Penix Is Picture of Calm as He Prepares to Face Disliked Ducks

Nothing seems to bother the former Indiana now UW quarterback.

EUGENE, Oregon — For the first time in four seasons, the University of Washington football team will play the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium, a place some of the Huskies have never seen before except on a recruiting visit.

It's the centerpiece for what's now the college game's well-established football Disneyland, a sprawling, sparkling athletic campus built with alum Phil Knight's NIKE money.

Some of Kalen DeBoer's players will probably ask where all the amusement-park rides can be found and whether they can purchase a day pass.

Yet there's a showcase football game to be played, matching the nation's No. 6 team (Oregon) against No. 24 (UW) with FOX cameras in position to show the 114th meeting of these always unfriendly and incorrigible neighborhood rivals to the rest of the nation.

These football programs have new coaches and new quarterbacks, but the same longstanding and often annoying dislike for each other.

"I got a feel for that when I first got here from people all around Seattle," UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. acknowledged. "I definitely got that. But it's just football."

UW coach Kalen DeBoer and Michael Penix Jr. confer during the OSU game.  :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Still, a charged-up Willamette Valley crowd of nearly 60,000 will create an atmosphere that is totally distracting. After all, have you ever seen a Duck ride a motorcycle before? OK, maybe it's not as annoying as a Corvallis chainsaw.

While it's noted that Penix has played in a lot of big games when he was at Indiana for four seasons in the Big Ten, people forget many of them came in empty stadiums during the pandemic.

He did manage to take the field in front of a suffocating crowd of 105,951 at Penn State and got hurt in a 24-0 Hoosiers loss that ended his 2021 season. 

"I'm ready to play," Penix insisted this week. "This team is ready to play. That's all it is. The whole rivalry thing is definitely a big thing in college football, but at the end of the day we know we just have to go out there and do our job and everything will fall into place."

Michael Penix Jr. lets one fly under a heavy rush from OSU linebacker Omar Speights :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Penix enters another weekend as the nation's leading passer only in yards per game with 359.1 each time out, which tops Georgia Southern's Kyle Vantrease, who's at 330.20.

Vantrease and Penix rank 1-2 in overall passing yards, at 3302 to 3,232, but only because the other quarterback has played one more game. 

Penix also ranks second nationally in completions per game with 28.89, which trails only Mississippi State's Will Rogers at 33.33.

The first-year Husky quarterback, who has completed 260 of 391 passes with just 5 interceptions, will duel with former Auburn signal caller Bo Nix in what should be an entertaining offensive show. 

Nix has thrown for 22 touchdowns and run for 13, while Penix has tossed 23 scoring passes and rushed for a pair.

In nine games, the new UW QB mostly has been sensational, with the exception of a bad quarter at UCLA and another at Arizona State. 

Through it all, though, he's one of the more poised Husky offensive leaders to come along in a long time. Oregon will present him with a chance to really show what he can do on a big stage and how to handle all of the pressure that comes with it, feathered friend on a motorcycle included. 

"It's a rivalry game," Penix said somewhat dismissively. "But we have to treat each game the same way if want to come out with a win."

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