From Florida To Bloomington, Part 2 — The Quarterback

Michael Penix Jr. was heavily recruited out of Florida, and he was a huge get for Tom Allen and his Indiana coaching staff. Now he's the starting quarterback.

RIVERVIEW, Fla. — Michael Penix Jr., wasn’t born with a football in his left hand, but he might as well have been. Football was in his future, to be sure. He’s been surrounded by the game since the beginning.

“His very first steps as a baby, they were actually in the end zone,’’ his father, Michael Penix, Sr., said from his living room couch in the family home in Riverview, Fla., an eastern suburb of Tampa. “His first steps were right out there on the football field, right there in the end zone with me. How’s that for a start?’’

Penix has been finding the end zone ever since. He was a prodigy as a kid, a coach’s son who could throw and run like no one had ever seen. Later he was a high school sensation, the best player in the metro Tampa area that produces dozens of Division I athletes every year.

And now he’s a redshirt freshman at Indiana, poised to soon be the Hoosiers’ starting quarterback and fulfill a legacy that he’s dreamed about as a kid. He’s always played big, and dreamed big. Don’t let his quiet and calm demeanor fool you. Don’t let that shyness hide anything.

He’s confident that he’s going to be great.

Others are confident, too.

“He’s going to do great things at Indiana,’’ said Jayson Roberts, his high school coach at Tampa Bay Tech, where Penix threw 61 touchdown passes and only six interceptions in his two years as a starter. “He was the best high school quarterback I’ve ever seen in my life. I expect him to be great, be a Heisman (Trophy) finalist and be a first-round draft pick. That’s how good I think he is.’’

Penix got just a tiny taste of college football last year, and was injured in his third game, tearing his ACL against Penn State and missing the rest of the season. He was named the Hoosiers' starting quarterback Monday morning, beating out incumbent Peyton Ramsey and Jack Tuttle for the starting spot., He will make his first college start on Saturday when Indiana opens the season in Indianapolis against Ball State.

He is Indiana’s future. And he could very well be coach Tom Allen’s most important recruit as he taps into Florida for a bevy of talent. Penix is one of 25 guys from Florida on Indiana’s roster, a pipeline that’s been critical in raising the level of talent in Bloomington.

And how he got to Indiana has been one heck of a journey.

Takisha and Michael Penix Sr. have been major influences on their son's life, and were actively involved in his football career from a young age

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Showing flashes of talent as a youngster

Michael grew up around football with his dad while he coached at Pasco High School in Dade City, a bit north of Tampa. Senior had starred as a running back there and then played collegiately at Tennessee Tech. After college he came home to coach, and “Little Mike’’ was always with him, watching film with his dad, watching practice, hang out with the players and learning along the way.

“He was there when he was 2 years old, and he was throwing the football around and playing when he was 5 or 6,’’ his dad said. “He could always throw it.’’

And he always wanted to the quarterback.

“His first year playing as a little kid, he had to play running back because the coach’s kid was the quarterback,’’ said his mother, Takisha Penix, a senior project manager for Lockheed Martin. “He didn’t like that at all, he always fought for the starting quarterback spot. That’s always what he wanted.’’

His dad, a counselor and supervisor for troubled children at AMIKids, started coaching him as he got older, but admits “he got no quarterback skills from me. I’m probably the worst quarterback ever. I was a running back.’’

But even by middle school, Michael was a natural at quarterback. He was well organized and made sure his teammates always were in the right place and doing the right things. Leadership came easy to him. He fit the role perfectly.

He also learned to play the position right away. He was all about staying the pocket and finding his receivers. He wasn’t a runner playing quarterback. He was a real quarterback, by God.

“When he was at a young age, most kids like that, they’d run whenever they felt pressure. Not Mike,'' his dad said. "He would to sit back there and throw. Even today, he hates being labeled as a dual-threat quarterback. He always says, ‘I’d rather throw.’ And even now, if he starts to take off to run, he still has his eyes up. He’d still want to throw it.’’

And he always has total control of the situation.

“Since he was 9 or 10, he was a leader. I’ve always been very proud of him for how he leads,’’ his dad said. “The way he leads, he never tries to embarrass anybody. If he sees you doing something wrong, he’ll take you to the side and tell you.

“I coached him in middle school, and I asked one of the kids how little Michael was in the huddle. He said, ‘Michael’s mean as hell in the huddle.’ I’m like, ‘what?’ No way.’ You never knew that he’d get after them in little spots like that. In the circle, he’d tell them, but he’d never say it in public. He used to tell his linemen, ‘just give me time to set my feet. That’s all I need.’ But he would never say that in public. He never wants to embarrass anybody.''

When he got to high school at Pasco, circumstances were in play against him. It was hard for Dad, a proud alum and school football hero.

“I love Pasco, but it was almost like a slap in the face to us,’’ he said. “When Michael came in as a freshman, the offensive coordinator’s kid was the quarterback and he played, and they ran a spread offense and threw the ball all over the place. Then when Little Mike is a sophomore, the coordinator switches to a Wing-T offense and that didn’t help Michael any. I know a lot of parents get upset about playing time for their kid, but this was obvious. This wasn’t going to be a good situation for him.

