The 2024 NFL Draft will begin Thursday at 8 p.m., and the former Washington quarterback is among plenty of quarterback hopefuls who will hear their name called. Penix is coming off a season during which he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting, led the Huskies to the Pac-12 Conference Championship after a perfect regular season and advanced all the way to the national championship in the program’s second College Football Playoff appearance.

READ: Michael Penix Jr. set out to ‘write my own narrative’ at Washington Pro Day

Penix wrote a letter to NFL general managers that published Monday in The Players’ Tribune. He addresses immediately the question about his four season-ending injuries in four seasons including two ACL tears, and later in the letter he states he’d “be more worried if I had never been injured.”

Penix emphasized an important lesson he’s learned in the pre-draft process in that “there’s more to it than the All-22” football film.

READ: Penix displays ‘the heart’ and ‘the guts’ during No. 7 Washington’s 36-33 win over No. 8 Oregon

The Dade City, Florida, native recalled playing tackle football on concrete in 95-degree heat growing up, stating, “You find out quick if you’re built for this game or not.”

Penix’s college career began at Indiana in 2018, somewhere he didn’t expect to go as he stated “Two weeks before signing day I was told by the team I was committed to for two years that I no longer had a scholarship.” After one torn ACL Penix helped the Hoosiers rise to No. 7 in the Associated Press Top-25 poll in 2020, though he retore his ACL in the second-to-last game of the regular season that year.

Penix shouted out in his letter former Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer, who was his head coach at Washington and later took the Alabama opening after Nick Saban’s retirement. Penix credited DeBoer for seeing “something in me that the rest of the college football world didn’t,” and he stated they “left our imprint” on Washington.

“Today I look at Coach Kalen DeBoer, Ryan Grubb and Nick Sheridan,” Penix stated. “The ones that had to make the same decision that you’ll be faced with on draft day. They put their belief in me, and I did everything I could to pay it back to them. I look at the guys on the team that I talked into staying at Washington, who trusted that I was going to elevate them. Now seeing Troy Fautanu, Roger Rosengarten, Ja’Lynn Polk, Jack Westover, Rome Odunze, Devin Culp, Jalen McMillan, and Dillon Johnson all on the cusp of realizing their dream…. That is what brings me joy. As a QB, my job is to be an elevator. I need to uplift all those around me so that they too can be at their best. So just know if you put that same belief in me, history shows I hold up my end of the bargain.”

READ: Steve Sarkisian says Longhorns had to ‘recreate ourselves this spring’ after Orange-White Game

According to Daniel Jeremiah’s top 150 prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft class on NFL.com, Penix is ranked No. 35 among the class of players.

In 2023, Penix led college football with 4,903 passing yards, nearly 400 more than the next closest passer. He threw for a career-high 36 touchdowns and averaged almost 327 passing yards per game.

Penix collected the 2023 Maxwell Award and made many All-America second teams after last season. In his career, Penix passed for more than 13,500 yards and 95 touchdowns in over 45 games. He has three-plus seasons of starting experience under his belt.

In a quarterback class containing two Heisman winners and several conference champions, Penix will have competition for a top draft spot. But Penix’s story is unique, and he’s stood tall through it all.

One team will select Penix in the draft later this week, and the experienced, veteran quarterback will begin his professional career seeking to make a similar impact he’s made throughout his football career — beat adversity.

The post ‘Adversity teaches a man a lot about himself’: Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. pens letter to NFL GMs in Players Tribune appeared first on Saturday Glory.

Both Shephard and Sheridan carried over and joined from DeBoer’s previous coaching staff at Washington.

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“Nick and JaMarcus are both fantastic coaches, and we are excited to have them join us at Alabama,” DeBoer stated in a release. “They have experience in our offense, and they know what we are trying to accomplish on that side of the football. They both bring passion and enthusiasm to their work and have proven to be excellent teachers and recruiters at every stop of their careers.”

According to a release, “the financial terms remain subject to approval by The Board of Trustees.”

Shephard has a history coaching wide receivers. Prior to arriving at the Huskies program last season, he coached Purdue wideouts for five years.

At Purdue Shephard coached the likes of David Bell and Rondale Moore who turned into Day 2 picks in the NFL Draft.

Shephard also has previous coaching stops as wide receivers coach at Washington State in 2016 and Western Kentucky, where he began his coaching career, from 2011-2015.

“I have a passion for coaching and developing our football players both on and off the field,” Shephard stated in a release. “The chance to help Coach DeBoer continue the standard at Alabama is something I take a lot of pride in working to accomplish. This is a special place, and I am excited about the opportunities that are in front of us.”

READ: College Football Playoff confirms 5-7 format for 12-team Playoff

Sheridan has previous experience coaching with DeBoer.

Sheridan coached tight ends under DeBoer at Indiana in 2019 and again at Washington from 2022-23.

Sheridan was also Hoosiers offensive coordinator from 2020-21 and quarterbacks coach in 2017-18. He spent three years as an offensive graduate assistant at Tennessee, passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Western Kentucky in 2012 and the same roles at South Florida in 2013.

“It is a tremendous opportunity to join Coach DeBoer at Alabama,” Sheridan stated in a release. “I look forward to working with this offensive staff to develop a plan each week to put our team in a position to be successful. There is an unmatched legacy at Alabama, and I understand the importance of upholding that standard while developing our players.”

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