Rome Odunze leads three Washington standouts on FWAA All-America team
Rome Odunze, Michael Penix Jr., and Troy Fautanu all landed on the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) All-America teams on Monday morning. Washington’s three selections across the two teams tied for the most of any school in the country.
Odunze grabbed a first-team spot at wide receiver. Penix was the second-team quarterback while Fautanu was a second-team offensive lineman. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels was the first-team quarterback selected.
The trio gives Washington its first FWAA All-Americans since 2018. Penix and Odunze (as well as Daniels and LSU receiver Malik Nabers) are also the first quarterback/receiver tandems from the same school on the FWAA All-America teams since 2020.
Odunze was a Biletnikoff finalist this season and an All-Pac-12 First Team selection. He cleared 100 yards in a game nine times and became just the second receiver in school history to post multiple 1,000-yard receiving campaigns.
Odunze enters the postseason with 1,428 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. Beyond the numbers, though, he has made winning plays in crunch time to help keep the Huskies perfect. Odunze had the game-winning touchdown catch late in the first meeting with Oregon. He hauled in a third-down reception to ice the two-point win over Oregon State. And he had the fourth-down conversion to set up UW’s game-winning field goal in the Apple Cup.
Penix, the Maxwell Award winner this season, finished second in Heisman Trophy voting after leading the country in passing and leading UW to a 13-0 record. Penix has 4,218 yards through the air this season and has nine games with more than 300 yards passing.
Fautanu has made 26 consecutive starts for the Huskies over the last two seasons. Both years have ended with an all-conference selection. According to Pro Football Focus, he has been the fourth-best pass-blocker in the Pac-12 this season.