First off, I just want to congratulate the entire Washington Husky Football Program for an outstanding year of college football in 2023. It was as fun of a ride as I can remember while following this program. I enjoyed them every single bit as much the the 1991 Steve Emtman National Champ Huskies, and in some ways more.

I have a few impressions that I am left with watching them go down in defeat against the mighty Michigan Wolverines. Most of them circle around Michael Penix Junior.

I cannot remember a Husky player I have more gravitated around than Penix, and I have followed this team for over four decades. He is the best player I have ever seen wear a Husky uniform, and I remember Emtman well, and Vita Vea not that long ago.

I was pretty young when Warren Moon was guiding the Huskies to Rose Bowls, but I remember Moon very well as a pro I rooted for because my dad absolutely loved him. To me, Michael Penix feels like a left handed Warren Moon. His stature, the way he moves off of play action, and through the pocket, and the effortless way he throws perfect ropes down the field. One bad game against a dominant defense with his run game severely hampered, and defenders holding his receivers downfield isn’t going to deter my opinion of Michael Penix Junior, and how he can potentially translate as a pro quarterback.

There are multiple players on this Husky team that I would love to see drafted by the Seattle Seahawks, but none more so than Michael Penix Junior. I get that he picked a bad time to have an off night at quarterback, but I firmly believe in his traits, and his inner fortitude to find success in the NFL.

People are polarized by Penix. They are either overly enamored with his A+ arm talent, or they are scared of his injury history, his age, and, right or wrong, they feel like he is destined to wilt in big moments.

Draft sites and national media members are wildly all over the place with him, too. Some say he’s a top ten pick, while others think of him as a third rounder. Pro Football Focus currently grades him as their 19th best draft prospect, and that puts him right in rage for Seattle picking at 16 in the first round, if they love him.

Personally, I will be pretty crushed if Seattle passes on Penix. If they do this, and he does find success elsewhere, I will likely hold this against the organization for many years. I think he is the perfect fit for what this team has been trying to do offensively. Selecting him in the upcoming draft would be a no brainer pick for them, in my opinion, even if they continue to ride with Geno Smith.

His arm talent is so special that Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubbs asked him to do things as a college quarterback that most other programs don’t ask their passer to do. He threw difficult sideline and deep ball passes at high volume, and I think that is how the coaches saw their best chance at making the playoffs. They road Penix’s arm for two solid years and it finally got them to the championship game. That says something to me.

Chances are that in the pros, he will be asked to play a simpler game, especially as a rookie. If by chance Seattle were to draft him and Carroll is still around, he would probably be tasked to quarterback in a more game managerial role to start out, much like Russell Wilson did. With all the volume passing he has done over the last two years in college, he honestly might welcome not having to initially be The Guy.

In an offensive system like Sean McVay runs, where it is a very balanced attack with a lot of play action passes to the intermediate and deeper middle portions of the field, Michael Penix is perfectly suited to play that sort of game. I think he is closer to Matthew Stafford than he is to Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, and that is cool with me.

The key for Penix moving forward is to get with a strong coach in a good program who will hammer into him that he doesn’t need to be the hero on every single play, and he can just take whatever is in front of him against a stronger defense. In many ways, Seattle would be his ideal landing place because I can totally envision Carroll being this guy for him (Or a coach like Dan Quinn down the road if Seattle makes a coaching change).

With Pete Carroll, though, I just don’t know if Seattle would draft him if he fell to their pick. Carroll is already stressing to the media that their quarterback position is strong with Geno Smith, and I suspect that he would prefer to just continue on with Geno and use their first three picks of the draft at other positions. I honestly expect him to walk into the meeting with Jody Allen and pitch that all is good with this team, and they just need to hit on one more draft class to further fill things out with Geno at quarterback and maybe bringing Drew Lock back for another round as QB2. That feels very Pete Carroll to me.

So, as things stand right now, I do not expect Michael Penix Junior to be a Seahawk this Spring. I just pray he won’t end up a Ram, instead.

As for the other Huskies who played in this game, I think defensive end Bralen Trice and offensive lineman Troy Fautanu are prime candidates to be potential Seahawks maybe with Seattle’s first pick in the draft. Trice as all the makings of a perfect bookend to Boye Mafe, especially should Seattle return to more of a 4-3 defense again, and I think Fautanu is perfectly built to be a foundational left guard playing next to Charles Cross for years to come. Seattle desperately needs to improve it’s defensive front and offensive line in 2024, and if they aren’t big free agent spenders to get it done, then drafting either one of these two Huskies makes a ton of sense.

Honorable Husky mentions as potential Seahawks, I kinda dig on wide receiver Jalen McMillian in the third round range. I love me some Dillion Johnson at running back, too.

As for the Wolverines, fuck those asshats. They are cheaters, they held on offense and defense all throughout the game, but gosh darn it if I don’t really love how they play ball, anyways. They are physical, and they are as fundamentally sound of a football team as you will see in college.

As for potential Seahawks down the road after the draft who wore blue and maze in this game, give me defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, linebacker Junior Colson, either one of their running backs, and I guess I kinda like that JJ McCarthy kid as a draft and develop quarterback. Some people are very “meh” on McCarthy, but I like his toolsy traits as a game managing play action quarterback at the next level.

I also think Jim Harbaugh is destined to coach the Los Angeles Chargers. Give him Justin Herbert, and I can see the Chargers in the Super Bowl in two years. I can also see him fired by year four because Harbaugh is going to ultimately Harbaugh.

As for UW, the next step is to make Kalen DeBoer the richest college coach in the land, and also get better running back depth than what they had going into this game. Had Washington had a healthier situation at running back, it would have taken more pressure off of Penix to be perfect, and maybe they could have squeezed off this win.

But make no mistake about it, Michael Penix Junior is going to be a good one at the next level. I suspect that he will be unfairly bashed on social media for a while after this game, but I just look at him, and his makeup, and I would be willing to wager that this sort of loss is going to be a really big motivator for him for a long time.

I can see him going into the league pissed off and determined for greatness as a pro. I just pray that it is with the Seahawks, even though I am supremely reluctant to get my hopes up. We can always hope, though.

Go Dawgs.