High School

Washington QB Michael Penix Jr.'s success dates back to Florida's Pasco High School

Penix's football journey has taken him from Florida to Indiana to Washington - and now to the CFP National Championship game

Andy Villamarzo

University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is chasing perfection Monday night at NRG Stadium in Houston.

A perfect season and a shot at the college football national championship are both on the line when the southpaw leads the Huskies onto the field vs. the Michigan Wolverines.

Perfection is also exactly how he started off his high school playing days back at Pasco High School in Dade City, Florida.

Penix completed the first two throws of his high school career, going 2-for-2 for 30-yards as a freshman at Pasco, late in a 37-13 win over Wesley Chapel, back in 2014. 

He finished his freshman year with 18 completions for 160 yards and two touchdowns, as well as three interceptions. Fast forward about a decade and Penix threw for 430-yards in Washington’s thrilling, 37-31, victory over Texas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. 

It’s been all about the journey for the signal caller, whom many around Dade City remember vividly from his humble beginnings.

Arguably, his two best games while playing for the Pirates were a 48-6 win over Gulf and a 44-43 loss to Springstead, both in 2015. Penix went 8-of-13 for 167 yards and three touchdowns against the Buccaneers and 12-of-21 for 137 yards and three scores against the Eagles. 

Those early glimpses of Penix led many to believe they were seeing the beginning of a legendary prep career, another potential Pasco great following in the long line of names such as Darren & Troy Hambrick, Isaac Johnson, Darrell Davis, Janarion Grant and Jacob Guy. 

His father, Mike Penix, played all four years at Pasco and eventually became an all-state defensive back. Though the younger Penix started his high school career at Pasco as a freshman and sophomore, he finished his prep career in Tampa Bay.

For the last two years of his high school career, Penix took his talents from the 352 to the 813, playing at Tampa Bay Technical High School. That's where the legend of the Heisman Trophy finalist really began to take off. 

Transferring into Hillsborough County, Penix proved himself as one of the state’s top passers in the 2016 season. 

In his junior year, the signal caller put everyone on notice with a nearly perfect season tossing the rock. Going from playing in a pro-style system at Pasco to a more spread-style offense at Tampa Bay Tech, Penix flourished. 

Leading the Titans to a 9-2 record in 2016, Penix, in 11 games, completed 153-of-272 passes for 2,078 yards and 31 touchdowns, with just one interception. Nearly 30 quarterbacks threw for more than 2,000 yards that season, including future Florida State star Jordan Travis (Benjamin), but only Penix had two or less interceptions. 

His road to greatness continued during his senior year, where Penix had another strong season off Orient Road. In 2017, the quarterback completed 129-of-244 passes for 2,165 yards and 30 touchdowns, although his interceptions did creep up to five. 

After high school, Penix's legend took off at Indiana and the rest is history. He has thrown for nearly 100 touchdowns in his college career, split between Indiana and Washington. He was also the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy this season.

One person who saw Penix's full potential was Jayson Roberts, his head coach at Tampa Bay Tech.

“He was the best high school quarterback I’ve ever seen in my life," Roberts told Fan Nation's Hoosier Now in 2020. "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 values the road he has traveled from Dade City to where he is now, although it has not always been easy.

“I feel like everything happened for a reason,” Penix said in a recent interview with On3.com's Nick Kosko. “Coming out of high school, I’m gonna be honest, like coming out of high school, when I committed to Indiana University, my dad, he didn’t really want me to go there. He didn’t understand why I was going there. So that was something that was hard for me, just having somebody I love the most … He didn’t see my vision.

“Obviously it led me here (Washington), going to Indiana, you know, helped me meet Coach DeBoer and our relationship that we built, you know, throughout the years, it’s been amazing. I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else.”

Through it all, he hasn't forgotten his roots. 

After leading Washington to the national semifinal win over Texas, in the Sugar Bowl, Penix made sure to give shoutouts to both Dade City and Tampa. 

It was a nod to his former stomping grounds and to where it all started. 

The region has not forgotten him either. On Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Dade City will be honoring Penix during its annual MLK parade. 

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The folks over off of State Road 52 will never forget one of their own and want to make sure he’s recognized back in his hometown of Dade City, where the chase for perfection all began. 

-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl 

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Andy Villamarzo
ANDY VILLAMARZO

Andy Villamarzo has been a sports writer in the Tampa Bay (FL) Area since 2007, writing for publications such as Tampa Bay Times, The Tampa Tribune, The Suncoast News, Tampa Beacon, Hernando Sun to name a few. Andy resides out of the Tarpon Springs, FL area and started as a writer with SB Live Sports in the summer of 2022 covering the Tampa Bay Area. He has quickly become one of Florida's foremost authorities on high school sports, appearing frequently on podcasts, radio programs and digital broadcasts as an expert on team rankings, recruiting and much more.

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