HOUSTON — The video was prepared with such secrecy that even the head coach didn’t know. Michael Penix Jr. wanted to shock as many people as possible.
On Dec. 4, 2022, Penix was ready to reveal he was coming back to Washington for another season. He did so with a surprise announcement video played at the Huskies’ postseason awards banquet.
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“I know for sure there is so much more out there for this team,” Penix declared in the 90-second message, “and the job is still not finished.”
“Coach DeBoer almost fell over,” Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said. “Everybody went bananas. It was fantastic.”
Future’s lookin’ bright @themikepenix #NoLimits #PurpleReign pic.twitter.com/g7TH9GfMGZ
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) December 5, 2022
Two weeks later, Washington pass rushers Bralen Trice and Zion Tupuola-Fetui announced together they were returning in 2023. Then offensive tackle Troy Fautanu decided to stay. And then wide receiver Jalen McMillan. Finally in January, days before the draft deadline, receiver Rome Odunze declared he was coming back.
“All we had to do was trust each other that we’re gonna stick around and go for that championship and go for that natty,” Trice said, “and we’re here now.”
All six star players agreeing to bypass the NFL Draft following DeBoer’s 11-win debut season for one more year together in Seattle is among the biggest reasons why this Washington team has a chance to win a national championship on Monday night.
With the help of Montlake Futures, they could afford to make that decision. Washington’s nonprofit NIL collective agreed to deals with all six players to help ensure they’d return in 2023. In the wild and evolving world of NIL in college football, the bidding wars for recruits tend to draw all the attention. But it’s investing in talent retention that can make seasons like the Huskies’ historic one possible.
As Grubb succinctly summed it up: All six players came back in part because they were able to do deals with Montlake Futures that were more lucrative than becoming mid-round draft picks.
“Shoutout to Montlake Futures,” Fautanu said. “Those guys have done a really good job of helping us out.”
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Montlake Futures executive director Andrew Minear says the collective’s involvement was “just one piece of the pie” for the six team leaders. Each needed to weigh many factors — not just money — in making important decisions about their future. But the collective, which works with all UW sports, assured all six that if they did return, they’d have an opportunity to earn more money by making an impact in the community.
“There’s no better demonstration of return on investment than what’s happened this season,” Minear said.
DeBoer says Washington has come a long way since his arrival in November 2021 in building an NIL program that once lagged far behind its Power 5 peers.
“I have a ton of appreciation for the hard work that’s been put in,” DeBoer said. “I have a ton of appreciation for the people who believe in this program and understand that in order for us to continue on and be successful, there’s got to be a great investment in the NIL world.”
Minear didn’t start with Montlake Futures until October 2022. He moved into the position after six spending years in a senior director fundraising role with the university. He understood the business side of entities like these and had relationships with the administration and donors but had just a few weeks to get acclimated and rally key supporters before this urgent moment arrived.
“We pretty quickly realized, ‘Oh boy, we need to really mobilize some resources quickly,’” Minear said, “because these guys could be the core coming back.”
The draft was only one concern. So was the transfer portal. Grubb said Penix was contacted by multiple programs at the end of the 2022 season. Tupuola-Fetui went home to Hawaii after the Huskies’ Alamo Bowl win over Texas and said his high school coach relayed to him that a few programs were interested. If it were all about money for these six players, they easily could’ve entered the portal and gone to the highest bidder. That wasn’t the case.
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Tupuola-Fetui said Penix’s decision made his easier because he was already leaning toward staying. Trice said his mind was always set on coming back. The draft feedback he received advised the edge defender to stay in school, but that didn’t bother him. He wanted to win a trophy with these guys and had promised his mother he would graduate.
Fautanu received a third-round draft grade and trusted his parents’ guidance, saying they’ve never led him astray. “My mom did not care about football,” the senior tackle said. “She was like, ‘Go finish school.’” His father agreed, and that was all he needed to hear.
Odunze admits he felt ready for the NFL but said the feedback he received “wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.” That uncertainty made it tough for him to turn down another year with the Huskies once his buddies committed to running it back.
“Everybody else was willing to come back and go through the grind and go through the journey that is college football yet again to get to something like this,” Odunze said. “Just reflecting on how special it would be in this moment, it allowed my decision to clear up.”
