UW Huskies’ Michael Penix Jr. keeping it humble at Pac-12 Media Day

By W.G. RAMIREZ
LAS VEGAS — It would be very easy for Washington senior quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to be on edge heading into camp.
Last year at this time, he hadn’t been named a starter. Then he finished the season as the nation’s leader in passing yards per game (357.0).
Tuesday, the 2022 AP Comeback Player of the Year was named the Pac-12’s second-team quarterback behind USC’s Caleb Williams. Two days later, his Huskies were picked to finish second in the conference, again behind the Trojans.
But rather than wearing that proverbial chip on his shoulder during Friday’s Pac-12 Media Day, Penix wore humility.
“It’s not about what other people expect us to do and what other people feel,” Penix said. “We keep it inside the walls, and we don’t let ourselves get too high or we don’t get too low. We’re just doing everything that we can to win football games. As far as expectations, we expect ourselves to do better than we did last year. As far as other people’s expectations, we can’t control that. We just have to control what we can control.
“I just go out there and just play my best football. And that’s all it’s about.”
Knowing how good the quarterback pool is throughout the conference, Penix also refused to get caught up in any sort of personal competition between him and Williams.
“It’s just us versus us, Washington versus Washington,” said Penix, who finished second in the nation with 4,641 yards passing, establishing a UW single-season record. “It doesn’t matter about nobody else. Whatever hype or anything, we just have to go do what we come to do and that’s just all it’s about for me.”
Penix’s maturation process has been his main focus during the offseason, knowing it’ll help his leadership abilities while allowing his team to feed off him and share in the program’s growth.
It’s part of the reason he served as a counselor at the Elite 11 camp and Manning Passing Academy this summer.
Mentoring young quarterbacks not only helped his growth as a player but also gave him an opportunity to understand the game by seeing it through a coach’s eyes. That includes holding his teammates accountable, and vice versa, calling each other out when “they’re not showing championship habits or effort.”
“To be able to see the things that they did with all those great coaches in one area, at the quarterback position, it was definitely a special time,” Penix said. “Being with the Mannings and guys with low egos and guys that want to help others be great, it’s definitely something big and I was glad to be a part of, that perspective of being somebody that’s helping others.
“I feel like it just opened my eyes to just how impactful my voice is. I didn’t realize how powerful my voice was until you go out there with thousands of kids and they’re all calling you coach. You’re running drills and they’re doing everything the best they can. It was definitely a pleasing sight.”
Next up is providing leadership to a team he and coach Kalen DeBoer believe has the wherewithal to challenge for the Pac-12 championship.
For DeBoer, it circles back to Penix’s humility and humble approach as a leader.
“That’s the way I feel our whole team is with their mindset,” DeBoer said. “Thankful we have a leader like Mike, who thinks that way, who knows that he’s not there yet. We’re building leaders, building our program each and every day. A growth mindset is what we talk about often. I think the number one character trait with that is humility. Mike certainly has that humility. We understand the conference, how strong it is. It’s awesome. It’s great for the Pac-12, for us to be a part of the conference. We know every single weekend we got our hands full. I feel like there’s no team that we can’t beat, but there’s no team that can’t beat us either.”
For Penix, he’s well aware of the potential for the Huskies’ offense this season, now that many of the key components are entering their second year with the program.
“That was everybody’s first year in that offense, except for me,” he said. “They were comfortable in the offense, but they can obviously become more comfortable and continue to grow in that standpoint. Our connection is much more accurate and better.”
Year of the QB
DeBoer knows he’s not the only Pac-12 coach with one of the nation’s best quarterbacks, as there are many saying the conference has the best class of signal-callers in the nation. Both coaches from last year’s Pac-12 championship game weighed in on the league as a whole.
“Yeah, it is the conference of quarterbacks without a doubt,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Just for an example, our guy, Cam Rising, who led us to the last two Pac-12 championships, is not even honorable mention, which is crazy to me. That speaks to the level of quarterbacks we have in the league. No disrespect to the guys that are the preseason guys, because they’re very deserving having played exceptional football. I think the only time that really compares to where the league is right now is when we first got in the league, it was Marcus Mariota (Oregon), USC was (Matt) Barkley. There were some really good quarterbacks when we first entered. I think … this is probably the strongest group that we’ve ever had as a whole.”
USC coach Lincoln Riley had a different take.
“Is all the quarterbacks coming back a big deal? Of course it is,” Riley said. “It’s an important position, but there are still another 21 guys on the field that are going to have some say in it, too. It’s a great starting point for a lot of these teams and it does give you absolute advantages. But even when starting all these quarterbacks, all of these guys kind of have a supporting cast, and a lot of these guys are going have different players around them, in some cases different coaches and all different systems. So, there will be new challenges for quarterbacks.”
Defensive honors
The Huskies had three defenders named to the preseason all-conference team, with lineman Bralen Trice named to the first team, and lineman Zion Tupuola-Fetui and defensive back Jabbar Muhammad named to the second team. UW linebacker Edefuan Olofoshio was also in attendance Friday and spoke about the Huskies defense having to face the conference’s quarterback pool.
“One of our key values on defense is creating havoc and causing turnovers,” Olofoshio said. “We have a lot of talent with ZTF, Bralen. We have a very fast DB group. … The major thing is when a new scheme comes, new team comes, it takes time to learn defense. It takes time to really mesh and gel. I think we did a fantastic job for a first-year defense in terms of creating turnovers, getting the ball back to Mike and letting him do his thing. Another year of us learning, developing, this year is all about understanding, we’re only going to be a lot better. I’m super excited about what we’re about to showcase in the next couple of weeks.”