It's Michigan State's Turn to Match Wits with Grubb and His Hot Hand
In two games, Ryan Grubb is batting .714.
And you thought Mariners slugger Julio Rodriguez was a promising new hitter for Seattle. He's got nothing on the University of Washington's offensive coordinator when swinging away.
Against Kent State and Portland State — and this is duly impressive irregardless of which football leagues these two teams play in — Grubb's Husky offense has scored on an astounding 15 of 21 offensive series, collectively.
With Grubb calling the shots from the press box, the Huskies have been stopped just three times when forced to punt, thrown an interception, let the clock run out on a game-ending possession and gave up the ball on downs a yard short of another touchdown.
That's it.
How unstoppable.
The UW scored on its first six possessions against Kent State in the opener and found the end zone on its first four drives against Portland State.
Those games were over before they got started.
"He does an awesome job," UW coach Kalen DeBoer said of Grubb. "He does such a good job of managing it and executing it and having the defense on their toes, but throughout the course of the week in managing the staff and [having] everyone being involved. He's got awesome ideas."
Conversely, the Huskies opened a year ago against Montana and Michigan, both bad losses, and they went a collective 3-for-24 in getting the ball over the goal line.
They were 1-for-13 against the Big Sky team, 2-for-11 against the Big Ten bully.
No wonder offensive coordinator John Donovan wasn't long for Seattle. That was hitting way below the Mendoza line, connecting on a miserable .125 of his play calls. Donovan, of course, now works as a quality coach for the Green Bay Packers ... on defense.
Twelve months ago, the Huskies scored a touchdown each against Montana and Michigan, plus a field goal against the Wolverines. Yet they punted 10 times, gave up the ball on interceptions three times and on a fumble, turned the ball over on downs four times, let the half run out twice and missed a field goal.
In the past two weeks, Grubb has overseen seven drives of 72 yards or more, including a 90- and a 99-yarder.
It didn't take much selling to get the on-field architect of this offensive firepower, quarterback Michael Penix Jr., to come to Seattle and rejoin DeBoer after they had worked together in 2019 at Indiana.
"That's the reason I came here — I knew what we'd be able to do when I got here," Penix said.
The Huskies next will put their high-octane offense up against Michigan State and a much tougher defense. There's not a lot of mystery coming into this matchup.
The Spartans likely haven't forgotten Penix completing 20 consecutive passes on them in 2019 though they were able to pull out a 40-31 victory in East Lansing, Michigan. On that day, DeBoer sat in the booth as the Indiana offensive coordinator calling the shots. Penix finished with 33 completions in 42 attempts for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The following year, Penix helped engineer a 24-0 victory over Michigan State by completing 25 of 38 passes for 320 yards and 2 scores, again in East Lansing. DeBoer was now the head coach at Fresno State. Nick Sheridan, the current Huskies tight-ends coach, served as Indiana's offensive coordinator and DeBoer's replacement that day in 2020, thoughtfully pushing the offensive buttons upstairs.
The Spartans haven't tried to match wits with this new-age Grubb yet. It's time. Unwind the chains, swap out the scoreboard lightbulbs, rev up the siren and let the fireworks begin.
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.
Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com
Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @UWFanNation
