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He’s come further than any star player in college football over the past two years – 3,064 miles and two wins to reach the College Football Playoff – but on a disappointing Monday in Seattle in April, Michael Penix Jr. far exceeded actual measurements. Shown. The depth of his journey. This is something that even his parents did not fully realize at that time. But now, with Penix leading No. 2 Washington against No. 3 Texas in the CFP Semifinal Sugar Bowl a few days later, everyone can appreciate it.
Penix had a stellar debut season for the Huskies in 2022, leading the nation in passing and helping turn a 4-8 team into an 11-2 team ranked No. 8 overall. The lefty’s deep downfield balls not only troubled opposing defenses. , he reenergized the sports-mad city. A week after that April morning, three quarterbacks — all younger than him — would be selected with the first four picks of the 2023 NFL Draft, but Penix said returning to school for a second season wasn’t a difficult decision.
“I felt like I had more to do here,” he said. athletic Then. “I wanted more – not only for myself but for this team, for this team, for this university and for this city. We will perform better this year and correct some of the mistakes made last year.”
Penix finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2022, but he shook his head when asked if the award was also a catalyst for his return.
“Nuh-uh.”
“Is it the playoffs or the collapse?”
“Yes that’s me.”
Now 23-year-old Penix is a wonderful mix of many things that seem very opposite. He is the eldest son, whom his parents describe as very introverted, but he loves being silly and doing the latest viral dance in his kitchen. On the field, he is fearless, hanging in the pocket until the last heartbeat for a receiver to break down deep downfield. Off the field, he can be sensitive, transparent and refreshingly candid. For 10 minutes that April morning, he became emotional as he spoke candidly about the 2023 playoffs or bust.
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever seen?”
He stopped for 15 seconds. He stammered. His voice broke.
“2021.”
In 2020, Penix led his former school, Indiana, to its best football season in 53 years. The Hoosiers finished 12th. He was named team MVP despite suffering an ACL tear in Game 6 of the eight-game COVID-19-shortened season. But the following year, Indiana finished 2–10. The Hoosiers’ decline was just part of what rattled Penix.
Penix said, “It was like that guy’s ACL recovery was complete, and then his doctor called him and said, ‘You technically haven’t passed the week of the game,’ and the guy That fear was put in my mind.” He spoke in the third person, trying to convey the scope of his fears: The 2020 ACL injury was different from his other season-ending injuries. Separate from his 2018 ACL injury and 2019 shoulder injury. Very different.
“It was hard. I was scared,” Penix said through tears. “It’s hard. I was afraid to play, but I still tried to play. It was just a lot. I said in my mind that if I get injured again, I will quit football.
He relied on his family and his loved ones to persevere. “His two younger brothers are part of the reason I never quit,” he said. That’s what has made this particular return, this part of his journey, all the sweeter.
“Do you have a deeper appreciation for the game because it was so close to being taken away from you?”
Penix leaned forward, nodding eagerly.
“I love this game so much now,” he said. “I didn’t want to quit, but obviously what I was going through was tough. But I can’t give up because I have a lot of people depending on me and looking up to me. So, if I could play, I was gonna play. I can’t do this unless the doctor says. Last year the bowl game (Alamo Bowl win against Texas) made me emotional. To be able to do what we did last year was special.”
Penix Jr. and the Hoosiers had a successful 2020 pandemic-shortened season, but struggled in 2021. Photo: Mark Labrick/USA TODAY
Just days before Penix and his parents flew to New York City for the 2023 Heisman presentation, just after the quarterback finished a 13-0 regular season with a Pac-12 title, his parents admitted that they He was unaware of the depth of his eldest son. Struggling emotionally with your injuries.
“Honestly, the first I knew he was dealing with was when I watched the Pac-12 special (in September) where they interviewed him,” said Penix’s mother, Takisha. “That was the first time I saw him talking openly. He internalizes many of his emotions. I feel like watching that interview taught me a lot about what he was going through. We always encouraged him to keep fighting. Don’t give up. Grow. I think he didn’t want us to worry.”
That Pac-12 Network special featured an in-depth look at Penix dealing with the uncertainty of his recovery.
“There were times when I would wake up on game day,” Penix said on TV, “I would wait until my roommate left, and I would just lay on the floor, and just cry out to God, praying that He would protect me that day because I knew where my head was at that time, and it wasn’t really fresh. It was a lot of tears. It was a lot of stuff.”
Takisha Penix said she has decided not to discuss the issue with her son again at this time. “I didn’t want to bring it back, especially now during the season,” she said. “He expressed his feelings right then and there. I don’t think this is the right time.”
