No one was more ready for the College Football Playoff than Michael Penix Jr.

NEW ORLEANS – The Sugar Bowl was just over 24 hours away, and Washington sixth-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. called a players-only meeting as their moment approached.

He and edge rusher Edefuan Ulofoshio walked to the front of the room on two surgically repaired knees and delivered a message. The New Year was five hours away. Bourbon Street was a short walk away. Families poured into the city. Texas fans were also everywhere at the Huskies’ team hotel, much to Washington’s chagrin.

This was their time to hold on and focus. They had to block out distractions, although the midnight fireworks downtown made it difficult to get to sleep early. He reminded them that they had worked all their lives for an opportunity like the one they had earned.

They had won their previous nine games by ten or fewer points and needed second-half comebacks to win three of them.

It had brought them all to this moment. He told them to be ready.

No one was more ready than Penix himself, who connected with Ja’Lynn Polk for 77 yards on his second pass attempt and finished with 430 yards and two touchdowns in Washington’s 37-31 win over Texas in a College Football Playoff semifinal resulted in.

“We’ll just follow him,” Ulofoshio said.

AN ARROW BY MICHAEL PENIX JR. 😮‍💨

In the second half the Huskies come out shooting 🔥 #CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/Ay61e1vHXL

— ESPN (@espn) January 2, 2024

Some of Washington’s experienced roster has played for three coaches and had a losing season. Penix has suffered even more, starring at Indiana before injuries derailed his career and sent him into the transfer portal, where he reunited with Washington coach Kalen DeBoer — Indiana’s former offensive coordinator — before last season.

His first four seasons all ended early with injuries. He tore his ACL as a freshman in 2018. A year later, he dislocated the AC joint in his right non-throwing shoulder. He tore his ACL again in 2020 after leading the Hoosiers into the top 10 of the polls. In 2021, he dislocated a joint in his shoulder and was sidelined again.

It caused doubt and struggles with his mental health, almost driving him away from football.

“It led me here. Going to Indiana allowed me to get to know Coach DeBoer, and the relationship we have built over the years has been great,” Penix said. “And I wouldn’t want to play for anyone else.”

Penix looked back on those days after the best moment of his career, reminiscing about that part of his story while acknowledging the difficulty of his father not seeing his vision and not wanting him to start his career in Indiana.

“He was at the bottom. He was at the top. He was at the bottom again, and here he is at the top, shining again in the biggest moment,” said receiver Rome Odunze, who led the team with six catches for 125 yards.

“He deserves this,” Ulofoshio said.

Time and time again, Penix painted rainbows that scraped the Superdome’s soaring ceiling, putting Washington on the cusp of its first national title since 1991 and giving the program its first College Football Playoff victory. The team he beat to win the national title in 1991, by the way? Michigan, which it will play again next week in Houston for the championship before joining the Wolverines in the Big Ten next season.

Penix, along with perhaps the nation’s best receiving corps of Odunze, Polk and Jalen McMillan, defeated Texas high school and found the trio time and time again. He avoided Texas’ pass rush to extend plays and finished the night without being sacked or turning the ball over. He ran three times for 31 yards on called runs, a rarity in DeBoer and coordinator Ryan Grubb’s offense, which saved a few wrinkles for the biggest stage and best opponent of the season.

He fired spirals downfield that floated into the arms of his receivers and frustrated Texas defensive backs, who gave up 52 more passing yards to Penix than any quarterback they faced this season.

After trotting to the locker room at halftime with the score tied at 21, Penix completed his first 11 passes in the third quarter to help the Huskies jump to a 31-21 lead, giving them the second half of the game could check.

“He’s like this every day 24/7,” Polk said. “That’s nothing new for us.”

Penix finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting a month ago, but if voting had continued until after Monday’s semifinals, he would have hoisted that trophy too.

“I don’t think he won the Heisman because they always treat us like an underdog,” Polk said. “You go to watch a movie and you turn on the movie and there’s nothing lying. He can do everything. He can run, throw and make every pass. Whatever you need, he makes it possible on film. The fact that he didn’t understand that, man, that hurt us as a team. But we knew who really won, and it was him.”

DeBoer called Penix the “best player in college football.”

As Penix waited for ESPN’s cameras to look at him for his post-game interview, an employee helped him put on a championship T-shirt over his sanitary pads, with the sleeves almost bearing the cursive “M” tattoo covering his left triceps and the matching ‘P’. on his right triceps. A purple durag covered his head.

He closed his eyes, looked up at the sky and gestured for a moment in thanks.

“It was a difficult time. I’ve been through some tough things during my career,” Penix said. “But I always say, ‘Man, I feel like everything I’ve been through has shaped me for this moment. Built me ​​into the man, the person and the player I am today.” So I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

A few yards away, Jack Westover, who caught six passes for 59 yards, crouched through glassy eyes, savoring the moment. Running back Dillon Johnson, injured in the final minute of the game, punched his chest and pumped his fist as a cart carried him to the locker room.

The Huskies had 40-1 odds to win the league title to start the season, just the 14th-best odds among the contenders. Penix, 1-of-1, got them there.

As Prince’s “Purple Rain” echoed through a stadium suddenly devoid of burnt orange, Penix walked to the podium for the trophy presentation. He hugged DeBoer, who slapped his shoulder pads. Their voices had become hoarse.

Penix climbed atop the podium as the rest of his teammates stood around looking up at him.

“We’ve got one more to go,” he said into ESPN’s microphones as the Washington fans in the stadium roared. “We’re going to the natty, man. Let’s go.”

(Top photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)