SEATTLE — Next week's National Championship Game features a stark contrast of styles.
In one corner, the Washington Huskies have the 10th-ranked offense, scoring 37.6 points per game.
In the other corner, the Michigan Wolverines have the first-ranked defense, allowing 9.5 points per game.
UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said Wednesday that Michigan's strengths defensively involve its ability to switch up its coverages.
"That's a good team over there," said Penix Jr. "They're coached up very well. But we're going to be ready for the challenge. They mix up the picture quite a bit. They try to get the quarterback off his mark. But we'll be ready for it. We know that. We know that we have what it takes to be able to come out with a W. We've just got to go out there, execute and do it."
Penix Jr. is coming off a game where he had 430 passing yards and two passing touchdowns in the Huskies' 37-31 victory over the Texas Longhorns in the Sugar Bowl.
Coach Kalen DeBoer said Penix Jr.'s skillset "makes him the best player in the country."
"Yeah, I think the production and then who he is as a person, and on the production piece, he's got a skill set that is – I think it makes him the best player in the country," DeBoer said. "The ability to throw the ball with accuracy, he can get rid of it super quick."
More than the on-field production, DeBoer said Penix Jr.'s mindset is what has guided Washington to a 14-0 record in 2023 and one victory away from a national championship.
"He's as low ego as it gets," DeBoer said. "It's all about the team. Everyone hears that publicly when he talks, but it is 100 percent real. It is what we see every single day. There are things he's doing for his teammates that he could care less if it got out there in the public. It's all about just loving the moment he's in, wanting this to be a special time for everyone that's around him. He has a lot of trust in people. Once you really become loyal to him, he will do anything for you. That's gone both ways on our team, both he to the team and the team to him."
Entering the national championship game, the Huskies have won five consecutive games by fewer than eight points.
The Sugar Bowl played to the same script, with the Huskies needing to make one defensive stop on the final play to secure the victory.
Defensive end Bralen Trice credited the team's unselfishness as a big factor in pulling out close victories.
"This is the most unselfish team I've been a part of my entire career in football," Trice said. "It's a big part of why we're at where we're at and we can finish off games and situations like that, because you see teams that can't perform in clutch moments like that because they hang their heads down and they start to get mad at each other and they start fighting within their groups and within their units, and that's really what tears teams apart and not let them be successful in moments like that.
"Just that confidence that we have as a group, knowing that we have that trust in each other and that unselfishness is what really brings us to where we're at."