After finishing Kalen DeBoer’s first regular season as head coach with a 10-2 record the program has learned its bowl fate.
No. 12 Washington will face former coach Steve Sarkisian and the No. 21 Texas Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl on December 29. The Huskies (10-2, 7-2) haven’t played in a bowl game since 2019, a 38-7 win over Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
DeBoer made the official announcement during a media timeout at the UW men’s basketball game against Colorado.
UW won six straight games, including to finish off the season and earn its first bowl berth in three seasons. UT, on the flipside, went 4-2 in its final half of the season with losses then-No. 11 ranked Oklahoma State 41-34 and then-No. 4 TCU 17-10, the latter of which came at home.
“We’ve approached all year – especially here at the end as things played out – whether it’s going to the Pac-12 Championship or whatever bowl we’re going to play in is we’re going to focus on what we can control,” DeBoer said.
The team will have a pair of weekends of practices in Seattle before traveling down to the Lone Star State to continue its bowl preparation on December 25. In the meanwhile, DeBoer and the staff will have a few in-home visits with recruits in the 2023 recruiting class.
With the game being in San Antonio, about 80 miles southwest of Austin, the bowl will be essentially a sixth road game for the Huskies. Though the draw isn’t as ideal as say a Rose Bowl or New Year’s Six Bowl, it does open the door for the program to make an impression on recruits in the region.
As of Sunday, two recruits in the 2023 class are committed to the program from the Lone Star State.
Anthony James, a four-star defensive lineman from Wylie, Texas (Wylie East HS) and three-star cornerback Diesel Gordon from Arlington, Texas (Seguin HS) are the only pledges headed north from the state.
However, historically the program has done well plucking players from the Lone Star State and even landed a key transfer, third-year freshman wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, just two years ago from Texas Tech.
“The excitement we have to go play in the Alamo Bowl, we feel it’s a great bowl,” DeBoer said. “Everyone can discuss how they want, what (bowl) they felt we should be playing in. But we know we got a great football team and we want to go continue to prove it and prove everyone right who’s supporting us.”