For a group of players that entered college before the NIL era began in the summer of 2021, staying in school didn’t have to be a serious sacrifice.
“It’s allowed us to have some retention in our program,” DeBoer said, “to where a lot of the guys that stuck around for another year, it made it to where, yes, the development they were gonna have, the journey they were gonna be on, the experience they were gonna have here this year, those were all big pieces of it, too. But it kinda made it a little bit easier to decide to stay knowing that life is a little bit better. Just a little bit.”
Most players are still uneasy talking about NIL money or reflexively say it isn’t a factor. Trice said he couldn’t care less and wasn’t raised that way. Odunze said if he were motivated by money, he would’ve gone to the league. He acknowledged that players who came before him didn’t have these opportunities, so he was grateful for anything he could earn with Montlake Futures.
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“They wanted to help me out and hook me up,” Odunze said. “We were able to come to an arrangement on certain things. That was kind of a plus on top of it.”
Tupuola-Fetui said their deals involved community service and social media promotion for the many charitable causes the collective has partnered with, including Seattle Children’s Hospital, Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, Treehouse, Seattle Humane Society, King County Parks and more. Most of their work was done in the offseason, but the senior edge rusher said it never felt like a hassle. He appreciated the opportunity to give back to the community.
“All we ask for as the average student-athlete is to live comfortably,” he said. “I think that’s what it has provided.”
The collective has taken a big step forward on that front with Project Dawghouse, a monthly stipend to help subsidize rent for players so they can afford to live close to campus rather than on the outskirts of the city.
Penix has earned many more NIL marketing opportunities throughout his standout senior season and appreciates that Montlake Futures has taken care of the team in a way that hasn’t been disruptive within their locker room.
“I feel like they do an amazing job and the coaches do an amazing job of making sure that’s not the focus,” Penix said. “The focus is winning football games. Once you win football games and you’re doing good, that’s when the opportunities and stuff like that come.”
There’s no question in Grubb’s mind that getting these deals done at this time last year made this 14-0 run possible.
“That’s how we were good this year,” he said.
All parties agree that having a head coach who gets it and embraces it makes all the difference, too.
“DeBoer is in constant communication with Montlake Futures,” Tupuola-Fetui said. “He understands the importance of NIL and what it can do for our program.”
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The fight for talent retention in college football never stops. If the Huskies want to sustain this success and compete for Big Ten titles on an annual basis, DeBoer knows they need to stay competitive in NIL. New athletic director Troy Dannen, hired away from Tulane in October, said in his introductory news conference that he’ll push NIL as much as any other fundraising at UW with the understanding he needs to put his coaches in the best position to succeed.
The Huskies’ national title game foe hasn’t been shy about this very topic. Michigan launched its “Those Who Stay” NIL campaign last week, urging fans to donate now and “stop our rivals from stealing our players.” It raised more than $100,000 in three hours. A year ago, that money went to veteran players like Blake Corum, Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan, who stayed in school for the 2023 season.
Today, we are launching the Those Who Stay NIL Campaign.
Our goal is simple. Stop our rivals from stealing our players. The run to the 2025 National Championship game starts now.
It's time for the Michigan Family to show our players how much we appreciate them.
To keep the…— Champions Circle (@ChampCircleUofM) January 5, 2024
It’s not quite as easy to raise NIL funds in Seattle as it is in college towns like Ann Arbor. It’s not just that it’s a pro sports city — it’s also the challenge of engaging interest among those whose charitable giving tends to go to hospitals, research or the arts. But everyone involved realizes they need to capitalize on this momentum with the fan base and extend their resources further.
“Is there room for growth? Absolutely,” DeBoer said. “Do we need to continue to keep the pedal down, need to continue to have more involvement with our community and donors, need to continue to have more of a belief that this is in some form or fashion going to be how college athletics is gonna continue on? Absolutely. All those things. We need to have more of it. But we have come a long ways.”
All six of Washington’s returning team leaders improved their draft stock in 2023, with at least four viewed as likely top-50 picks. All six who made these decisions last December dreamed of winning it all. They’re one win away. Tupuola-Fetui, a sixth-year senior about to play in his final college game, joked that it’s tempting to think about coming back for one more year.
“I wish I could come back and see what my check would’ve been next year,” he said, “but the league’s calling.”
(Photo of Rome Odunze: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
