Penix-led Huskies again ‘prove everybody wrong’
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. turned in one of the most dominant performances in College Football Playoff history on Monday night. Yet there he stood on the sideline with one second remaining on the clock, watching as Texas stood 13 yards away from completing an improbable comeback.
Quinn Ewers took the fourth-down snap and threw the ball into the corner of the end zone for Adonai Mitchell. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Ewers threw to Mitchell at nearly the same spot for a 1-yard score. Washington’s Elijah Jackson was on the coverage for that touchdown.
He was on the coverage again with the game on the line. Jackson said he knew Ewers would look to Mitchell again. The cornerback was ready this time. Jackson leaped into the air to bat the ball away as time expired, sealing a wild 37-31 win for the Huskies in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Now, Washington will play Michigan in the CFP national title game on Jan. 8 in Houston for the Huskies’ first national championship opportunity since 1991. All Jackson could think after he made the play was, “Dang, we’re going to the national championship!” Then he went to find his mom in the stands.
“That’s the moment people dream of,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants the last play. Everybody wants the game on their shoulders.”
Though Penix threw for 430 yards — the fourth-best passing game in CFP history — Washington could never quite get complete control. Texas made it a one-score game twice in the final seven minutes as it attempted to erase a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit. After closing to 37-31 with 1:09 remaining, Texas attempted an onside kick, but Washington recovered.
After forcing a three-and-out, Texas got the ball back with 45 seconds left and the ball at its 31-yard line. Texas had four attempts to win the game from inside the Huskies’ 15-yard line. But Washington would prevail for its 21st consecutive victory.
“You love seeing a team come through and find a way to win,” Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer said. “The defense had to stay out there and play every down until the very end. So proud of the resiliency and finding another way to win a football game.”
When it was all said and done, Penix was 29-of-38 passing for 430 yards and two touchdowns. As a result, he became the first player with multiple 4,500-yard passing seasons in Pac-12 history.
The decision Penix made to come to Washington in 2022 has helped change the trajectory of the Huskies’ football program. But that all started with the hiring of DeBoer, an offensive mastermind who won three NAIA championships as head coach at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota before working his way up the FBS ranks and landing at Washington.
One of DeBoer’s first phone calls after taking the job was to Penix, whom he had coached for one season as offensive coordinator at Indiana. Penix wanted to play for DeBoer, noting his comfort level, trust and belief in him not only as a coach but an offensive innovator. In their two years together, they have won 25 of 27 games and are on the precipice of accomplishing something much greater.
“He set the tone pretty quickly, just made all the throws,” DeBoer said. “This guy really all month was on another level as far as his mission to make sure that this happened, and I think you saw it all week in practice. There was just nothing he was going to let slide by where we would leave a doubt that we were going to find a way to win.”
The program has been more than just Penix, of course. While DeBoer has done an excellent job using the transfer portal, he also has nine sixth-year players who started their careers at Washington under a different coaching staff but were willing to buy in and believe in his message too.
There are other veteran seniors too, including wide receiver Rome Odunze and linebacker Bralen Trice, who have taken the lead in helping establish the culture DeBoer wanted to instill.
Despite everything this team has accomplished this season, Washington went into its semifinal against the Longhorns as the underdog — the second straight game where it was not favored to win. That irked the Huskies to the point where they used it as extra motivation.
Not long after the Huskies prevailed, they were already installed as underdogs … again. The Wolverines opened as 5-point favorites at sportsbook ESPN BET with the over/under total at 55.5.
“I just think we prove everybody wrong time and time again, and we’ll continue to do that,” Trice said. “You can overlook us all you want, but we go out there and we prove everybody wrong every time.”
Penix, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, took center stage from the start — dropping one pin-point pass after another to his deep and talented receiver group. There was a 77-yarder to Ja’Lynn Polk on the opening drive. Then a deep pass over the middle to Odunze. It went on like this the entire game, some beautiful rainbows, others darts — all of them landing where only his receivers could catch them.
Polk and Odunze each had 100 yard receiving games as a result. By the time the third quarter had ended, Penix had 372 yards passing, 2 touchdowns and just 4 incompletions as the Washington fans chanted, “Let’s go, Huskies!”
“I got the best playmakers on the outside. So they make it easy,” Penix said.
Though Washington threatened to blow the game open after going up 34-21 early in the fourth quarter, Texas hung around and its defense stepped up to keep the Longhorns in the game. After Jaydon Blue fumbled, Washington could not take advantage and was forced to punt.
On the ensuing drive, Ewers threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell, a transfer from Georgia, to make it 34-28. Mitchell is automatic in the CFP — with a touchdown reception in all five CFP games in which he has played.
“That’s the moment people dream of. Everybody wants the last play. Everybody wants the game on their shoulders.”
Washington CB Elijah Jackson
On the next possession, Penix did what was needed to move Washington down the field — including a 32-yard pass to Odunze down the left sideline that was enough to get into field goal range and make it a two-score game before Texas attempted one last comeback.
“The resiliency our team showed in that fourth quarter to find a way to have an opportunity to win the game, I think, is indicative of the character that we have on this team and the men that we have in that locker room,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Those guys are fighters. These fought together. As bleak as it looked there, they never gave up hope and they believed. And I think that’s how you give yourself a chance at the end.”
Ewers said on the final two plays — both passes — he was “just looking to give my guys an opportunity to go make a play. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really do.”
