While the Washington Huskies may not be starting Will Rogers at quarterback to close out the season, it’s worth noting that UW’s head coach sure seems pretty dang proud of the signal caller who transferred from Starkville to Seattle to play for the Huskies.
True freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr. is set to get his second career start as the Huskies meet up with the Louisville Cardinals in the 2024 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, which means that Rogers likely won’t be on the field much. But the former Mississippi State Bulldog still played a pretty significant role in Washington getting to this point and he’s shown throughout his career that he’s a competitor.
In fact, Fisch seemed certain that Rogers’ ability to compete was going to help improve the freshman who was taking his place as a starter.
"He is going to continue to compete, he is going to continue to make Demond better," Fisch said of Rogers during a press conference.
Rogers threw for 2,458 yards and 14 touchdowns this season and while he was incredibly accurate throughout much of this season (and the vast majority of his career), it seemed like he wasn’t the best fit to keep the Huskies moving. Thus the move to Williams starting against Oregon and here against Louisville.
Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch notes how proud he is of Will Rogers as UW gets set for Sun Bowl
“Demond will start and we'll do the same thing we did with the reps that we did leading to Oregon where it's about a 75 to 25 percent split the way we practice,” Fisch said.
All of that said, Rogers did well to serve as a stopgap for the Huskies offense as Williams had the chance to get better throughout the season. And there was something of a two-quarterback system all throughout this first year with Jedd Fisch in charge.
As for what’s next for Rogers?
“He's going to continue to work on all of the things that will help him as he begins to train for the NFL,” Fisch explained. “Which is weight room, speed, accuracy, doing all the individual fundamentals, being a part of a great nutrition program, and continue to learn the game."
Given all that Rogers has seen throughout the career, and the 14,773 yards and 108 touchdowns that he’s thrown so far in his career, it’s pretty cool to see that he’s still able to help his team while preparing for the NFL.
We’ll see where he lands. More than likely, he’ll need the chance to learn an offensive system somewhere. Still, if Fisch is right, then it sounds like Rogers is willing to do quite a bit to help his team improve. And that’s a great quality to have.