information he has to share and learn from it. He loves this program and loves the players he knows still that are in it, that he recruited. There’s still a high number of those. He is a great source.

“I just know over the different places I’ve been… Pat Hill and Jeff Tedford when I was at Fresno (State) the last couple years, Pat in particular was around practice daily. Chris has just been a great source, bouncing things off of. There were text messages back and forth even this morning. He’s always welcome around here. He knows that, and I appreciate him to a very, very high level.”

After eight years spent turning Boise State into one of the most respected Group of Five teams of this century, Petersen moved to Washington in 2014 to take over a program that hadn’t won more than eight games in a season since 2000.

He won eight his first year in charge, then 12 in 2016 and 10 in both 2017 and 2018. Petersen’s 2016 squad went to the College Football Playoff, the last Pac-12 team to do so.

Now, he’s an analyst for FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff show.

DeBoer begins his first season as the UW coach on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. PT against Kent State. You can see his entire Monday press conference — along with both coordinators — below. DeBoer’s time begins at the 36:20 mark.