Ewers finished 24-of-43 for 318 yards and a score. Afterward, the emotions on his face were clear as he fought back tears when he entered the postgame news conference.
“It’s tough, especially losing a close game like this,” Ewers said. “But when you take a step back and you look back at the entire season, I’m proud of the way that we attacked each week. I know the whole team is beyond grateful for this opportunity that we had today, and I think we all played our hearts out.”
Texas just came up one play short. Instead, the spotlight belonged to Penix and the Huskies.
“The job’s not finished,” Penix said. “I feel like it’s definitely going to take more. I’m going to push myself to get this team more next week. And, man, we’re just super excited for the opportunity.”
SEWELL, N.J. — A few days after brothers John and Matthew Gaudreau died when they were struck by a driver while riding bicycles on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding, family friends were visiting parents Guy and Jane at their home during a rainstorm. Looking outside after the skies cleared, they saw a double rainbow that brought them some momentary peace.
Since then, Jane Gaudreau had not gotten any signs she attributed to her sons, so she sat in their room Friday and asked them for some divine intervention to clear out bad weather in time for an event to honor their legacies. After a brief scare of a tornado watch the night before, a rainbow appeared Saturday morning about an hour before the sun came out for the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk/Run and Family Day.
“I was so relieved,” Jane said. “I was like, ‘Well, there’s my sign.'”
Thousands attended the event at Washington Lake Park in southern New Jersey, a place John and Matthew went hundreds of times as kids and around the corner from Hollydell Ice Arena, where they started playing hockey. Roughly 1,100 people took part in a walk or run in person, along with more than 1,300 virtually in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
“I think it speaks to them as a family, how close they were and how everybody loved being around them,” said Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, one of a handful of NHL players who were close to the Gaudreaus and made a point to be there. “You just see the support from this community and from other players as well that are here and traveled in. It just says a lot about Johnny, Matty, their legacy and this family as a whole, how much support they have because they’re such amazing people.”
Along with honoring the NHL star known as “Johnny Hockey” and his younger brother who family and friends called Matty, the goal of the event was to raise money for an accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School where Jane and her daughter Kristen work. It was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honor of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.
It became their mother’s project after their deaths.
“Jane works every day with children with disabilities, and she knew how important it was for the playground to be built,” said family friend Deb Vasutoro, who came up with the idea for a 5K. “The playground has been a project for, I think, four or five years, and there just never was enough funding. When the boys passed and Jane needed a purpose, she thought, ‘Let’s build the playground.’ It was the perfect marriage of doing something good to honor the boys and seeing children laugh and smile.”
The Rev. Allain Caparas from Gloucester Catholic High School, which the brothers attended and played hockey for while growing up in Carneys Point, said raising funds for the playground is an extension of the impact they had on the community.
“They’re continuing to make a difference in the lives of so many others,” Caparas said. “Johnny and Matthew lived their lives with purpose, and now we’re celebrating that.”
Social media filled with mentions from folks in Columbus and Calgary, the NHL cities in which John Gaudreau played, and as far away as Ireland and Sweden. Paul O’Connor, who has been tight with the Gaudreau family from son Dalton being childhood best friends with Matthew, couldn’t empty out his inbox because he kept getting notifications about signups and donations.
“It just keeps growing,” O’Connor said. “And people that couldn’t be here, they’re doing a virtual [5K]. If they can’t do either, they’re just throwing money at the cause.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of Guy and Jane as they talked about the event. His speech to the crowd was brief and poignant at the same time.
“I’d like to thank everybody for coming,” Guy said after running the 5K. “It really means a lot to Jane and the girls and the family. We miss the boys, and it really means a lot for us to have you here to honor my boys. Thank you.”
The sea of people first in the rain and then the sunshine included folks in gear from all across hockey. Tkachuk wore a “Johnny Hockey” hoodie with Gaudreau’s name and No. 13 on the back.
He handed sticks, collected from various vigils in late August and early September, to race winners along with fellow players Erik Gudbranson, Zach Aston-Reese, Tony DeAngelo and Buddy Robinson.
“Our family wouldn’t have missed this,” Gudbranson said after flying in Friday night following a trip to Walt Disney World. “Hockey’s a very tight community. It’s still a tragedy. We miss the boys.”
The aim is to hold the event annually moving forward, potentially in Calgary and Columbus.
“We thought this was such a good thing to honor the boys we want to keep it up,” Jane said. “I just think each year it’ll just get better and better.”
Florida Panthers forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell will be ready for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Edmonton, coach Paul Maurice said Saturday.
Both players were injured in Wednesday’s series-clinching Game 5 win against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Panthers forward A.J. Greer‘s status for the series opener against the Oilers remains uncertain. He missed Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals and was on the ice for only 4:22 in Game 5 due to a lower-body injury.
All three players did not participate in Saturday’s practice, the first team skate since the defending champions booked their spot in the Final rematch.
“I think the only question mark is Greer,” Maurice said. “We will list him as day to day. The other guys are fine. They will be back on the ice tomorrow when we do a little bit of an optional.”
Luostarinen, 26, recorded 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 80 games during the regular season and 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 17 games this postseason.
Lundell, 23, tallied 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 79 games in the regular season and 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 17 playoff games.
Greer, 28, posted 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 81 games in the regular season and three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 12 playoff contests.
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