By Matt Fortuna / The Inside Zone
LAS VEGAS – Start with the bittersweet, because the backdrop of this top-five clash of titans was always going to have a hint of melancholy.
One hour and 48 minutes after Washington beat Oregon, 34-31, to win the last Pac-12 title game, conference and network employees gathered on a stage on the Allegiant Stadium field to watch a video montage.
The soundtrack to the rolling credits? Green Day’s “Good Riddance,” better known as “Time of Your Life.”
There were tears, all right. Lots of hugs, too. It was about as sad of a sight as you could witness on a football field, and it was a stark contrast from the tears that had been pouring out of Huskies players and coaches on this same surface in the preceding hour-plus.
There are a lot of uncertain futures in the Pac-12 right now, tons of employees who poured their hearts out for the place for many years and who don’t know what comes next.
That they would go to bed Friday night knowing they had a College Football Playoff team for the first time in seven years was likely mildly comforting, after Washington left no doubt whatsoever about the conference’s seat among the elite, at least this year.
The Huskies jumped out to an early 17-point lead. They outgained Oregon by 118 yards. They held the ball for almost 15 minutes more than the Ducks. They punted only once.
Michael Penix Jr. might not have won the Heisman Trophy, but he and his team all but certainly kept Bo Nix from winning it.
This was a master class from Kalen DeBoer, who is quickly becoming the best coach in the sport right now not named Kirby Smart or Nick Saban. He’ll be on the game’s center stage in exactly one month — likely joined by at least one of those two-time title winners — after he took a team that was a
sizeable underdog in a rivalry rematch and did exactly what it did seven weeks ago, which is also exactly what it did one year ago: beat the Ducks by 3 points.
All DeBoer does is win. The headline hires when Washington plucked DeBoer from Fresno State two years ago were Lincoln Riley at USC and Brian Kelly at LSU. This was a 4-8 program coming off the setback of the short-lived Jimmy Lake era, and there were a ton of questions surrounding the Huskies.
Remember, their final game before DeBoer was hired featured a field storm ... on their own field. Washington State smoked Washington in the Apple Cup, its fans took over Husky Stadium, and the Cougars promoted interim coach Jake Dickert the next day.
DeBoer went 11-2 in Year 1, losing out on a Pac-12 title game berth due to a fourth-step conference tiebreaker. He has gone 13-0 since then.
That’s a 24-2 record across two seasons after taking over a program that had a losing record the season prior. Oh, and he’s 9-0 against ranked teams, 2-0 against the rival Cougars and now 3-0 in three different venues against the rival Ducks, who were in some circles double-digit favorites in two of those matchups, including this one.
DeBoer has a lifetime head-coaching record of 103-11 across three stops.
Read that again. 103-11.
Maybe we were all surprised by what happened Friday night. Maybe we shouldn’t be.
In Sin City, Washington made a mockery of the house. And in doing so, the Huskies closed down the Pac-12 by becoming the first team in the conference’s 12-team era to go 13-0. They eliminated any hint of drama inside the league ahead of Saturday, as they became the first undefeated team in this conference ahead of bowl season since Oregon went 12-0 in 2010.
And had this been virtually any other year in the 10-season Playoff era, Washington probably could’ve survived a close loss against an Oregon team it had already beaten, too. (See: TCU last year.)
The players chanted “HEIS-MAN!” when Penix Jr. was handed the game’s MVP trophy by Commissioner George Kliavkoff, who also handed DeBoer the championship trophy but did not speak during the ceremony. They chanted “BI-LET-NI-KOFF!” when Rome Odunze stepped to the front of the stage.
When DeBoer and Penix Jr. went to the interview podium long after, three of the first five questions were about this being the last Pac-12 football game.
“I think probably two things,” DeBoer said of his thoughts. “Just the historic tradition of what this conference has done, the great teams throughout all the years. We've had many of 'em at U-Dub, historic moments there. Conference championships, national championships. It is sad to see it happen, that be the last football game.
“But I think the other part is, just understanding how strong the conference was this year. There were (nine) teams at one point I believe that were ranked in the Top 25. We played the best ones. We played one of ’em twice.”
And beat one of ‘em twice.
Penix Jr. threw for 319 yards. He made every money throw when it mattered most, his team finishing 10 of 15 on third down.
Of the Heisman talk, he said: “It's just a blessing to be able to be in that talk. For me, it was always the main thing was to win. To be able to do that today on a stage like this, it's incredible. I'm going to always savor this moment.
“I’m just super excited. Right now I'm just really living in this moment. Whatever happens come next weekend is going to happen. It's already written. Obviously, I couldn't do it without the guys around me.”
He went on to thank his offensive line, his head coach and his staff. By the time he exited the interview room, the Pac-12 logo had been scrubbed from midfield in favor of UNLV’s. The Oregon and Washington lettering in each end zone was coming undone, too.
The Rebels were set to host the Mountain West Conference title game here in 14 hours, but not before the Pac-12 answered last call and had the time of its life.
About the FWAA member: Matt Fortuna founded the Inside Zone in 2023 after spending six seasons at The Athletic, where he began as part of the website's original college football vertical, The All-American. He was at ESPN for six seasons before that, mostly covering Notre Dame and ACC football. He is a college football insider for Stadium, the national multi-platform sports network, and he co-hosts The Independent podcast with Pete Sampson. On his 30th birthday, Matt was named FWAA President in 2019, making him the youngest FWAA President in the organization's 84-year-old history. This is the 16th time he has been honored in FWAA and USBWA Best Writing Contests along with two APSE Top Ten finishes. A New York City native and Penn State graduate, now living in Chicago, Matt loves nothing more than a day spent outdoors with his wife Katie and daughters Josephine and Eleanor.
Judge’s Comment: “Good details on the sad end of the Pac-12 Conference.”