Inside The Huskies

Huskies Seem to Shield Rogers from Spotlight, Pressure

The Mississippi State transfer is being brought along at a deliberate pace.

Dan Raley

Will Rogers looks for a receiver during spring ball.
Will Rogers looks for a receiver during spring ball. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Will Rogers didn't attend Big Ten Media Days last week for the University of Washington football team. Doesn't show up on many preseason lists. Wasn't necessarily a spring game standout. Has even heard or read that he's in competition for the Husky starting quarterback job with freshman Demond Williams Jr.

As the Huskies prepare to open fall camp this week, the 6-foot-2, 212-pound senior from Brandon, Mississippi, a transfer from Mississippi State and the heir apparent to Michael Penix Jr. seems to be operating in the shadows somewhat for the new iteration of UW football.

Some might wonder if Rogers' low-key introduction merits some concern, but in reality it's more likely coach Jedd Fisch -- who's not afraid to hype one of his players to the press -- is taking a more cautious approach with his new quarterback and giving him as much room as possible to settle in with the Huskies.

This is what happened to Penix two years earlier with Kalen DeBoer's staff where everyone could see that the Indiana transfer was going to be QB-1 yet he had to go through the camp ritual of competing for the starting job with Dylan Morris and Sam Huard.

In Rogers' case, he's spent most of his college football career in the late Mike Leach's pass-first offense and has had to go through a bit of a quarterback adjustment period in learning Fisch's NFL-style offense. Whereas Penix had the advantage of picking up right where he left off with DeBoer's let-it-fly offense that he had previously run. The lefty finished with 13,741 career passing yards at his two schools before getting drafted as a first-rounder by the Atlanta Falcons.

To be clear, Rogers is the Huskies' No. 1 quarterback moving forward, maybe not a serious NFL prospect at the moment, but working diligently to try and get there with the support of a calculating coach with a longstanding pro football background.

"He has an incredible football mind, football acumen," Fisch said of Rogers in Indianapolis. "He played in Coach Leach's system for three years and last year played in more of a pro-style system, where they were able to teach him a little bit more about playing under center and playing with more tight ends."

When ready, Fisch envisions Rogers using his leadership skills gleaned from his four years and 40 starts at Mississippi State and transferring it over to the Huskies with success.

"He has a great ability to communicate the game of football," the coach said. "What we've asked our quarterbacks in the past is to control the line of scrimmage and we think he'll be good at that, as well."

Rogers, who threw for 12,315 yards and 94 TDs at Mississippi State, is one of five quarterback transfers entering Big Ten play who will have plenty of eyes on them. He actually signed with Kalen DeBoer's Husky staff, which saw more than enough ability in Rogers to pursue him -- when it could have had just about anyone out of the transfer portal because of its wide-open style and nationally ranked offense.

Drawing the most attention of the newcomers is Oregon's sixth-year senior Dillon Gabriel, 23, who previously played three years at Central Florida and the past two at Oklahoma. He piled up 14,865 yards and 125 touchdowns while starting 49 of 50 games. Yet with a shorter 5-foot-11, 204-pound frame, Gabriel still has a lot to prove to pro scouts.

Tyler Van Dyke, 23, is a senior who stands a much more robust 6-foot-4 and 224 pounds and comes to Wisconsin after playing four seasons at Miami. He's thrown for 6,659 yards and 61 TDs while starting 25 times.

At Ohio State, 6-foot-4, 238-pound senior Will Howard, 22, will finish up his career after four seasons at Kansas State. He comes to the Buckeyes with 5,786 yards and 48 touchdowns passing in 27 starts. He might have had trouble keeping his job at the Big 12 school because of the emergence of dual-threat QB and Kansas nativeAvery Johnson, who was heavily recruited by the DeBoer staff for the UW.

Finally, Michigan State will turn to 6-foot-3, 212-pound sophomore Aiden Chiles, an Oregon State transfer who's just getting started. Only 18, he played in nine games as a reserve and threw for 309 yards and 4 scores for the Beavers. Seeing a mobile player with a lot of possibilities, DeBoer made a big push for the California native two years ago to come to Montlake.

The Huskies will play against only Gabriel, at least in a regular-season game, this coming season.

Now comes Rogers, 22, a record-setter in the SEC but carefully brought along in Seattle to polish and upgrade his quarterbacking skills some. He's a high school coach's son. He's a proven signal-caller yet a work in progress.

He's been protected by Fisch before everyone sees if a brand-new UW offensive line can keep hands off him, the No. 1 guy.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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