Unbroken – Michael Penix Jr. Continues Chasing Greatness

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - You can't break Michael Penix Jr.

Let's start with that.

Blow out his knee, mess up his sternum, send him to hospital beds rather than training tables, and the guy keeps moving forward.

The best ones always do.

"Mike wants to be great," senior assistant athletic director for football performance Aaron Wellman says. "Mike is a really good player and wants to come back from this even stronger than he was before the injury. That's a common trait among competitive athletes who love their sport, who love what they do."

Love has the Indiana quarterback overcoming season-ending injuries the way most people breathe. Where some might concede, he storms back – better, tougher, perhaps even feistier.

"I am very positive," Penix says through Zoom opportunity. "I love where I am. I like the growth that I have had since the injury."

The redshirt sophomore personifies refuse-to stay-down-tenacity. You can rock him, but you can't stop him. He takes the biggest emotional shots and returning for more.

As Wellman puts it, "Guys who love the game like Mike and guys who are competitors always find a way to get themselves ready to go. Mike is no different."

Consider the torn ACL that ended Penix's remarkable season after six games last fall. That followed an injured sternum (technically a right sternoclavicular joint sprain) and a torn ACL that ended his first two Hoosier seasons.

All required surgery and intense, often painful, rehab.

That doesn't include a concussion, a strained shoulder and all the other bruising that comes with being a Big Ten quarterback.

A guy might feel that he's jinxed; might get overwhelmed with why-me thoughts; might decide it's time to forget football and focus on a sport marketing career (his major).

"This is something I do not wish on anybody and nobody wishes they were in this position," he says.

But as we have seen, Penix is made of tougher stuff.

He was a game-deciding catalyst in the dramatic overtime comeback victory over No. 8 Penn State; a national difference-maker in nearly leading IU to an improbable rally at No. 3 Ohio State.

It's more than a rocket arm that, in just 12 career starts, has produced 3,039 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions; more than athleticism that enables him to run out of trouble and into first downs.

It was, in fact, a remarkable will to win, highlighted by the last two drives against Penn State – the first that produced an overtime-forcing touchdown and two-point conversion, the second that won it with another touchdown and a two-point conversing run (the outstretched arm and hand touching the end zone pylon will live in Cream & Crimson lore for generations).

Penix was, in so many ways, the leader of a remarkable season that saw the Hoosiers soar into the Top 10 of national polls for the first time since the 1967 Rose Bowl run. They finished 6-2 with a No. 12 final ranking.

Guess what? Penix is poised to do it again, and more; to potentially help deliver the program's first bowl victory since 1993, and it's first Big Ten championship since 1945.

First, though, come baby steps, such as running (he's not doing that yet) and working out (in a controlled way) and getting back to a football groove.

"I am very excited to just go out and do what I can to get back on the field with the guys."
Penix doesn't do it alone. Family, teammates and friends help get him through the lows, of which there are many.

"At the beginning, I was kind of down, but just getting help from my family, friends and teammates, they kept me up, kept me positive."

That includes husky Marcelino Ball, who missed all of last season with his own torn ACL, and who has been an invaluable workout buddy.

"Having them on my side, pushing me every single day, telling me to stay motivated and to continue to chase my dream, that was really helpful," Penix says. "That helped me get through it."

Penix is not through all of it. He is months away from a full return. Wellman and IU's medical staff coordinate a rehab approach that won't just get Penix to where he was, but past it.

Wellman says the goal is to "regain power and strength in that right (injured) leg, and regain symmetry between the right and left leg."

"Mike had done a really good job of locking in on the daily discipline."

Penix says he might even be, "a little bit ahead of schedule," although he won't resume full-contact practicing until fall camp.

This is no surprise. He is, after all, perhaps the most experienced rehab guy on the planet.

"I have been working extremely hard to get back. I am doing everything I can to continue to help motivate the team, be a leader, even though I cannot do certain activities. But I have been doing really well, progressing every week, and I feel myself getting a lot stronger and feeling more comfortable with my body."

IU has plenty of returning offensive playmakers even with running back Stevie Scott III and receiver Whop Philyor heading to NFL opportunity. All-America receiver Ty Fryfogle highlights a talented group of skill players.

That doesn't include a dominant defense that returns all but two starters from a unit that totaled 17 interceptions.

"It's going to be a great season," Penix said, "as long as we continue to stay focused and stay motivated and chase greatness."

You'd better believe Penix will continue to chase, injuries be darned, starting with the Sept. 4 season opener against Iowa.

"I know for sure I'll be ready come game day," he says.

Wellman is just as sure.

"I have no concerns with Mike, as far as his work ethic and his ability to come back from this."

Indiana University Athletics

Unbroken – Michael Penix Jr. Continues Chasing Greatness

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