Washington coach Kalen DeBoer arguably made the gutsiest call anyone has made all season in Saturday’s frantic, frenzied Apple Cup finish.

In a tied game, Washington faced a fourth-and-1 from its own 29-yard-line. There were little more than 70 seconds left in the game. DeBoer sent out the punt team first, then put his offense back on the field after a timeout. What resulted can only be described as a bit of magic from coordinator Ryan Grubb, quarterback Michael Penix Jr., and wideout Rome Odunze.

 

DeBoer said after the game they initially sent the punt team onto the field to try and draw Wazzu offside. When that didn’t work and a timeout was called, DeBoer felt it would be harder to employ the same strategy.

“It gave us a little more time to figure out what we wanted to do offensively,” DeBoer said. “Hats off to the coaching staff, offensive staff for putting this play in and having it ready to go for moments like that — red zone, short-yardage moments.”

The Huskies dialed up a triple-option concept. Penix can hand the ball off on a dive. He can pull and make a play himself. And, obviously, he has Odunze coming around the backside on an orbit motion.

“There’s some moving pieces to that too and you have to trust your players to read it right, have good timing, execute,” DeBoer said. “Between Michael and really everyone and of course Rome, just simple things like even catching the ball. Worst-case scenario is he’s gonna be 1-on-1 with someone for a yard. Just proud of the way the guys executed it, turned it into an explosive play, and it gave us a lot of momentum.”

Odunze gained 23 yards to move the chains. A roughing penalty on the next play pushed UW further into Wazzu’s territory. Washington was able to set up a game-winning field goal from Grady Gross as time expired to cap its regular season with a perfect 12-0 record.

“It’s up there,” DeBoer said when asked if he’s ever called a riskier play. “Way back there’s been some risky plays, but I’d say it’s certainly up there given the moment, given the situation, field location, time in the game, all those.”

And on top of all of that, DeBoer says that was the first time they’d run that specific play in a game all season.

DeBoer has talked before about this being a Washington team that just continues to find a way.

Hard to argue with him.

“A lot of things we did throughout the course of the game just naturally set up (that play — the backfield sets, tight end alignments, a lot of those things were looks that were similar, not exactly, but similar to what we had shown throughout the game.

“You trust in a guy like Michael to read it and then of course he’s going to have his back to the play at some point as he flips it and just made a great decision. Some guts on his end, besides obviously the play call. I just wanted to go out and not be crazy but just really wanted to make sure we had the ball to try to win the game and obviously it took that play to do that.”

Washington is one win away from a College Football Playoff berth. The Huskies were going to be in the Pac-12 title game regardless of the result, but in so many ways a loss in the Apple Cup would have changed everything.

“We have great players and you want to let them work and do their thing that they practiced so hard for,” DeBoer said. “And when you have guys like Michael, Rome, and Jalen (McMillan), and Ja’Lynn (Polk), they’re made for that, they’re built for those moments.”