Michael Penix Jr. has his 2023 Heisman campaign up and running.

The senior Washington quarterback powered UW to a 56-19 season-opening win over Boise State on Saturday, picking up right where he left off last season. The Huskies got off to a bit of a slow start, but when Penix caught fire, he caught fire. 

UW scored 28 points in the second quarter to take a 28-14 lead into the halftime break. All four of the touchdowns came via passes from Penix.

“Our receiving corps doing what they do,” coach Kalen DeBoer said of the downfield passing after the game. “We missed a couple, just stayed with it. Didn’t give up on throwing the ball down the field. They were really attacking. Some of the screens and short stuff we were trying to throw, we were struggling even just to get completions on 3, 5-yard gains.

“That, along with them slowing down the run game early just kinda led you feel we’ve gotta do what we do, and that’s push the ball down the field. A lot of teams play us differently and we did a good job finding matchups. Mike’s just so well-versed. He can make little calls and little checks and go through a progression and, based on what he sees defensively, find the guy he needs to pretty quickly. He made those throws as the game went on more and more.”

Penix finished the day with 450 yards and five touchdowns through the air. He completed 29 of his 40 pass attempts and didn’t turn the football over.

Just like last year when UW took the Pac-12 by storm, Washington aggressively and constantly attacked the defense with the vertical pass game. The Huskies had 16 explosive pass plays in the game.

Penix had completions of 31, 35, 38, 44, and 50 yards on the day.

Here are the highlights from his day: