HOUSTON — Washington’s national title hopes were already gone when Michael Penix Jr.’s final pass fell harmlessly to the NRG Stadium turf Monday night. As he clutched his abdomen and limped to the bench one last time, it would have been fair to wonder if he should have still been there with the Huskies trailing by 21 points.
One play earlier, Penix absorbed a big shot and was slow to get up, but the thought of not seeing his last college game never crossed his mind.
“[I’m] better than three years ago,” Penix said. “I’m happy I was able to finish it with the guys. “I knew I didn’t want to be taken out of that game because I’d been through it too much.”
There, on the bench to greet him, was Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, the man who coached him for one season in Indiana in 2019 and brought him to Seattle two years ago after four straight seasons ended due to injury. They shared a quick hug before Penix continued toward the medical tent, where he remained as Michigan’s JJ McCarthy knelt to witness Michigan’s 34-13 victory.
Outside the tent, several of Penix’s teammates gathered, waiting for their leader to emerge. When he did, shortly after the game ended, gold confetti fell from the rafters. Struggling to contain his emotions, Penix shared hugs with his teammates before heading to the locker room. DeBoer has spoken at length this season about the strong bond he shares with Penix, and in their brief interaction on the sideline, DeBoer said, he conveyed that to her once again.
“I just asked him if he was okay, because obviously he took a few hits,” DeBoer said. “Making sure she was okay. And it was a brief time we spent together there. [on the sideline]. I just wanted to make sure he knew how I felt about him.
“This guy came here and the trust he put in me to put people around him, whether it was offensive staff, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, other players, and he moved all over the country. I just can’t tell you what “It means a lot to me to have that trust from someone like Michael because this was his last chance.”
Penix dismissed the idea that something serious was happening to him.
“I’m not healthy, but I’ll be there. I’m fine,” he said. “…I talked to the doctors and stuff like that. It’s nothing important. If I had to play tomorrow, I would play.”
In two seasons together in Seattle, DeBoer and Penix combined to go 25-3. It was the kind of execution that probably exceeded any of your honest expectations when Penix arrived in January 2023, but at the same time ended in real disappointment.
Being so close to a national title and coming up short is not the kind of loss that can be easily absorbed.
“When you see that players care so much about what happens on the football field, when you see that they love each other, when you see that they have expectations and when you don’t deliver like we did tonight, I’m just… sorry.” . DeBoer said. “I’m sorry they couldn’t win the championship this year.”
A national title had been the goal for more than a year. When Penix decided to return to school in early December 2022, persecution was a big part of the calculation. Star receiver Rome Odunze has repeatedly stated since committing that he believed the Huskies could win the school’s first title since 1991.
It is something that the coaching staff had also adopted.
Just before training camp began, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who has coached with DeBoer since his days at NAIA Sioux Falls a decade and a half ago, had lunch with former UW coach Chris Petersen, who has become mentor for the last two seasons. Grubb shared with Petersen the message he planned to share with his team as camp began: 161 days to Houston.
Grubb’s thinking was that a Pac-12 title was likely, so why not go for what was possible?
Petersen was conflicted. He conveyed his concern for setting a goal that could disappear with a single defeat. Why not focus on the conference?
“He told me, ‘I don’t know, you lose one and you can still win the Pac,'” Grubb said. “But I was definitive. I said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ And he said, ‘Hey, you might be right.'”
In the first offensive meeting during camp, Grubb shared a slide that started the countdown to Houston. And each week throughout the season the number went down, culminating in a final meeting in Seattle after beating Texas in the Sugar Bowl: 6 Days Until Houston.
“I remember he said he was struggling to show or not [the countdown slide]”said UW tight end Jack Westover. “He told us how heavy it was on his heart to let us know that he believed in us and the vision he had for this team.”
Said Grubb: “When you raise the bar here, they’ll raise the bar higher. They’ll just do it. That’s exactly what they did.”
The Huskies’ trip to Houston didn’t end the way they wanted, but their accomplishments still stack up well historically from both a program and conference perspective. Washington is the only team in the Pac-12 era (2011-2023) to go undefeated during the regular season and the second team to reach the College Football Playoff National Championship game (Oregon, 2014).
“I think you can look at it in terms of where you came from and obviously we want to win the national championship, not just be in the national championship,” Grubb said. “At the same time, I think just look at what we were able to accomplish and that we played a lot of good teams other than Michigan and we played well. So, I think there’s something that guys can recognize.”
For Odunze, the game was more than just a chance to secure the team’s place in program history. He understood there was an unusual legacy at play, with the Huskies last representing the Pac-12 after the conference’s collapse five months ago.
“I think it’s sad for me, it’s sad in a way just because the Pac-12, that West Coast football, West Coast teams playing West Coast teams like that, is not going to be as frequently,” Odunze said. “But all the teams are still out there. All the teams will still be playing football games. So those fan bases will still be able to enjoy those different aspects and enjoy their teams on the West Coast.
“But it’s sad and that was part of the reason we went out today, one of our motivations for bringing him home for the first time.” [Pac-12] and for the West Coast.”
With Oregon State and Washington State being the only two teams left in the Pac-12, the Conference of Champions’ two-decade football national title drought will likely extend into perpetuity.
Washington, which won its first conference football title in 1916 as part of the Pacific Coast Conference, will move to the Big Ten next season. The Huskies won’t have to wait long for another chance at Michigan, as the Wolverines head to Seattle for their third conference game on October 5.
With Penix in the NFL, there will be a changing of the guard, but with DeBoer, there is a sense that the Huskies are just getting started.
