Jim Harbaugh is plenty familiar with Michael Penix Jr. from his days in Bloomington and the Michigan head coach says not much has changed since coaching against him when he was the quarterback at Indiana.
Speaking to reporters during Wednesday’s media teleconference, Harbaugh waxed poetic about his admiration for Penix’s game.
Super great. Thanks for that question. He’s a super great player. My impressions of him when he played at Indiana were the same. Big-time arm talent, tremendous presence in the pocket, sees the field really well. He is so polished. Watching him and his accuracy, his decision making, timing, he has really just continued to have this tremendous presence of going through progression, feels pressure, will drop it off to a check-down. Yeah, it’s at an elite level.
There’s a reason Penix finished second in the Heisman voting and will likely be a first-round pick in the NFL draft.
The big lefty could leave Monday night’s national championship as a 5,000-yard passer and even led the Hoosiers to IU’s last win over the Wolverines back in 2020.
It should be fun to see come Jan. 8.