“I grew up there, played at Pasco, coached at Pasco,’’ Michael Penix Sr., said. “But it was time for us to get up out of there.’’

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Quickly turning into a high school legend

The family talked about options, and private quarterback coaches John Kaleo, Chip Bennett and Robert Marve were helpful, too.

One of their first calls went to Jayson Roberts at Tampa Bay Technical High School. He’s a well-known — and well respected — high school coach, and he had a pretty good team that went to the third round of the playoffs a year earlier.

“Mike's quarterback coach is a good friend of mine, and he asked me, ‘Are you looking for a quarterback?’ " Roberts said last week during an interview in Tampa. “I told him we had a guy, he’s good enough, probably not a next-level guy, but good enough. He told me they were looking to move to Hillsborough County and knew we didn’t have to worry about where he lived, with how our (technical) school works.’’

Penix liked the fit and transferred to Tech in January so he could go through spring practice. He turned heads immediately.

“He started out third-string with us. That’s what we do, and you have to earn things here,’’ he said. “It took about a week for our starting quarterback at the time to come to us and say, “Hey Coach, I’m cool with playing receiver. I want us to win and that guy gives us the best chance to win.’’

Just like that, Penix was the starting quarterback. He scored six touchdowns in his first game (three passing, three rushing) and threw 22 touchdown passes before he threw his first interception, “which wasn’t even his fault,'' Roberts said. In two years, he threw 61 touchdown passes with only six interceptions, passing for more than 4,200 yards and being named the area player of the year in 2017.

“When he was a high school player here, I’ve never been around a quarterback who was that cool. Nothing could ever rattle him,’’ Roberts said. “It didn’t matter if he got hit in the mouth and he fumbled. He’d come back and throw an 80-yard bomb on the next play.

“He was pinpoint accurate, and he had the arm strength and the anticipation. He’s the only high school quarterback I’ve ever seen throw 10-yard out routes from the other hash (mark). He was so smart too, it would just blow your mind. He would miss a ball, and if you asked him why he went there, he would tell you. “He’d say, ‘well my first read was covered, my second read was covered, my third read was open and saw the DB was on his inside shoulder. But I know he usually doesn’t catch it clean, kind of bobbles it, so I put it on back shoulder, so either he catches it or nobody catches it. No high school kid talks like that.’’

As his high school coach, Roberts saw the same things others had before him, that Penix’s football intelligence was off the charts.

“His football IQ is amazing. He never made the same mistake twice. Our only knock on him ever was that he wouldn’t run with the ball. He always wanted to throw. We’re like, ‘Mike, you’re a 22.4 guy in the 200, you qualified for regionals the first time you ran it. You can fly, so run.’ A lot of it was he didn’t want anybody to confuse him being an athlete playing quarterback. He was great when he was here. He made everybody around him better. We had good kids here, and he made them better.’’

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Michael Penix Jr., donned the Indiana cap on National Signing Day instead of iFlorida State and South Florida. 

The craziness of Michael Penix's recruiting

From Michael’s first spring game at Tech, college coaches started to notice and big-time offers started to roll in. During his senior year, Penix committed to Tennessee and coach Butch Jones, and remained firm on his commitment, even after Jones was fired.

Then things turned weird. And uncomfortable after Tennessee hired Jeremy Pruitt to replace Jones.

“The (Tennessee) athletic director (Phillip Fulmer) called and told us Michael’s scholarship offer was still good, still there for him, and then the coach (Jeremy Pruitt) called after he was hired and said the same thing,’’ Takisha Penix said. “Then, just a couple of days before we are supposed to fly up their for his official visit, they called and told us not to come, that the offer was off the table. That was very upsetting.’’

The Penix family was upset because Michael had been loyal to them for months. Roberts has seen that before, but it doesn’t mean he liked it. Once he verbally committed to the Vols, Penix didn’t visit any other schools or entertain any other offers. That loyalty wasn’t reciprocated.

“When you aren’t involved in this type of thing, you don’t realize how often it happens after coaching changes and guys wanting their own players, so I really wasn’t that upset about it with Tennessee making that decision,’’ Roberts said. “It was weird how things ended up with his recruitment, but I think he ended up where he wanted to be.

“I get that they want their own players, but what I didn’t appreciate was the kid staying loyal to them. He wasn’t going to come off his commitment. He jumped in with both feet, and then he had to get back out there just a few weeks before signing day.’’

Indiana was aggressive with Penix from the beginning. Nick Sheridan was Indiana’s quarterback coach at the time — he’s the tight ends coach now — and he reached out to Roberts the night Jones was fired. Indiana was still very much interested, he said. Sheridan already had a good relationship with Penix because he had been at Tennessee prior to coming to Indiana.