“You don’t like to see your kids go through things like this,” said Michael Penix Sr., “but at the same time, it was a blessing in disguise.” If he hadn’t gone through things like that, he wouldn’t be where he is now.”
Penix is currently preparing for the CFP Semifinal matchup with Texas, the next step toward winning a national title. The Huskies led the nation in passing again. They are a serious team that follows the lead of their biggest star. The Huskies, who have won 20 games the past two years, are 10-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less and 9-0 against Top 25 teams.
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Pac-12 Network analyst Yogi Roth, who interviewed Penix during that emotional special, said, “He seems to be a cautious young man, and won’t let anyone into his circle – you have to earn his trust.” “What he has done for his entire team has proven that adversity can make you dramatically stronger. Earlier when he was in Indiana, he was talking about how he was on his knees crying and praying to God to protect me. No human being would be able to play as freely as he does, but now, he plays as freely as any other person in America. Watch him use the bow and arrow and make big throws. There’s something about flexibility and how it can give you freedom that can prove to be a superpower.
The beauty in Penix’s story, as is sometimes the case with college sports, is the development of players as people, not as a finished product when they’re 18 or 19 years old. In evaluation, whether it’s in recruiting or in the eyes of coaches or NFL scouts, players are often defined by what they can’t do or what people think they are.
In fact, Penix has evolved into a man who is almost the opposite of what he looked like two years ago.
“Being there and being available for my teammates is definitely a big thing for me,” Penix said. athletic This week. “Something I have taken full advantage of. I had times when it was taken away from me. I feel very confident now. I’m surrounded by a group of people who will be there to support me and the rest of the team through tough times. I’m in a much better place and doing whatever I can to help my team win football games.”
Head coaches Kallen DeBoer and Penix reunited in Seattle after spending the 2019 season together in Bloomington, Ind. Photo: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY
Penix has not only been supported in Seattle, but he has also provided support to his teammates, many of whom have gone through their own challenges and coming off a disastrous 4-8 season in 2021, which led to head coach Kalen DeBoer Has arrived.
Sixth-year senior linebacker and leader of the defense Adefuan Ulofoshio relied on Penix as he recovered from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for the first half of the 2022 season.
“He really pushed me to improve my rehab and my work ethic and gave me confidence in when I can come back and be better than I was before the injury,” former walk-on Ulofocio said. , who was voted the team’s most inspirational player in 2023. “That rehab process is definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through. You can lose your mind over it because as an athlete, the one thing you value more than anything in the world is your body, and when you’re not even able to move your arm or leg for six weeks , then you are losing your idea. He saw me go through it. He helped me a lot.”
In Seattle, Penix was reunited with DeBoer, Indiana’s offensive coordinator in 2019.
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“I thought he just needed a fresh start,” DeBoer said. “I think he knew there were still people who believed in him, and I think he probably made all the doubters believe again, and that’s fun. He’s really one of those guys that if I were his age, I could see myself hanging out with him, as a teammate. He’s really loose, but there’s a switch that gets flipped when the pad is on – where you can tell it’s really important to him.
His parents aren’t able to attend every game, but they have met so many people who have come to tell them how their son has inspired them.
“I feel like it’s brought him closer to God, too,” Takisha Penix said. “I see a difference in how he looks at life now. To be able to experience all these emotions and then recover from it, it’s incredible. Not everyone can go through all these ups and downs emotionally and recover from it.
Michael Penix Sr. coached his son in football, basketball and baseball when he was growing up in the Tampa, Florida area. He taught his son discipline and preached determination, and to remember that everything happens for a reason.
“Injuries make people mentally stronger,” Michael Penix Sr. said. “Once you get that mental toughness and put it into athletic ability, it’s a mean combination. A lot of athletes when they get injuries like that, they don’t develop that mental toughness and it destroys them, but he overcame it. He was blessed.”
Penix did not win the Heisman. He finished second to LSU’s Jayden Daniels. But Penix made a deeper statement upon arriving at the show when he walked the red carpet and revealed the inside of his jacket. Lining up were the names of all his Washington teammates and coaches.
“I just wanted to express my gratitude to the people who helped me get to where I am,” he said. “All the things I’ve been through, the path I’ve taken, it wasn’t easy and I wouldn’t say I wanted it to be, but I think they’ve all shaped me into the person I am today.” am. I appreciate every moment I spend with my teammates and being able to go out there and play the game I love.”
(Photo illustration: Eamonn Dalton / athletic, Photos: James Black, Icon Sportswire via Getty Images,
Brandon Slaughter/Sports Image/Getty Images)
