Inside The Huskies

Husky QB Carousel Is Head-Spinning to Everyone Watching

On CFP title game night, the UW had eight quarterbacks on scholarship, on the roster or committed. One remains.

Dan Raley

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As Jedd Fisch introduced himself as the next University of Washington football coach, Tim Cowan sat a few rows back to his right while Damon Huard stood off to the left.

They were noteworthy because they were only experienced Husky quarterbacks anywhere near campus that day.

Unfortunately for Fisch, Cowan is 63, retired after winning the 1982 Aloha Bowl offensive player of the game trophy and spending four years in the CFL and a loyal alum.

Huard?

He's 50 and a decade and a half past the last of his dozen NFL seasons, which brought him a pair of Super Bowl rings, and he's working administratively for the UW.

Eleven days ago, the Huskies were flush with quarterbacks when they played the College Football Playoff championship game, showing up against Michigan in Houston with an all-star cast and one of the deepest position groups found anywhere.

They had a 28-game Husky starter and record-setting passer in Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr., who used up his six years of eligibility against the Wolverines.

A 15-game UW starter holding down a back-up role in Dylan Morris, who transferred to James Madison after the game.

A 12,315-yard passer in Mississippi State's Will Rogers, who was brought in as a hired gun to replace Penix and watched the title game as a spectator wearing Husky jersey No. 15.

The 17-year-old phenom Austin Mack, who was redshirting as a 6-foot-6, 226-pound freshman and had everyone overly excited about the future in Montlake.

San Diego State transfer Will Haskell, who two seasons of Mountain West experience and had run the Husky scout team all season.

California JC transfer Alex Johnson, who came home to Seattle looking to make a breakthrough.

High school signee Dermaricus Davis, who had attended classes for just a few days before accompanying the Huskies to Texas and pulling jersey No. 16.

Add to the mix Southern California 2025 prospect Jackson Kollock, who was verbally committed to the Huskies. 

Only Davis remains on the roster, with Rogers, Mack, Haskell and Johnson each entering the transfer portal, and Mack committing to Alabama, where he will rejoin former Husky coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, while Kollock de-commited from the UW.

Fisch, who coached Noah Fifita and Jayden de Laura at Arizona the past two years and had great success with each of them, naturally will make the quarterback position a priority in restocking things going forward in Montlake.

"We're an NFL-style, pro-style passing offense, that's who we are," the new Husky coach said. "We feel like the quarterback is going to be what makes our program go and we're going to do everything we can to get the best one."

Penix will be remembered as one of the Huskies' greatest quarterbacks in school history, guiding them to a national championship appearance and a 25-3 record while he was in town.

Morris, while scapegoated for the UW's 4-8, still won a pair of Husky games with touchdown passes in the closing seconds and was loyal to the team to the end by staying on the roster until the season was over. 

Rogers came no closer to the Huskies than pulling on No. 15 on the night of the title game and playing catching with Dillon Johnson, the UWs starting running back and a teammate of his at their SEC school.

With Haskell looking for a place to land this fall, DeBoer's coaching staff appeared to give him what amounted to a tryout but moved on from him, apparently not sold on his arm strength.

Mack reclassified as a high school student in Northern California so he could join the Huskies early and begin his development. His loss will be felt when he's having great success at Alabama and headed for the NFL. He's that good.

Johnson had nice size and was accurate, but probably not as mobile as DeBoer or Fisch want in their quarterback.

Davis and Kollock similarly were tall quarterbacks who seemed to have the full package and were either an early program arrival or commit.

Now it's up to Fisch to convince someone to come in and take the job as he rebuilds the Husky football program. Davis hasn't entered the portal. Fisch has Demond Williams, a 5-foot-10, 180-pounder who committed early to Arizona and entered the portal, coming to Seattle for a weekend visit. That's a start.

 

Fisch will be the first to tell anyone that his Arizona offense finished in the top eight nationally in each of the past seasons and more with Fifita and de Laura, quarterbacks who can throw and run. Yet he recognizes the local fan base grew accustomed to what Penix could do over and over again.

"We were the No. 1 explosive offense in the country two years ago,"Fisch said. "Our goal is to get back to that here at Washington, but we have big shoes to follow with what was done here offensively."

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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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