Former Tennessee Vols commit is a Heisman front runner
A former Tennessee Vols commit is one of the Heisman Trophy front runners at the midpoint of the 2023 college football season. Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr has played extremely well this season, completing 75 percent of his passes for 1,999 yards and 16 touchdowns (with only two interceptions). Penix, who is in his […]
A former Tennessee Vols commit is one of the Heisman Trophy front runners at the midpoint of the 2023 college football season.
Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr has played extremely well this season, completing 75 percent of his passes for 1,999 yards and 16 touchdowns (with only two interceptions).
Penix, who is in his second season at Washington, spent the first four years of his career with the Indiana Hoosiers.
The former three-star recruit from Tampa signed with Indiana in late 2017 — a week after decommitting from Tennessee.
Penix committed to the Vols in April, 2017. He remained committed through Tennessee's lackluster 2017 season (which ended with the firing of Butch Jones and a wild coaching search that Vols fans will never forget). He decommitted from Tennessee a week after Jeremy Pruitt was hired to replace Jones.
Pruitt initially wanted to honor Penix's commitment according to Penix's mother. But things changed after Tyson Helton was hired as the Vols' offensive coordinator. According to Penix's mother, Helton told Penix not to come to Tennessee for his official visit just before the early signing period because UT had another quarterback coming to Knoxville for a visit (that was JT Shrout, according to The Athletic). That's when Penix ended up flipping to Indiana.
The irony in all of this is that Butch clearly wanted Penix at Tennessee. And the new staff at Tennessee wanted Shrout. And now Shrout, all these years later (after a stop at Colorado), is now with Butch at Arkansas State. And Penix is one of the main challengers to USC quarterback Caleb Williams for the Heisman Trophy.
Who knows how things would've worked out for Penix at Tennessee if Helton and Pruitt would've honored his commitment. A LOT has happened at Tennessee since 2017. Multiple quarterbacks, including Shrout, left the program during the Pruitt years and the early part of the Josh Heupel era. So it's definitely not fair to suggest that Penix would be playing lights out at Tennessee right now if he had ended up signing with the Vols in 2017.
But it's still wild to look back at how the events with Penix and Tennessee unfolded nearly six years ago.
Where Tennessee Football would rank this season if the BCS was still around
Tennessee is currently 4-1 ahead of a big game against Texas A&M
