Inside The Huskies

Davis Reverses Himself, Chooses to Stay with Jedd Fisch's Huskies

The Southern California quarterback was signed by Kalen DeBoer and thought about leaving.

Dan Raley

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The player affectionately known as "MarMar" didn't get very far, far.

Dermaricus Davis, a 6-foot-5, 187-pound freshman quarterback from Altadena, California, decided on Thursday he will remain with the University of Washington football program, three days after announcing he was going to explore the transfer portal.

Following the UW coaching change from Kalen DeBoer to Jedd Fisch, nearly half of the recruits signed by the former have sought scholarship releases because they did get the man they signed up for.

Davis, however, was well acquainted with both coaching staffs, previously having taken an official visit to Arizona and ranking Fisch's Wildcats among his top three choices before picking DeBoer's Huskies.

“Coach Fisch and Coach [Jimmie] Dougherty have great offensive minds with a great scheme that I feel fits my play style," Davis told 247sports "I’m big on development and these are coaches I’m familiar with that I know can make me better.”

Davis, who enrolled for winter quarter, accompanied the Huskies to the national championship game in Houston as a spectator and wore No. 16 as he wandered the sideline with his new team.

"Really, really high ceiling," former Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said of Davis before leaving for the Sugar Bowl. "I think he's got a high ceiling and the right type of demeanor. He's a great kid, got a super low ego. He believes he's got a ton of work to do. He doesn't believe by any stretch that he's arrived."

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After briefly having no scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, the Huskies soon will have three after the Feb. 7 second signing date takes place, with a future commitment coming from a fourth signal-caller.

Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers similarly backtracked on leaving the UW and re-entering the portal and is projected to replace the departed Husky starter Michael Penix Jr. 

Potential early enrollee Demond Williams Jr., a freshman from Chandler, Arizona, and the Class of 2024, recently flipped his commitment from Arizona to the UW, following the Fisch staff.

Dash Beierly, a 2025 recruit from Temecula, California, likewise flipped from the Tucson school to the Huskies and has another high school season to play.

With Rogers a one-year player bringing a veteran quarterback presence to Montlake, Davis and Williams most likely will be in the thick of the competition to be the 2025 Husky starter.  

A 4-star recruit who answers to MarMar, a variation of his first name, Davis became a recruiting priority for the DeBoer staff after showing himself to be an effective dual-threat quarterback. 

For Entiwanda High School, which is located east of Pasadena, Davis passed for 2,618 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 223 yards and 7 more scores.

In a very short amount of time, the Husky quarterback position has gone from thin to well stocked.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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