How and Why Penix Came to the UW to Play Quarterback for DeBoer

NEW ORLEANS — Michael Penix Jr. always seems so comfortable in his surroundings, but even more so on this college football postseason trip to the South, which is home for him.

Down here, more people than not talk like this Florida native when they offer up that melodic yet lazy little drawl, a dialect that is germane to about a 10-state region.

Yet none of those Southerners have quite the story to tell as Penix, who felt mostly pain as a University of Indiana quarterback when he suffered four season-ending injuries, but has never been healthier since transferring to Washington 24 months ago and sharing in seasons that want to go on forever.

Leading up to Monday's CFP semifinal game matching the UW (13-0) and Texas (12-1) in the Sugar Bowl inside the Superdome, Penix was asked once more to recite his Kalen DeBoer connection and how it brought him to Seattle and turned him into one of the college game's greatest players.

Each time he returns to this pivotal moment, everyone else seems to pick up on a new detail, a new revelation, something that adds to an endearing story.

"I just feel like, for me, I was trying to find a new home," Penix said on Thursday, seated in a hotel ballroom turned interview headquarters. "I wanted to just get a fresh start. That was my biggest reason, just trying to find myself and myself as a person and a player. When I was in the portal, Coach DeBoer, he was always somebody that as soon as I hit the portal, I'm like, 'Where is he going? Where is he at at that time?' "

Penix would find out soon enough when DeBoer, his reassuring and confidence-boosting Indiana offensive coordinator for the 2019 season only, called him with an offer for them to reunite at the UW.

Incredibly, the University Central Florida in Orlando, located not far from the quarterback's Tampa home, was the only other school to reach out to him. The Huskies had no competition for his services, but even if they did it wouldn't have mattered.

"Because our relationship that we built in 2019 at Indiana, and how comfortable he allowed me to feel when I'm back there taking the snaps, I knew I wanted to be part of something like that again," Penix said. "He was definitely something I was looking out for. So when I heard about him getting a job at University of Washington, it was definitely something I was staying on the lookout for.

"Once I got that call from him, it was really almost a wrap, really."

DeBoer was a like a Hollywood director, casting for the lead role in what he envisioned would be a block-buster film, and it all came true.

Promising when hired that his football program would always be quarterback-driven, DeBoer came up with a player who has helped the Huskies win 24 of 26 games, thrown for 8,859 yards and 64 touchdowns in those two seasons and finished second and eighth in a pair of Heisman Trophy ballots.

The coach and the left-handed QB simply have that longstanding and unbending chemistry that's hard to top.

"I just feel that we've always had that trust and that belief in one another since our time at Indiana," Penix said. "Even though it was short, I feel like we built a great relationship through that time. So I feel like I knew what I was getting. And he had a feeling what he knew was getting with me, as well. The biggest thing was just making sure it was a good fit for myself — and it definitely was, obviously, as you can see."

Of the four starting quarterbacks in the CFP, Penix is the one to fear the most because opposing defenses never know when he's going to go off on them. And when that happens, they haven't been able to stop him. Not USC. Not Michigan State twice. Not Oregon three times. Not Texas last December.

While enjoying huge UW success, Penix still hasn't convinced everyone he should be a first-round NFL draft pick, which surely must motivate him to beat everyone he plays and put up crushing numbers. He's been absent from most mock drafts.

With the news of Russell Wilson's benching by Denver, speculation immediately surfaced that the Broncos should consider drafting Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels, practically everyone among the elite college QB names except Penix.

DeBoer acknowledges the talent level for his Husky quarterback still tends to be overlooked outside of the confines of Montlake.

"He just gives himself up because he understands how impactful he can be," the UW coach said. "We understand that locally; I don't know if everyone understands that across the country. He just has that heart of gold. He's been through so much and I think all of those experiences have given him an appreciation for the moment he's in."

For now, as they prepare for a Longhorns postseason rematch, Penix and DeBoer have each other. It's a combination that has brought an unprecedented 24 months of Husky success, at least in the beginning of a coaching era.

They have just one or two games left as Husky quarterback and coach, trusting in each other, plotting for ways to make the Longhorns panic on a big stage, reaping big rewards.

Yet no matter what happens against Texas, Penix's stated comfort levels should bode well for restocking the UW quarterback position in the seasons ahead, beginning with Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers, 17-year-old freshman phenom Austin Mack and promising signee Dermaricus "MarMar" Davis.

Who wouldn't want to have what the current Husky starter has?

"I just fell in love with the play-calling," Penix said. "Every time I got the ball in my hands, I always felt like I had the opportunity to do something great with it."

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published. Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3

Have a question, direct message me on Facebook or Twitter.