Huskies Are Alamo Bowl Underdogs, Not Real Concerned About It

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The question came not from a sympathetic partisan viewpoint, rather a neutral inquisitor.

At an Alamo Bowl news conference, Michal Penix Jr. and Jaxson Kirkland, the University of Washington quarterback and his trusted offensive guard, were asked by a local media member with a noticeable drawl why they were 3-point underdogs against Texas for Thursday night's game.

After all, the Huskies possess the better overall record at 10-2 with a pair of one-score losses, whereas Texas finished the regular season 8-4, though all four of its defeats came by single-score margins, as well.

Maybe it's a Lone Star neighborhood superiority thing with UT located just 75 miles north in Austin, essentially making it a home game for the Longhorns.

Yet at the same time, Texas has lost much of its offensive firepower for this postseason match-up, with its top two running backs Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson each declaring for the NFL draft and opting out of the game. 

Steve Sarkisian, the Texas coach and former UW leader, may have to install more of a  passing attack on the fly just to overcome the sudden shortage of proven ball carriers. 

Still, these discombobulated Longhorns remain 3-point favorites. 

The thing is, you just can't easily insult Kalen DeBoer's Huskies, who have come off a disastrous 4-8 season in 2021 to far exceed expectations for just about everyone tracking them.

"I really wouldn't want it any other way," Kirkland said. "I know all the guys in the locker room feel that way. Ten wins is extremely special this season and I guarantee not a lot of people had us reaching that mark."

So it's not a woe-is-us situation, rather the Huskies understand they still have to continually prove themselves every step of the way, just to enter the polls, to earn individual awards, to have anyone speak glowingly about them. 

A lot of damage was done to the program's reputation by the 2021 downturn and the resulting coaching change, and the players understand that it will take some time to get everything back in terms of reputation, but they're working at it.  

"As far as the underdog thing, man, we like it," said Penix, who answered to that label for four years at Indiana before coming to the UW for two more seasons. "We like being in this position. We just want to go out there and show what we can do as an offense and as a unit and obviously as a team."

So the Huskies will enter the Alamo Bowl positioned on the second rung of the outside marquee to these one-time legendary Texas Longhorns, who hold a 3-1 edge in football games involving the schools, splitting bowl games, with the UW winning the 1979 Sun Bowl 14-7 in El Paso and Texas claiming the 2001 Holiday Bowl 47-43 in San Diego. 

UW players won't necessarily be spending a lot of time lamenting any disrespect, won't cry foul or come out of the locker room foaming at the mouth over some perceived slight here.

"I think it's just one of those Pac-12 deals where everybody look down on the Pac-12 — we're OK with that," senior safety Alex Cook said. "We've been underdogs all season. We've not been predicted to win against multiple teams."

No, the Huskies will go about their business as usual, as they have all season, and change minds whenever and however they can. 

They're 3-point underdogs and that's a fact of football life. 

"In the bottom of our hearts, it's not what you have it's what you know," Kirkland said. "We know we're a special group and we're going to keep on proving that."

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