Penix Bares His Soul On Adversity On Players Tribune

The former UW quarterback talked about adversity with a new disclosure.

Three days before the NFL Draft unfolds, former University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. stood in the pocket with people still trying to get at him from all directions and he was as cool as ever under fire.

Only this was a personal pocket of sorts for him rather than one with all sorts of humanity grunting and reaching and trying to knock him down. This was an opportunity for Penix to bare his soul and offer some last-minute draft thoughts if not a plea for people to get beyond the real or imagined drawbacks that continue to follow him.

On Monday, Penix told an updated version of his story to the Players Tribune, a media platform for athletes owned by Minute Media, which, in full disclosure here, owns the publishing rights to Sports Illustrated's magazine and the SI network of websites, including this one.

As NFL teams are trying to determine where the quarterback should be drafted -- and ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting the one-time Husky standout could go as high as No. 8 to the Atlanta Falcons -- Penix talked in more detail about the football adversity that's been in his world and extends well beyond his four season-ending injuries at Indiana, his prior stop to the UW.

Penix revealed for the first time how Tennessee coldly pulled its scholarship offer to him at the last minute when he was a high school senior iat Tampa Bay Tech in Tampa, Florida.

"Two weeks before signing day I was told by the team I was committed to for two years that I no longer had a scholarship," he shared with the Players Tribune. "They didn’t think I was good enough to play in the SEC."

Penix went on to say how he followed Nick Sheridan to Indiana. Sheridan, later the UW tight-ends coach for Kalen DeBoer and now the co-offensive coordinator for DeBoer at Alabama, went from Tennessee to the Big Ten school never wavering in his regard for the quarterback.

"I decided to go to Indiana because Nick Sheridan was the QB coach, and he believed in me from the time he offered me at Tennessee to when he took his position at Indiana," he said. "IU had 10 straight losing seasons when I got to Bloomington, one winning season since 1994. I knew what I was walking into, but I felt I could help turn the program around."

Penix touched again on transferring to the UW, where he reunited with DeBoer and Sheridan, who both had been with him at Indiana.

"Washington was coming off a 4–8 season, [the]108th-ranked offense in the country," he wrote. "Morale was low, frustrations were high, but one thing I saw then, which everyone found out later, was the potential that building had. They needed someone to elevate the situation."

Penix next thanked many of the people he shared football success with at the UW, rattling off names as if he were giving a long-winded Oscars acceptance speech. He listed those aforementioned coaches plus offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. He referenced teammates who are embarking on pro careers, same as him.

"I look at the guys on the team that I talked into staying at Washington, who trusted that I was going to elevate them. Now seeing Troy Fautanu, Roger Rosengarten, Ja’Lynn Polk, Jack Westover, Rome Odunze, Devin Culp, Jalen McMillan, and Dillon Johnson all on the cusp of realizing their dream. ... That is what brings me joy.," he wrote. "As a QB, my job is to be an elevator. I need to uplift all those around me so that they too can be at their best. So just know if you put that same belief in me, history shows I hold up my end of the bargain."

In closing, Penix's story turned extra poetic. In choosing the finishing words, he either found creativity like he would have Odunze or McMillan on a deep route or he had the good fortune of working with an exceptional ghost writer. Either way, the message scored big.

"So I have no problem taking all the MRI’s and X-rays you ask of me," the quarterback wrote. "Truth is, it’s an EKG that will tell you everything you need to know about me."

If you weren't drafting Penix before reading that story, you are now.

Editor's note: To view his complete story on the Players Tribune, go to the following link:

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/michael-penix-jr-nfl-draft-ncaa-football-university-of-washington

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington