Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. had the chance to enter the 2023 NFL Draft and could have worked his way into the first round with his exceptional arm strength. Instead, he elected to return to the Huskies for one final season to achieve the goals both he and the team had — but fell short of — last season.
With key components of last season’s prolific offense in place, Penix and Co. give the Huskies a major boost with sky-high expectations following an 11-win season in 2022 — the program’s first since 2016. In addition to Penix, Washington returns its leading two wide receivers in Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, both of whom had more than 1,000 yards receiving in 2022.
“We wanted to win the Pac-12, and we had a lot more goals we wanted to accomplish that we didn’t accomplish,” Penix said at Pac-12 Media Day on Friday. “Eleven wins was a big season, a great season. We won our bowl game, which was amazing, but we are shooting for more.
“At the beginning of the [2022] season, we all stated our goals for the team and we didn’t make all of our goals,” Penix continued. “That’s one of the reasons why I came back. Just another opportunity to achieve the goals that we had.”
Though Washington fell shy of reaching the Pac-12 Championship Game — the Huskies were part of a three-way tie with Utah and Oregon at the end of the regular season — Penix had one of the most productive seasons of any quarterback in the country, throwing for 4,641 yards with 31 touchdowns to only eight interceptions. That breakout effort came after a fascinating, albeit injury-riddled career at Indiana when Washington coach Kalen DeBoer was the Hoosiers’ offensive coordinator. A pair of ACL tears in 2018 and 2020, a sternoclavicular injury in 2019, and a shoulder injury 2021 that forced him to miss the final seven games of the season all contributed to a snake-bitten career.
Penix never played more than six games in a season during his career at Indiana, but the adversity he faced there helped transform him into the leader — and now Heisman Trophy contender — he is today for the Huskies entering the 2023 season.
“Thankful we have a leader like Mike who thinks that way,” DeBoer said. “We are always building. We are building leaders, building our program each and every day.”
The Huskies opens up the season at home against Boise State on Sept. 2.
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