SEATTLE — Given the stakes and the stage, Michael Penix Jr.’s masterful display in the Washington Huskies’ 37-31 College Football Playoff victory over Texas in the Sugar Bowl might rank as the No. 1 individual performance in school history.
Washington has a proud lineage of quarterbacks, and what Penix did against Texas – completing 29 of 38 passes for 430 yards and two touchdowns, lifting the Huskies into the national championship game against Michigan – puts him, at the very least, right in line with the best performances from the best quarterbacks the Huskies have had.
Beyond the context of how Penix stacks up in program history, his performance Monday puts him in rare air in recent college football history.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a college kid throw the ball better in a game than what I saw from Penix,” ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said Tuesday. “It was just perfect throw after perfect throw.”
Penix, the Heisman runner-up, was so good against Texas that he had many rethinking their initial impressions of UW’s left-handed QB. That included some NFL talent evaluators, one of whom said he could see Penix emerge as a top-10 prospect entering the NFL draft in April.
“I have him high on my board. Very high,” one AFC scout told The Seattle Times.
Longtime NFL executive Randy Mueller agreed.
“He is much more polished than people realized,” Mueller said in an interview this week. “He’s asked to do a lot in that offense – all the shifts and motions and protections. And all that stuff he’s going to have to do in the NFL, so it’s good stuff for scouts to see.”
Penix’s mobility and pocket presence also stood out Monday. Playing against a Texas defensive line billed as perhaps the best in college football, Penix was barely touched – no sacks and no QB hits. That, to be sure, is a credit to UW’s decorated offensive line but also to Penix’s awareness and feel for when to move in and out of the pocket.
One NFC scout noted the one significant hesitant all NFL teams will likely have about Penix: his well-documented injury history. At Indiana, Penix had three season-ending injuries, and Mueller expects that means Penix will go through a rigorous series of medical evaluations in the buildup to the NFL draft – as rigorous as anyone has experienced.
Fair or not, that Penix is left-handed also makes his evaluation a little more difficult. Historically, there just haven’t been many left-handed QBs in the NFL – and even fewer productive left-handed QBs in the NFL – and that is a small hurdle Penix must overcome too, Mueller said.
Ultimately, though, Mueller said Penix might be the most NFL-ready QB of anyone in this draft class.
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