Sugar Bowl

90th Annual
Allstate Sugar Bowl
January 1, 2024

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#2 Washington 37 (Postgame Record: 13-1)
#3 Texas 31 (Postgame Record: 12-2)

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Next Year · Previous Year · Back to History

Video Recap - Game
Video Recap - All Events
Official Game Program
Official Statistics – PDF
Final Game Notes
Sugar Bowl Quote Central 2023-24

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Michael Penix and Defensive Stand Lead Washington to Allstate Sugar Bowl Win Over Texas

It was the situation every football player longs to be in – a big setting, game on the line and the opportunity to make the deciding play.
 
For Washington cornerback Elijah Jackson, that moment arrived at the end of the 2024 Allstate Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal against Texas – fourth down for the Longhorns at the UW 13, one second left and the Huskies clinging to a 37-31 lead.
 
“That’s the moment people dream of,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants the last play. Everybody wants the game on their shoulders.”
 
Jackson would rise to the occasion, literally, using his 40-inch vertical leap to bat away Quinn Ewers’ pass intended for Adonai Mitchell to preserve the Huskies victory that advanced them to the national championship game in the most-dramatic final play in the Sugar Bowl’s 90-year history. 
 
To be sure, second-seeded Washington (13-1) would lose to Michigan in the CFP title game, 34-13. But the Sugar Bowl victory, an FBS record 10th straight by 10-points or less for the Huskies, would still be one to savor.
 
“It was like every game we played came down to the wire,” said Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, who would leave for Alabama shortly after the championship game. “All season long we knew we had no margin for error.
 
“So to get a stop in that situation was just pure excitement for our guys. We had a lot of amazing experiences and memories that will last us forever.”
 
For No. 3 Texas (12-2), there was obvious disappointment, but for a storied program that for years had been wanting to be able to say, “We’re back,” and coming so close to making it, so there was also a great feeling of accomplishment. 
 
“Our team was a versatile and resilient group all year long,” Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We won in a bunch of different ways, fought to stay in games when we weren’t playing our best, and were an incredibly connected team.
 
“This was a selfless team, especially our seniors, whose leadership, commitment and dedication to helping us build a great culture and get us back among the best teams in the country is something I’ll never forget. It was a really special year.”
 
To Sugar Bowl chief executive officer Jeff Hundley it was a fitting end to the CFP’s 10-year, four-team playoff format. In that time, the Sugar Bowl hosted four memorable semifinal games, six evenly-divided matchups between Southeastern Conference and Big 12 teams, and LSU’s victory against Clemson in the 2020 national championship game.
 
“We hosted [Playoff] games at the highest level and cemented our relationship with the SEC and the Big 12 with the others,” he said. “And we went out with a big crescendo. You couldn’t have asked for more.”
 
Indeed not.
 
Washington, the first Pac-12 team to play in the Sugar Bowl, took advantage of 430 passing yards, third-most in bowl history, and two touchdowns from Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix, while the offensive line lived up to its billing as the best in the country by not allowing a sack to Texas’ fearsome defensive front.

Meanwhile Texas, while never leading, (the game was tied three times in the first half, including 21-all at intermission), would still put itself in position to win at the end. The Longhorns drove from their 31 to the Washington 12 in the final minute, only to be thwarted in four plays from there, the last being Jackson’s endzone breakup.
 
“We were just trying to take a shot,” said Ewers, who was 24-of-43 for 318 yards and one TD. “I was looking for an opportunity to give my guys an opportunity to make a play. At the end of the day, that’s all you can really do.”
 
As it was, Texas was fortunate to be where it was at the end.
 
Trailing by nine points, the Longhorns had been forced to settle for a field goal with 1:09 left after being thwarted three times from the Washington 7, the last two on Ewers’ passes intended for Mitchell.
 
After a failed onside kick, Texas used its final two time-outs as the Huskies picked up five yards to the Longhorns’ 39.
But UW running back Dillon Johnson suffered a leg injury when he was stopped for no gain on third down. That stopped the clock instead of the Huskies being able to run it down to inside 20 seconds.
 
Then, fair-catch interference on the punt gave Texas a decent field position at its 31 with 45 seconds left.
 
A deep throw to Jordan Whittington netted 41 yards to the Huskies’ 28, and two plays later Ewers connected with Jaydon Blue at the 12 with 15 seconds left.
 
A sideline throw to Blue actually lost a yard and one intended for Mitchell was incomplete at the goal line.
 
On third down, Ewers was chased out of the pocket but somehow managed to throw the ball out-of-bounds with one tick left on the clock, giving Texas one last chance. 
 
