Inside The Huskies

4 Huskies Earn Pro Football Focus All-America Recognition

The UW's Rome Odunze, Jaxson Kirkland, Bralen Trice and Michael Penix Jr. show up on this comprehensive listing.

Dan Raley

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Four University of Washington football players have received All-America recognition, with Pro Football Focus singling out wide receiver Rome Odunze, offensive guard Jaxson Kirkland, edge rusher Bralen Trice and quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

PFF, which prefers to rate players more by analytics than anyone else, picked Odunze and Kirkland to their third-team AA offensive unit, while Trice and Penix received honorable-mention honors on basically what amounts to a fourth team. 

Odunze, a 6-foot-3, 201-pound sophomore from Las Vegas, continues to be discovered by the national analysts and has drawn increasing plaudits for enjoying one of the best seasons in UW program annals with 70 catches for 1,088 yards and 7 touchdowns. 

PFF chose Odunze after putting six other receivers ahead of him, three each on the first and second teams. His numbers stand up to most of them. The other receivers include the first line of Iowa State's Xavier Hutchinson (107 catches, 1,171, 6 TDs), North Carolina's Josh Downs (94, 1,029, 11) and Ohio State's Marvin Harrison (72, 1,157, 12), followed by Houston's Tank Dell (103, 1,354, 15), USC's Jordan Addison (59, 875, 8) and SMU's Rashee Rice (96, 1,355, 10).

Even with a late start after missing two games, Kirkland's reputation as one of the NCAA's top offensive linemen continued to resonate. Only Florida's O'Cyrus Torrence and UConn's Christian Haynes were rated higher than the UW veteran at right guard specifically.

Penix, who leads the nation in passing yards (4,354) and yards per game (362.8), received honorable-mention recognition on an 11-player team. He is surpassed as a quarterback only by, in this order, USC's Caleb Williams, Alabama's Bryce Young and North Carolina's Drake Maye.

Trice was named to the 11-player honorable-mention defense, going from a two-game starter in 2021 to tied for 35th in the nation with 8 sacks.

The entire Pro Football Focus All-America breakdown can be found by using this link. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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