WHEN PENIX JR. FINDS KALEN DEBOER IN WASHINGTON, WATCH THE PORTAL THRIVE

One stirring story couldn’t have happened without a transfer tool, allowing a health-ravaged quarterback to rejoin his former offensive coordinator in Seattle, where they might win a national title

     Never, ever mock the transfer portal. We have found the homespun story that could have stalled in South Dakota, where Kalen DeBoer’s mother toiled inside a drugstore to support her family as a single parent. He had little interest in leaving the state of his first 35 years, though he’d coached the University of Sioux Falls to three NAIA national championships in four years.

     Finally, his athletic director kidded about a firing if he didn’t try Division I ball. For years, DeBoer bounced around, requiring states to finish city names, until he wound up in Bloomington, Ind. He was the offensive coordinator at Indiana and lived with the misery of Michael Penix Jr., who tore his right ACL as a freshman, then dislocated the AC joint in his non-throwing shoulder, then tore his right ACL again, then dislocated a joint in his left throwing shoulder.

     Four seasons, four injuries. The hospital almost named a surgical ward for a quarterback who’d directed the Hoosiers to a top-10 ranking. He needed help to finish his career, and only days after DeBoer had climbed high enough in the big time to be named head coach at Washington, they reunited in Seattle.

     This is why the portal can cure people, make them see the light of the NFL’s first round, turn them into the hottest of college players in January of 2024. Penix will turn 24 in May and is considered in his sixth season, and next Monday night, he is positioned to beat wicked Michigan for the national title and make his left arm a permanent part of the sport’s history. He’d be the Heisman Trophy winner if they voted now, not last month, and pro teams looking at Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy might be eyeing Penix as a keeper. He was that sensational in a 37-31 victory over Texas, where he threw for 430 yards and two touchdowns and led the Huskies to their 21st consecutive triumph. On the field in New Orleans, he had to relive the pain.

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

     “It led me to here. Going to Indiana helped me meet coach DeBoer, and our relationship that we built throughout the years has been amazing. And I wouldn’t want to play for anybody else.”

     Together they are 14-0, 25-2 for two seasons, which means DeBoer is 104-11 in head-coaching battles at Sioux Falls, Fresno State and Washington. Looking for a sleeper who can rub out Jim Harbaugh when Nick Saban, Ryan Day, the NCAA and Big Ten could not? That’s DeBoer, who calls Penix “the best player in college football” and wondered how they’ve fashioned their historic pursuit. It wasn’t long ago when he didn’t know the difference between NAIA and Division I paths. Now he’s about to rule the entire ballgame, at a ripe 49. “It probably forced me to grow up a little bit quicker,” DeBoer said of leaving his homestate. “But I will say this: I always felt like I had everything. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I had people around me, my dad, too. I knew everyone loved me. I knew I was going to be safe. Maybe there were times where things were a little bit harder. I think it’s all part of my journey and what what made me who I am today.”

     He saw the same toil in Penix, who thought he might leave football and start anew. The portal was available. “It was hard. I was scared,” he said. “I was scared to play but I still tried to. It was just a lot. In my head, I said if I’d gotten hurt again, I was gonna quit football.” On a television show, he said, “There were times when I’d wake up the day of the game. I’d wait until my roommate left, and I’d just lie on the floor, and I’d just cry to God, praying that He’d protect me that day because I knew where my head was at the time, and it wasn’t truly fresh. It was a lot of tears. It was a lot of stuff.”

     Under DeBoer, Penix has thrown for more yardage than any college quarterback the last two seasons. Don’t be shocked if they win the championship, with Penix as healthy as the coach is steadfast. “I felt that he just needed a fresh start,” DeBoer said. “I think he knew there were still people that believed in him. He’s really one of those guys that if I was his age, as a teammate, I could see myself hanging out with him. He’s just really loose, but there is a switch that gets flipped when the pads go on — where you can tell that it’s really important to him.”

     What’s important isn’t the Heisman, though his coaches and teammates know he deserves it. “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 wide receiver Rome Odunze, who will go high in the first round.

     “He set the tone pretty quickly, just made all the throws," DeBoer said late Monday night. “This guy really all month was on another level as far as his mission to make sure that this happened. 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.”

     He returned to win the title, for a university leaving the disintegrated Pac-12 for the Big Ten, where the Huskies will play Michigan next season and often. It’s hard to believe the two were confronted in Indiana, years ago, having no idea where they were headed and figuring they’d never meet again. Now, as DeBoer stood beside him in the Superdome, Penix had a statement for the Washington crowd.

     “We got one more to go,” he said. “We goin’ to the natty, man. Let’s go.”

     To doubt them is to doubt slayers. Sioux Falls to Bloomington to Houston to … the confetti of a national championship?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.