NEW ORLEANS — In a baseball hat, T-shirt, shorts and flops, with a headset positioned above his ears, Ja'Lynn Polk slowly made his way down the middle of the field at the Superdome on Monday night.
Hours earlier, he had taken the same route, only at full speed with a pair of Texas defensive backs giving chase after he hauled in a 77-yard pass, though one of those guys caught up with Polk at the 2-yard-line and prevented a touchdown.
In his casual attire, Polk looked more like someone headed for a night on the French Quarter rather than the end zone. The giveaway was he still wore eye black smeared high on his cheeks well after his University of Washington football team beat Texas 37-31 in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the national championship game against Michigan.
Where the sophomore wide receiver really separates himself now is he's a Texan headed for Houston and the big college football showcase after playing a pivotal part in sending a team full of Lone Star state products back home to Austin greatly disappointed.
"It's an honor, it's a blessing," Polk said. "We had the vision set all year long of going out there and competing for a national championship. We're here now and it's time to go get the job done."
He's one of six Texas players on the UW roster, joined by junior cornerback Jabbar Muhammad from DeSoto, sophomore running back Will Nixon from Waco, freshman safety Diesel Gordon from Arlington, freshman defensive lineman Anthony James from Lavon and sophomore cornerback Jaivion Green from Houston.
Polk's hometown of Lufkin, population 35,000, is located 120 miles north of Houston, an hour west from the Texas-Louisiana state line.
Polk not only went more than three-quarters the length of the field with a Michael Penix Jr. pass, he caught another ball for a touchdown after he tipped it to himself in the end zone, with his heroics proving extra back-breaking for the Longhorns.
He caught 5 passes for 122 yards and that lone score, nearly matching teammate Rome Odunze, who finished with 6 catches for 125 yards without scoring, while Jalen McMillan came up with 5 receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown, together all of them making it extremely hard on Texas to stop the Huskies.
Polk caught his 77-yarder on the Huskies' third offensive play of the game, letting the Longhorns know they wouldn't be waiting on anyone to determine the outcome of this game. He caught the ball on the dead run, spun away from the two defensive backs and came up just short of putting the UW on the scoreboard first himself, leaving that to Dillon Johnson running over the left side on the following play.
The receiver ran a post pattern, made the cornerback bite on his initial move and saw the safety plant plant and leave himself vulnerable and all that was left was for him to run under Penix's softly thrown ball.
"When I stuck my foot, I saw the ball in the air, and Mike threw it, and it was just in my head I was going to make a play," Polk said. "I tried to stay on my feet and make a move. I got caught. I've got to score the next time."
He pulled down his touchdown pass with a 1:27 left in the first half, a 19-yarder that sailed through the hands of Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad — a cousin for the UW's Muhammad — was tipped into the air by Polk and he grabbed the deflection while standing in the end zone to put the UW ahead 21-14.
"I kind of tried to like slow down and stay to the middle so Mike could hit me," Polk said. "Mike ended it up knifing it up in there. [Muhammad] almost made a play on it, but just being able to lean on my preparation on catching the ball and I was able to focus."
And with that, this clutch receiver and his Husky teammates will fly home from New Orleans on Tuesday and turn around a few days later and come back to Texas, where he feels more at home than anywhere else, which shouldn't be welcome news to Michigan.
More must-reads: