Washington Sets Up Battle of Future Big Ten Rivals in National Championship Game with 37-31 Win over Texas in Sugar Bowl

By Dan Hope on January 2, 2024 at 12:56 am
Michael Penix Jr. celebrates with teammates
John David Mercer – USA TODAY Sports
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This year’s College Football Playoff national championship will pit a current Big Ten team against an incoming Big Ten team.

While Washington will become a Big Ten rival for Ohio State next year, Buckeye fans will become Husky fans for the next week as the Huskies are now the only team standing between Michigan and a national title.

After Michigan punched its ticket to next week’s national championship game with a 27-20 overtime win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl, Washington earned its berth in next Monday night’s season finale in Houston with a 37-31 win over Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl.

Heisman Trophy finalist Michael Penix Jr. led the Huskies to victory by completing 29 of 38 passing attempts for 430 yards and two touchdowns.

Former Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers completed 24 of his 43 passing attempts for 318 yards and one touchdown for Texas.

The Huskies survived a near-collapse in the game’s final minute to earn their first-ever College Football Playoff win.

Washington’s offense got the game off to an explosive start, scoring a touchdown on its opening drive on a 2-yard Dillon Johnson run after a 77-yard completion from Penix to Ja’Lynn Polk. Texas responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 5-yard Jaydon Blue touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7 early.

Both teams traded touchdowns again twice in the second quarter. Johnson capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive for the Huskies with a 1-yard touchdown run, while Texas scored its first touchdown of the second quarter on a fullback dive by 6-foot-1, 308-pound defensive tackle Byron Murphy II.

On a drive that included a gutsy 4th-and-1 conversion for the Huskies at their own 33-yard line, Polk scored Washington’s third touchdown of the game after catching a 29-yard touchdown pass off a tip by Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad. Texas tied up the score again with 17 seconds to play before halftime as CJ Baxter capped off a 10-play, 72-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.

Washington seized control of the game in the third quarter. The Huskies opened up the second half with an eight-play, 70-yard drive that Penix completed with a laser in between multiple defenders for a 19-yard touchdown to Jalen McMillan. The Huskies recovered a Baxter fumble on Texas’ next possession, then took the game’s first two-score lead on a 26-yard field goal by Grady Gross. A 40-yard Gross field goal nine seconds into the fourth quarter extended Washington’s lead to 34-21.

Another Texas fumble on the Longhorns’ next possession gave the Huskies a chance to put the game away, but Washington punted the ball back to Texas. That allowed the Longhorns to cut the lead back to six points with a 10-play, 72-yard drive that included a 38-yard connection from Ewers to Xavier Worthy and a 1-yard touchdown pass from Ewers to Adonai Mitchell, who made the game-winning touchdown in Georgia’s College Football Playoff semifinal win over Ohio State last season.

Washington made it a two-score game again with a 10-play, 65-yard drive that ate nearly five minutes off the clock before Gross made a 27-yard field goal with just 2:40 left to play. But Texas made one last run at winning the game. After an eight-play, 68-yard drive that resulted in a 25-yard field goal with 1:09 remaining on the clock, Texas promptly forced a three-and-out while using its timeouts to get the ball back one more time.

A 41-yard pass from Ewers to Jordan Whittington and a 16-yard pass from Ewers to Blue brought the Longhorns within striking distance to win the game in the final seconds, but Washington survived the scare when Ewers’ last-second pass from the 13-yard line fell incomplete on 4th-and-11.

Washington, which officially becomes a Big Ten member in August, will now look to complete its tenure as a Pac-12 team by winning the conference’s first-ever College Football Playoff title. The Huskies are looking to win their third national championship in program history, having previously claimed national titles in 1960 and 1991.

Both Michigan and Washington are appearing in the CFP national championship game for the first time since the CFP began in 2014.

Next Monday’s game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, and will be televised by ESPN.


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