Why Penix Should or Shouldn't Start at UW Quarterback

Michael Penix Jr. is a most unusual University of Washington quarterback.

He's a left-hander, of course, of which there have been just four others in Husky football history. He joins Sam Huard, his redshirt freshman teammate; Sam's uncle Brock Huard, who played and started in 1996-98; Mark Brunell, the 1991 Rose Bowl MVP; and Sandy Lederman, the nation's leading passer in 1953.

Penix also is a noted dual-threat QB, of which there have been a handful who have played at a high level at the UW. Others are Warren Moon, named the 1977 Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and the 1978 Rose Bowl MVP; Brunell, who turned in a 444-yard, 10-TD rushing season as a sophomore in 1990; Marques Tuiasosopo, who had a 302-yard passing and 207-yard rushing game against Stanford in 2001; and Jake Locker, who rushed for 986 yards and 13 TDs as a redshirt freshman in 2007 before becoming an NFL first-round pick (8th overall in 2011).

Coming from Indiana, Penix also is an FBS or FCS quarterback transfer, of which there have been just a few who have come to Montlake. The recent arrivals include Jacob Eason from Georgia in 2018, Kevin Thomson from Sacramento State in 2020 and Patrick O'Brien from Colorado State last season.

The Huskies, of course, have turned some junior-college transfers into fairly productive starting quarterbacks in Bob Hivner from Compton College, who led the Huskies to the 1961 Rose Bowl; Moon from West Los Angeles College; Tom Porras from Ventura College, who became a CFL player; and Hugh Millen from Santa Rosa Junior College, who led the UW to a 1985 Orange Bowl win.

With new UW coach Kalen DeBoer revealing his starting quarterback next week, this is the final profile of the three candidates involved in the position battle, listing each player's pros and cons.

Penix comes to Seattle after playing four seasons in the Big Ten and enjoying considerable yet injury-limited success, and he has two seasons of eligibility remaining to make good in the Pac-12.

3 reasons Penix should be the UW starter

1) Think of him as a poor man's Michael Vick. Clutch. Clever. Crafty. Typical of how this guy can use his feet, Penix in 2020 scored on a short, game-tying run against Penn State with 22 seconds left to force overtime, then threw a touchdown pass and scored on a 2-point conversion scamper to pull out a 36-35 victory over the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions.

2) He can be so magical at times, Penix completed 20 consecutive passes without a miss against Michigan State in 2019 and finished with a 33-for-42, 286-yard, 3-TD outing in a 40-31 defeat in East Lansing. The Spartans secondary had no answer.

3) At Ohio State in 2020, Penix completed passes of 68, 63, 56, 51 and 33 yards in a 42-35 defeat, finishing with a 27-for-51, 491-yard, 5-TD outing through the air. The Buckeyes could not stop him.

3 reasons Penix might not start

1) Yes, it's been well-documented that he's been injury-prone. In four seasons at Indiana, he played in just 3, 6, 6 and 5 games, suffering season-ending knee or shoulder injuries each year. He missed both of the Hoosiers bowl games in that time, the Gator and the Outback. He could use better luck in Seattle.

2) Penix has appeared in just five games in November in his college career, with four coming in 2020 but only because the pandemic delayed the start of that Hoosiers season until late October. Injuries largely have prevented him from playing the second half of his seasons.

3) If it fills up to 70,000-plus, Husky Stadium might prove a little distracting to him. In his 20 Indiana appearances, Penix played before an average crowd of 26,355, home and away. The Hoosiers typically drew fewer than 40,000 during normal times and the pandemic kept all Big Ten stadiums empty in 2020 when he really flourished. So he plays well in silence. Penix dealt with his largest crowd in his final game for Indiana, facing 105,951 at Penn State last season but he got hurt and the Hoosiers lost 24-0.

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