Washington’s Jedd Fisch Impressively Secured Huskies’ QB Room in Just a Few Days

The new Huskies coach has had a great week on the quarterback front.

Jedd Fisch has a huge task ahead of him, maintaining the momentum built by Kalen DeBoer at Washington just a year after the Huskies made a trip to the national championship. Time will tell whether he’ll be successful, but he’s gone a long way towards securing the program’s immediate future at the most important position this week.

Washington’s quarterback situation was thrown into flux after the departure of DeBoer to Alabama, with 2023 Heisman candidate Michael Penix Jr. graduating. DeBoer had landed a new veteran quarterback transfer in Will Rogers from Mississippi State, but the QB re-entered the transfer portal following the coaching change.

On Wednesday morning, Rogers announced that he has withdrawn from the portal and will stay at Washington.

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At Mississippi State, Rogers threw for 12,315 yards, finishing with the second-most career yards in SEC history despite missing four games due to injury in 2023. In his best season, 2021 in Mike Leach’s air raid system, Rogers threw for 4,739 yards, 36 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Will Rogers, a record-setting quarterback at Mississippi State, will remain at Washington after the coaching change :: Petre Thomas/USA TODAY Sports

In an interview with ESPN, Rogers cited Washington’s success last year and Fisch’s NFL experience as reasons for the decision. Fisch has bounced between college and NFL coaching staffs throughout his career, most recently coaching under Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018 to ’19 and Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots in ’20.

Rogers isn’t the only big win at quarterback for Fisch and the Huskies this week, however. The former Arizona coach managed to poach a pair of recruits from his Wildcats recruiting class, flipping them to the Huskies.

Demond Williams Jr., rated four-stars by most recruiting services, enrolled at Arizona, but has since transferred to Washington, making the announcement on Sunday. 

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On Tuesday, recruit Dash Beierly did the same, flipping his commitment from Arizona to Washington. 

“In light of recent developments and the strength of the relationships I’ve built during the recruiting process, I have decided to decommit from Arizona and will be committing to the University of Washington!” he said on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday. “Go Dawgs!”

Beierly told 247Sports that the move was seamless not only because of Fisch’s move, but because he was interested in Washington under DeBoer as well.

Of course, the DeBoer departure did cost the Huskies a bit. Dermaricus Davis, a blue-chip quarterback who had enrolled early, entered the transfer portal after the coaching switch. The team has also lost quarterback transfers from last year’s team, with freshman Austin Mack following the coach to Alabama, junior Dylan Morris heading to James Madison and sophomore William Haskell currently in the transfer portal.

Even so, Fisch and Husky fans have to be thrilled to have a win-ready quarterback in Rogers and two of the new coach’s handpicked recruits as his potential successor in the fold.