Inside The Huskies

Penix Pronounces His Throwing Arm at 100 Percent

The Husky quarterback reiterates that his passing shutdown was precautionary.
Dan Raley|
Penix Pronounces His Throwing Arm at 100 Percent
Penix Pronounces His Throwing Arm at 100 Percent

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Washington Huskies

With all of the nonstop hearty handshakes received from well-meaning fans, charity events used for lobbing passes to people running here and there, and even throwing out a Mariners' first pitch, it's a wonder Michael Penix Jr. didn't experience a little arm weariness well before fall camp opened.

On Wednesday, the left-handed University of Washington quarterback, serious Heisman Trophy candidate and potential NFL first-rounder pronounced himself fully recovered from his earlier week off because of arm discomfort.

"I'm 100 percent," Penix said, standing in brilliant sunshine following practice. "Nothing wrong. You see me now doing everything I was doing before."

The sixth-year senior from Tampa, Florida, and former Indiana transfer admitted he felt soreness in his left arm while doing a lot of weight-lifting combined with excessive throwing once fall football practice began.

Penix ended up not firing passes in practice scrimmage plays for the good part of a week, turning over the first-team snaps to junior Dylan Morris, the Huskies' starting quarterback in 2020 and 2021.

"Just a little bit of soreness," he reiterated. "Nothing that's hurting nobody."

Penix, if you didn't know by now, is a fairly resilient college football player, bouncing back from four consecutive season-ending injuries while with his Big Ten team. 

At the UW for 13 games and 20 months now, he's been the picture of good health, though he had to leave last season's Arizona State game for a play after having trouble getting a breath after being sandwiched by a pair of overzealous pass rushers. 

One of his Husky quarterback predecessors, Jake Browning, reportedly had a similar issue when he played in 2015-18, coming into fall camp after throwing hundreds of passes that summer and momentarily suffering from a dead arm. 

Penix seemed to shrug at that story and indicated his situation was just precautionary.

"I'm just making sure my arm stayed fresh for whenever the season comes," he said.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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