Almost exactly two years ago, Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer took his first Washington team to Oregon for one of the most important games of his two-year stretch at UW. The Ducks were ranked No. 6 in the nation, riding an eight-game winning streak, and a 23-game home win streak that dated all the way back to 2018.
The Huskies , two-touchdown underdogs, pulled a 37-34 upset that knocked the Ducks out of College Football Playoff contention . It vaulted Washington's national profile and UW didn't lose again until Michigan snapped Washington's remarkable 21-game win streak the following year in the national championship game, just five days before DeBoer took the Alabama job.
The Crimson Tide 's 42-13 win over LSU on Saturday had its share of similarities.
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The Tigers, too, had their playoff backs to the wall and a home crowd behind them. LSU was also riding an impressive home winning streak of its own; Brian Kelly had never lost a night game at Tiger Stadium. Alabama, like Washington at the time, was looking to avoid its third loss of the year. In the Crimson Tide's case, that would have ended its own aspirations of a CFP berth. And of course, DeBoer hadn't yet had a full year to establish his program's culture at either coaching stop.
"Those experiences, yeah, I'm certainly aware of those, and it feels a lot like that," DeBoer said. "But it doesn't guarantee us anything."
Up next for the Crimson Tide (7-2, 4-2 SEC) are the FCS Mercer Bears , followed by a road trip to Oklahoma and a home game against archrival Auburn . None of those challenges appear as daunting as winning at LSU, but every time Alabama takes the field, the goal of a championship is at risk. UA has been playing with no margin for error since sustaining its second loss of the year at Tennessee .
Washington wasn't playing under that kind of pressure at this point in 2022 — having already lost two games, it was out of the picture in the CFP's four-team field — but it galvanized a team that was primed for big things. DeBoer doesn't deny the significance of that Washington upset of Oregon, but he's also not declaring Alabama to be on the brink of another 21-game win streak.
"You've got momentum to build off of, you make sure you take advantage of it, and then you also just continue to keep the pedal down, keep focused on what you believe in. We've been doing that, and we were doing that then (at Washington) that year," DeBoer added. "And we're doing that now, just staying the course. Just because all the sudden you feel like you get over a hump doesn't mean you can let off."
No, Alabama certainly must keep the pedal down.
But this isn't DeBoer's first time steering through the final turn.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The Kalen DeBoer win at UW that mirrored Alabama football win at LSU
