Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, who will be taking his talents to the Midwest, was named Associated Press Coach of the Year for leading the Huskies to a 13-0 record and a College Football Playoff appearance.
DeBoer is the first Pac-12 coach to win the award since Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre won in 2016. And, well, it appears DeBoer will be the last Pac-12 coach to win.
The Huskies move to the Big Ten next season, along with Southern Cal, UCLA and Oregon. The rest of the conference is moving to other leagues, except Washington State and Oregon State and who knows what will happen to those programs.
Kalen DeBoer won AP Coach of the Year convincingly over Mike Norvell
DeBoer got 30 of the 52 first-place votes and 113 total points. He put some distance between himself and second-place Mike Norvell of Florida State, who got 57 points. Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz (38) and Jedd Fisch of Arizona (28) were next in the voting.
Norvell couldn’t even get the sympathy vote here. After all, the Seminoles went undefeated and left out of the College Football Playoff because of no fault of their own, otherwise known as an injury to their quarterback.
At least it could have been acknowledged that Norvell must have done a great job since his team went undefeated but not good enough to play for a championship. But we digress.
DeBoer is a worthy winner. He has led Washington to a 23-2 record in the past two seasons after he took over a team that was 4-8. He and his team will play Texas in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 with a shot at playing for the national championship on Jan. 8.
At least in the final season of existence as we know it, the Pac-12 is going out on a good note. Now DeBoer and his team are hoping for a bigger and better finish.
AP Coach of the Year voting
Voting for the 2023 AP Coach of the year, with first-, second- and third-place votes and total points (voting on 3-2-1 basis):
| Coach | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Kalen DeBoer, Washington | 30 | 10 | 3 | 113 |
| Mike Norvell, Florida State | 10 | 11 | 5 | 57 |
| Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri | 3 | 8 | 13 | 38 |
| Jedd Fisch, Arizona | 4 | 6 | 4 | 28 |
| Steve Sarkisian, Texas | 1 | 5 | 3 | 16 |
| David Braun, Northwestern | 1 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| Nick Saban, Alabama | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Jeff Brohm, Louisville | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Barry Odom, UNLV | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Jamey Chadwell, Liberty | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Jerry Kill, New Mexico State | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Jim Harbaugh, Michigan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Dan Lanning, Oregon | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Curt Cignetti, James Madison | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Kirby Smart, Georgia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rhett Lashlee, SMU | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |