Inside The Huskies

Demond Williams Jr. Hasn't Built Any National Following Just Yet

The Huskies quarterback, even with his Sun Bowl heroics, isn't appearing on any preseason lists.

Dan Raley

Demond Williams concentrates on getting the snap in his hands against Michigan.
Demond Williams concentrates on getting the snap in his hands against Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Everyone apparently turned off the CBS -TV broadcast of the Sun Bowl following Demond Williams Jr.'s opening-series pick-6.

How else do you explain that none of the quarterback list-makers so far have given the University of Washington's returning starter even a sniff as a top playmaker at his position and one badly misinformed observer, who might be of dubious standing anyway, even suggested a flop season for him as a sophomore.

No matter how you cut it, Williams' 374-yard, 4-touchdown passing effort against Louisville as a freshman on national TV in a postseason game from Texas has to count for something positive moving forward.

Nor does one have to dig deep to learn that Williams possesses elite speed to the degree one might be hard-pressed to find a speedier or more elusive college quarterback anywhere else across the country.

Yet Williams is going to have to do a lot more to build a following outside of Montlake. Name recognition isn't there just yet. Potential is a luxury that exists only for Arch Manning, but not him.

Consider that just this past week, CBS Sports dropped a top 10 quarterback power ranking, topped by Texas' Manning, the nephew for Peyton and Eli and grandson of Archie, who hasn't played much and has numbers almost identical to Williams.

In 12 games over two seasons, Manning has hit on 63 of 95 passes for 969 yards and 9 touchdowns. In comparison over 13 games last fall, Williams has 82 completions in 102 attempts for 944 yards and 8 scores.

UW coach Jedd Fisch basically has staked his reputation on Williams, replacing a 51-game starter in Will Rogers with the younger guy late last season and Fisch next suggested he and his staff would be doing everything in their control to turn him into Heisman Trophy candidate and a first-round draft pick.

In a year from now, don't be surprised to see both Manning and Williams pushing each other for attention.

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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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