Brock Huard analyzes accuracy of Michael Penix Jr.: 'It's JV and varsity'

Michael Penix Jr. is playing his best football of the season heading into Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game against Michigan.

Former Washington quarterback turned FOX college football analyst Brock Huard, who has called some of Penix’s games this season, joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss how the Husky gunslinger has been extra dangerous over the past few weeks.

“He was pressured 16 times — he being in Penix — in that game,” Huard told Staples. “He was taken to the ground once. Jalen Milroe was pressured 12 times by Michigan and was sacked six times. The difference of understanding, of pocket awareness, of movement and creating and extending plays. I mean, it’s just night and day.

“It’s JV and varsity, and Penix is doing it at a level that nobody else in college football has.”

Those qualities that Huard described are all of the ones that make up a great NFL quarterback. If he can down the undefeated Wolverines with another dazzling display and follow it up with an impressive combine — he might shoot up draft boards in the weeks leading up to April’s annual event.

Still, things didn’t always look this promising for Penix, even going back to as early as November.

“I called the Apple Cup and he was just more inaccurate in that game,” Huard said. “I think it was the weight of everything and the pressure of everything. The Heisman looming and all of these targets getting so big on him. That was about the one game that, on tape, you really watched like, man, there were three, four or five throws that [he missed] and then people started to wonder, ‘Is he injured? Is he hurt?’

“He had not been quite as accurate — and then he just shut all of it up in Vegas [vs. Oregon] and put on an absolute show. And then even more so in New Orleans [vs. Texas].”

In the Pac-12 title game and College Football Playoff semifinal combined, Penix has combined for 749 yards and three touchdown passes on a 73% completion percentage. His team is averaging around five touchdowns per game over that stretch. Meanwhile, Michigan hasn’t allowed more than three touchdowns in any game all season.

The Wolverines are going to be the Huskies’ stiffest test of the season — and for the national championship no less. Everything goes down on Jan. 8 when the College Football National Championship game kicks off from NRG Stadium in Houston. The opening kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET live on ESPN.