“We’d had a lot of games come down to the wire and we’d found a way to win,” Sarkisian said. “So I felt good about our chances to score there.”
 
But to DeBoer, the advantage was with the Huskies.
 
“When the ball’s at the 13 and they’ve got to get the ball into the end zone, the percentages were on our side,” he said. “We had confidence we could keep the ball in front of us and make the stop.
 
“And our guys had been in a lot of big moments throughout the season, so I didn’t think this one would be too much for us. I believed in our defensive staff and our players that we would get it done.”
 
Earlier in the fourth quarter Ewers and Mitchell had connected on a one-yard touchdown pass over Jackson at the same spot in the end zone where this pass would go.
 
But this time, Jackson was in perfect position behind Mitchell to make the play, one that he credited others with, but especially his family, helping make it possible for him.
 
“They didn’t waste their sacrifices, their time, their effort,” he said. “That’s why the play was kind of for them. It showed that all of the hard work they’d put in me didn’t go to waste.”
 
The exciting conclusion was only fitting for a Sugar Bowl that lived up to its pregame expectations and that saw both teams give maximum efforts.


There was no lack of intriguing storylines either, including the facts that Sarkisian had once been the coach at Washington and that both teams were playing their final games in their conferences – Washington in the Pac-12 and Texas in the Big 12. They had also met in the 2023 Alamo Bowl with the Huskies prevailing, 27-20.
 
This time, obviously, the stakes were much higher.
 
Washington was in the CFP for the first time since 2016 when it lost to Alabama in the semifinals. No Pac-12 team had made the playoffs since then.
 
“We took a lot of pride representing the Pac-12,” said DeBoer, who was in his second season at UW. “This was the best season in the conference’s history and it was certainly a grind for us going through it.”
 
That included beating favored Oregon twice, the last time by 34-31 in the league title game.
 
Texas, making its CFP debut, had won its first Big 12 championship since 2009 capping it off with a 49-21 crushing of Oklahoma State in its conference championship game.
 
Because Michigan was the No. 1-ranked team in the CFP, the Wolverines got the other semifinal “home” berth in the Rose Bowl against Alabama while Washington had to travel across the country to meet Texas virtually in the Longhorns’ back yard.
 
Because of that, Longhorns’ fans made up about three-quarters of the sold-out Caesars Superdome crowd of 68,791.
 
“It was just another part of the journey,” DeBoer said. “We’d played all of those close games, so no situation was too big for us. We knew we were facing a really good football team. But they were having to line up against us too.”
 
The Huskies proved their worthiness early on, forcing a punt after yielding a first down on the game’s opening series.
 
Penix, who transferred from Indiana in 2022 where DeBoer had been his offensive coordinator for one season, then showed what kind of night he would have, lofting a bomb for Ja’Lynn Polk for a gain of 77 yards to the Texas 2.
 
Johnson carried in for the score the next play.
 
Texas would come back with a 75-yard TD drive capped by Blue’s five-yard run.
 
That’s the way it went for the rest of the half with the Longhorns matching two more UW TD drives.
 
Penix would finish the half 11-of-14 for 255 yards and one TD.
 
“All season long Michael had shown the ability to throw accurately downfield,” DeBoer said. “He had a great concept of what we wanted to do and his ability to read the opposition was exceptional.”
 
“With a good defense like we were facing in Texas he had to resort to all of the tools he has and all of the skills that make him special.”
 
Washington looked like it was taking command of the game at the start of the third quarter when Penix completed all six of his passes plus scrambled 12 yards for a first down, one of three such runs he would make, in a 70-yard drive that ended with a 19-yard TD connection to Jalen McMillan.
 
The Huskies would add two more field goals, the last nine seconds into the fourth quarter while allowing just six offensive snaps by the Longhorns in the third quarter.
 
But there was still almost a whole quarter to go, and the Longhorns stayed alive with a 72-yard drive that ended on the Ewers-to-Mitchell connection that made it a six-point game.
 
The teams would then exchange field goals, setting up the final dramatics, one that would send one team to the national championship game while ending the season for the other (providing Texas had made the final extra point).
 
“Seeing that last one broken up was crushing,” Sarkisian said. “We fought hard to get back in the game, came so close, but, in the end, came up just short.
 
“I was heartbroken for our team.”
 
For Jackson, who did not join the large number of his teammates who transferred following DeBoer’s departure, it was relishing the chance to step up when it counted.
 
“Pressure is a privilege,” he said. “Everybody feeds off of it. Everybody wants to be in that pressure moment. So I got the opportunity; I got the privilege to be there.”
 
And on top of that, he’ll never have to pay for a Starbucks in Seattle again.

Recap by Ted Lewis for www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.