STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 28, 2023

Michael Penix, Jr.

Postgame Media Conference

Washington 42, Stanford 33

Q. What do you think it took to kind of find your guys' rhythm offensively? Seemed like it took you a while, took the team a while to kind of get going in this one.

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: Man, we just had to continue to keep pushing. To be honest, ya'll might want to back up. I'm a little sick.

But just I was battling some things as well early on. I have to do better, being able to convert some of those throws, I was under-throwing a lot of stuff.

But it's no excuse. I found a way to help my team move the ball. We found way to get through it. I started feeling a lot better as the game started going on.

We were able to get the win, so was good.

Q. Were you feeling sick or...

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: Yeah, I've been working through stuff all week. I'm good though. Nothing is going to stop us from winning, so...

Q. When you say sick, just sick?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: Yeah, just sickness. I'm just sick. You hear it in my voice a little bit probably.

Q. Last two games, are you seeing a theme or some consistencies on what defenses are coming at you with right now?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: No. Wasn't nothing that they did today that we saw last week. It was different. Each team has their -- coaches, they have their own structure, what they want to be on the defensive side of the ball.

But obviously film study helps coaches say, okay, maybe they struggle with this or maybe they're good against this, so we want to go to this route.

At the end of the day, they have their own DNA. Each team has their own DNA. They're going to see some of those things that you might have seen weeks before if you struggled with it, and they showed a couple things, but it was nothing -- it wasn't similar as last week or the week before even.

So it's usually different, but maybe a splash one or two plays you might see.

Q. Is it odd none of you guys seem satisfied the last couple weeks with the victories?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: No, I wouldn't say it's odd. Even if we were winning by 30, if we're not playing to the standard that we feel like is set in our room and in our locker room, then we know we got to do better.

Each and every game we try to continue to take those steps to do better. Even when we were winning by putting up 50 points and winning by 30 and 40 points, we still wasn't satisfied. Never satisfied.

We're always trying to continue to improve and get better each and every week, so that's our mindset.

Q. Was there an emphasis on trying to get the run game going early after last week's result?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: I don't know. You know, Coach Grubb, he calls the plays. I trust him. You have to ask him that.

Q. Threw a 92-yard touchdown pass today, which is second all-time Husky history. Kind of weird play because guy not only committed pass interference, he fell down. Just walk us through the play a little bit.

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: Yeah, we knew they was going to take a shot coming out when we was backed up. We just took advantage of it, and Ja'Lynn Polk, he did a great job of fighting off a guy holding him trying to pull him down, and he was able to make a big time play. That's stuff we rep every day in practice and you see it every week.

That's all it was.

Q. Two weeks in a row you've been heavily favored and went down to the wire. Is that a wake-up call for you guys? How do you look at that?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: Nah, man, we look at it as a opportunity to continue to improve. We understand we got to play to our higher standard, higher level. We're going to do that. We just continue to find ways to win. That's what it's all about and that's what we been doing these last eight weeks.

So as long as we continue to find way to win, that's what matters at the end of the day.

Q. Being a little bit sick last week, does that change your day-to-day or the way you went through the week?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: No, it didn't change nothing. Just I had to stay away from some people. I didn't want to get the rest of the team sick. It doesn't change nothing. I was still doing everything. I'm going to be out there unless -- unless I don't know, unless I can't. Sickness ain't going to stop that.

Q. You guys have a mammoth November coming up here. Do you view the challenge as more physical or mental?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: You said the challenge for physical or mental?

Q. Is the challenge of having four or five huge games in November more physical or is it more of a mental challenge?

MICHAEL PENIX, JR: First of all, I say every game is huge for us. Don't matter who we're playing or what week it is. We want to win football games and that's what it's about.

But I feel like football, it's a lot more mental than it is physical. I would say like I guess mental, but for us it's just about finding ways to win.

Like I said before, that is all we're worried about, finding ways to win and keeping a 1-0 mindset and coming out and dominating each week. We're just going to take it one game, one week at a time. Doesn't matter who is in front of us we're just going try to find a way to win.