Familiar foe Penix Jr. stands between Michigan, title
LOS ANGELES – Inside a boisterous locker room Monday night at the Rose Bowl, Michael Barrett surveyed the scene in front of him and reflected on how Michigan football arrived at this joyous moment, where the Wolverines were now one victory from winning a national title.
Perhaps no player in these fetid, testosterone-charged quarters could truly appreciate what it took to get here more than the sixth-year linebacker.
“It’s so sweet, man,” he said, shaking his head slightly as if he almost couldn’t believe it. “Just being able to see the ups and downs of the program and coming from that 2020 season, having been a part of that, and just the 180 that the program did.”
It was truly remarkable, as Barrett noted. On the final play of Michigan’s 27-20 overtime conquest of Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinal, Barrett set the edge, forcing Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe toward the teeth of the Wolverines defense. He then watched his teammates drag Milroe down 2 yards short of the goal line, marking the end of a thrilling triumph that would go down as one of the most memorable in Michigan football’s 144 years of existence.
Only four years before, Barrett stood on the other side of history, feeling the pangs of heartache.
Inside a near-empty Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, he started and played 88 snaps during a disastrous 17point defeat to Indiana, the first loss the Wolverines had suffered against the Hoosiers since 1987. It was arguably the lowest point of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure and indubitably the nadir of his worst season since returning to Ann Arbor as coach. The player who sent him to the darkest depths that afternoon in November 2020 was the same sensational quarterback Michigan will face again Monday night: Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
“I don’t remember much,” Penix said Wednesday, when asked about that unusual game. “I just remember winning.”
But Penix did more than that, truth be told. His sensational performance, which was highlighted by 342 yards through the air and three passing touchdowns, may have inspired Michigan’s decision to dump its man-heavy defensive system under former coordinator Don Brown and install the flexible, multi-front scheme that has been at the root of its 39-3 run over the past three seasons.
“I hadn’t thought it about that way,” said Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, the former Indiana play-caller who helped develop the offense that Penix operated with precision versus Michigan. “But yeah, you constantly have to adjust to the people that cause you the most problems.”
Call it the Penix Effect.
The former three-star recruit, who received only six Power Five offers out of high school, has made an incredible impact that has reverberated across the country during his six-year college career. During that bizarre season in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic raged, he willed Indiana to its first top-10 ranking since 1969 – a feat that seems even more improbable now that the Hoosiers have returned to the bottom of the Big Ten. Indiana’s inevitable backslide toward mediocrity prompted Penix to seek a fresh start in December 2021.
So, after DeBoer was hired at Washington, he followed him there and sparked a rebirth in Seattle.
A program that lost twice as many games as it won the season before their arrivals is now undefeated and playing for a national title two years later – thanks in large part to Penix. As soon as he set foot on campus, Penix revived a slumping Huskies attack that averaged 21.5 points per game, was ranked 107th in the Football Bowl Subdivision and didn’t score for the first 39 minutes of an ugly 31-10 loss at Michigan in 2021. With his quick release, pinpoint accuracy and mastery of DeBoer’s supercharged system, Penix turned Washington into a juggernaut.
The Huskies have averaged 37.6 points in their 14 wins and Penix, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, leads the country with 332 passing yards per game. During their 37-31 conquest of Texas in the semifinal round, Penix flambéed the Longhorns, completing 76.3% of his pass attempts while accounting for 461 yards and two touchdowns.
“It all starts with him,” Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham said. “He is the one that makes their offense go.”
Harbaugh agreed, calling Penix a “super great player.”
“Big-time arm talent, tremendous presence in the pocket, sees the field really well. He is so polished.”
DeBoer said Penix’s advanced skill set is what, in his eyes, “makes him the best player in the country.”
If he isn’t that, he is certainly the most influential.
After all, he helped change the course of the two programs he joined and may have also sparked the reckoning that led to the rebirth of his next opponent. If not for 2020, if not for Penix wrecking the Wolverines four years ago in Bloomington, Michigan may not have made it to the point where Barrett could savor everything the Wolverines had overcome to make it to this final stage.
“To be here and be a part of the turning point of the program,” Barrett said, “it’s so sweet. ... But we’ve got one more game, man.”
It will be against Penix, a familiar foe who will command the Wolverines’ full attention after what he did in a different jersey, at a different time, when none of this seemed possible for either Michigan or Washington. That’s a testament to the Penix Effect. It’s both real and powerful.