The second season of the Jedd Fisch era of Washington Husky football is upon us, folks, and things should (theoretically and hopefully) look a bit different for UW in year two than they did in year one. One huge reason for that is the way the Huskies are focusing on the offensive side of things.
For much of the 2024 Washington Husky season, Fisch and UW turned to Will Rogers, a former Air Raid quarterback who hit the transfer portal from Mississippi State to play for Kalen DeBoer at Washington (before DeBoer left to coach the Alabama Crimson Tide). And while Rogers was theoretically fine for much of the early part of the season, it really seemed like opposing defenses figured out that Rogers was relatively limited in the offense that Fisch wanted to run.
It seemed like Washington wasn’t able to run the full extent of the offensive playbook that Fisch wanted to run due to some of those limitations. And when Rogers’ tendencies were figured out (combined with that smaller playbook), UW’s offense floundered a bit.
For whatever reason, it seemed like the Huskies weren’t fully on board with committing to Demond Williams Jr. (originally Washington’s second string QB but certainly a guy that seemed to fit the vision that Fisch has for this offense) until late in the season.
Once the Huskies did make that commitment, he played well. Especially in the Sun Bowl. But as ESPN college football analyst and former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy pondered about, it’s worth wondering just how high Williams’ ceiling is this coming season.
Greg McElroy points out that the Washington Huskies will need to support Demond Williams Jr. so he can reach his full potential
All that said, it seems like McElroy is intrigued by Williams and the potential he brings to the table.
“If you look at Williams, there were some flashes there at the end of this freshman year where Washington fans should feel pretty excited about what Jedd Fish may have in the future from this quarterback," McElroy noted.
And that’s absolutely true. Williams played really, really well last season. McElroy was pretty quick and prepared with the stats for that.
“He completed 78 percent of his passes, he had 944 yards,” McElroy said.
How will all of that look moving forward though?
“Now, an entire offseason where he’s the man, you’ve got to feel pretty good for a possibility of a breakout campaign for Williams in his second year,” he said.
UW will need to make sure that Washington’s receiver s are able to contribute in a big way to support Williams, especially with the fact that Giles Jackson is out of eligibility and off to the NFL as an undrafted free agent. But, there’s plenty of talent in that wide receiver room for exciting plays to happen.