“Lucky for Mike, he already had a relationship with Coach (Nick) Sheridan,’’ Roberts said. “He had been at Tennessee before that, so it all happened super fast. He called that first night, and he called me and reached out that he always had a home at Indiana. They were the first, outside of USF here. They never stopped, even after his Tennessee commitment.’’

With the early December signing day just a few weeks away, things were happening at warp speed. Several schools were reaching out to the Penix family.

“Florida tried to get involved, Florida State got involved late after Coach Taggart was hired. He took a middle of the week trip to Indiana, and when he went up to Florida State that weekend, I think he already knew.’’

Indiana remained aggressive and brough Michael and his mother up for a quick one-day mid-week official visit (his father couldn’t get off work.). They both loved it in Bloomington.

“Michael loved his visit up there and so did I. It’s a beautiful campus,’’ Takisha said. “He told me he wanted to come to Indiana at the airport. Everything was just nice with all of it, academics and everything. I recorded all of that academic talk for the family, so they could see it when we got back.

“They had him go off with Whop Philyor (an IU wide receiver who’s from Tampa), and I think Whop must have convinced him. Whop, he can talk anybody into anything,’’ his mother said. “He was set on Indiana. He knew some of the Florida guys up there already, and that mattered, I think. I wanted him to go away to school, go meet new people, so I think Indiana was a perfect fit.’’

Indiana’s coaching staff made Penix, a 6-foot-3, 202-pounder who turned 19 in May, their No. 1 priority. They left no stone unturned. When it was time for an in-home visit, IU coach Tom Allen brought his entire coaching staff, just a few days before signing day.

“We figured they were into him, because of the excitement they had for them. They brought up runs, and games he had, so you could tell they watched all his stuff,’’ Michael Penix Sr., said. “It was like a pipeline of them coming in the door. I thought two or three guys might be coming, but they just kept coming through the door. That was something.’’

Roberts was impressed by Indiana’s commitment, too.

“It was really telling how Indiana felt about Michael when all 10 coaches showed up for his in-home visit. They could have been out talking to 10 different kids, but even with just a few days left in their (recruiting) cycle, they put it all together for Michael.’’

When Michael was 100 percent sure, he sat his father down to discuss it with him. Dad was still leaning toward him staying home in Florida.

Michael had other ideas.

“When little Michael came and talked to me about why he wanted to go to Indiana, he made me cry,’’ his father said. “The way he broke it all down for me why he wanted to go, I couldn’t help but think that he was all grown up now. I always thought maybe he had people trying to pressure him, persuade him, to go to Indiana. I wanted him to go to South Florida, because I like Coach (Charlie) Strong, but my wife, she wanted him to go away.

“Michael wanted a bigger stage, too,’’ she said. “That’s why I wanted him to go to Indiana.’’

In the end, it was the perfect fit. For Penix. For his parents. And certainly for Indiana.

Penix signed and moved away to Bloomington in January 2018. He went through spring practice, got a small taste in two early games and then looked like he was ready to take over as the starter during the Penn State game. But before he could even get through that game, he tore his ACL and was done for the season. He finished his first season in Bloomington completing 21 of 34 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown.

He’s rehabbed well, attacking it like he’s done with everything else in his life, and he swears he is 100 percent healthy now and ready to go.

He’s ready to be the starting quarterback at Indiana.

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Takisha Penix got her nails done up right for Saturday's Indiana football game against Ball State in Indianapolis

Fishing for breaking news in the living room 

Late in our hour-long interview at their home in Riverview, I asked Michael’s mom how often she talks to him. “I try to talk to him every day, but I don’t always get a lot out of him,’’ she said

Dad quickly jumped in. “I’ll ask him how practice was and he’ll say, ‘Fine.’ I’ll ask him how he threw it, and he’ll say ‘Good.’ '' We get a lot of one-word answers. We’ve learned more about what’s been going on at practice from you right here than we have from him.''

So I had to ask. Has Michael told them if he was going to be the starting quarterback?

They looked at each other silently and smiled. “We were hoping you were going to tell us,’’ Takisha said. “You’re there. We kind of thought that’s why you were here.’’

“Oh, come on,’’ I said. “You sure you don’t know?’’

The no, no, and nos came from both of them. They swore they didn’t know.

Darn, no breaking news from the Penix living room.

“We believe he’s going to start, let’s put it that way,’’ his dad said. “But no, he hasn’t told us. But we’ll be there anyway (on Saturday). We’re excited.’’

UPDATE: Penix was named the starting quarterback Monday morning. Parents are thrilled.

The complete 'Florida Pipeline' series

Part 1, The Relationships: Indiana coaches have signed 25 players from Florida by making the state a go-to destination. CLICK HERE

Part 2, The Quarterback: How Michael Penix Jr., became a recruiting priority, and how Indiana got their man. CLICK HERE

Part 3: The Hurricane: Going through the pain of a major hurricane was made easier by being surrounded by so many Florida friends. CLICK HERE

Part 4: The Perception: The perception from Florida families and high school coaches is that Indiana is doing all the right things in recruiting Florida, and the results are obvious. CLICK HERE