A husky sized win: Washington edges Texas in Allstate Sugar Bowl, advances to national championship

By: TONY MARKS
Editor

NEW ORLEANS – With one second remaining on the clock and his team down by 6 points, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, on 4th-and-11 from the Washington 13-yard line, delivered a pass intended for Adonai Mitchell, but the pass was broken up and sailed incomplete for a turnover on downs. As a result, the Huskies earned a 37-31 over the Longhorns in the 90th edition of the Allstate Sugar Bowl and a trip to Houston, Texas, for the College Football National Championship game.
“Obviously, I’m proud,” said head Washington coach Kalen DeBoer. “I’m proud of the way our guys every single week bring everything they’ve got. And it doesn’t just happen on game days. I think that’s the thing I told them in the locker room just now, is a lot of people make choices to do something special. But the work doesn’t always support the goals that they have.”
He went on to say, “And these guys don’t just do it on game day. They do it each and every day going back to the time a year ago when they decided to come back and make this vision happen a reality.”
“So, I thought we played a really sharp game in a lot of ways. A couple of opportunities that were missed.”
“Unfortunate situation with the clock. And thought we’d end up with just maybe 10, 15 seconds to have to work with and then go the whole length of the field. But the defense had to stay out there and play every down until the very end.”
“And so proud of the resiliency and finding another way to win a football game.”
Washington found itself in position to play for its first national championship since 1991 based on the play of its southpaw quarterback, Michael Penix Jr.
Penix proved he was worthy of being in this year’s Heisman Trophy conversation by completing 29 of his 38 pass attempts for 430 yards and two touchdowns. He was named the game’s offensive most valuable player.
“I‘m just blessed,” expressed Penix. “I couldn’t do it without the Man above and obviously without my offensive line and everybody that’s been protecting me all season. They’ve been doing an amazing job, just keeping me clean. And obviously, I got the best playmakers on the outside. So it’s like they make it easy.”
“You got the best players on the outside,” he continued. “You got Joe Moore winners. Man, it makes my job so easy.”
“I’m just super blessed to be in this position.”
“But, man, the job’s not finished. 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 for sure.”
Named as the game’s defensive most valuable player was Washington’s Bralen Trice, who said, “From a defensive perspective, that belief just stems from all of our preparation throughout the whole season, throughout these past three, four weeks that we’ve had to get ready, early on before the season in our training periods.”
He continued, “But it’s part of our standard. It’s a player-led team. We do that every single day, right? We put ourselves in those situations in practice where we’re ready when that happens. And I think you can think we were shook out there, obviously, but we weren’t. We were ten toes down, ready to go.”
The game, played in the Caesar’s Superdome on Monday, January 1, was an Old West shootout in the Big Easy.
The scoring began with 11:04 remaining in the opening quarter as Mississippi State transfer Dillon Johnson scored a two-yard touchdown to cap off a Husky four-play 89-yard drive.
Texas then tied the game, with 7:06 in the first quarter, on a 5-yard touchdown run from Jaydon Blue.
Johnson scored his second touchdown of the game to put Washington back on top with 13:08 in the second quarter, but Texas answered three minutes later with a 1-yard touchdown run from Byron Murphy II.
The game remained tied at 14-14 until Washington’s Ja’Lynn Polk scored on a 29-yard pass from Penix with 1:27 before the half. But, Texas tied the game once more on a 3-yard touchdown run from CJ Baxter with 17 seconds before intermission.
A 19-yard touchdown pass to Jalen McMillan and two field goals from Grady Gross gave the Huskies a 13-point lead with 14:51 remaining in the game.
Texas cut into the lead with a 1-yard touchdown completion to Adonai Mitchell with 7:23 left on the clock.
Washington then answered with another Gross field goal from 27 yards out, and Texas’ final points of the night came on a 25-yard field goal from Bert Auburn with 69 seconds left to spare.