Rogers Next Up to Make Husky Starting Quarterback Debut

The Mississippi State transfer is the 40th guy in five and a half decades to take the reins.

Will Rogers has an impressive QB track record but he's been ignored in the preseason hype. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Warren Moon fumbled away his first snap. Greg Collins lasted only the opening series before his coaches pulled him. Taylor Barton got one shot and never started again. Chris Rowland threw 5 touchdown passes against California as a sub and none the following week against Oregon State when he was made a first-time starter.

Over the past five and a half decades -- since Sonny Sixkiller ushered in the modern-day passing era in Montlake in 1970 -- 39 players have started at quarterback for the University of Washington and, on Saturday night against Weber State at Husky Stadium, Will Rogers, the Mississippi State transfer, will become the 40th.

While most of these Husky quarterbacks have been freshmen or sophomores, leading to plenty of uncertainty going in and just 20 first-game victories coming out, Rogers is a fifth-year senior with 40 starts behind him (a 23-17 record), plus the comfort of knowing he and his new teammates are generous 27-point favorites over their Big Sky opponent.

He'll be the most experienced new quarterback the Huskies have had, following Michael Penix Jr., who was a 17-game starter (12-5) when he arrived from Indiana two years ago, and Tom Porras, who was a two-year California JC quarterback when he replaced Moon in 1978.

Rogers currently ranks as the SEC's second all-time leading passer with 12,315 yards, which is better than the likes of Peyton Manning, Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, Bryce Young, Johnny Manziel and everyone else who's come through the league with the exception of Georgia's Aaron Murray, who finished with 13,166 yards in 2010-13. This Mississippi State icon gave up a certain record to try something new at the UW.

Even with no Husky offensive starters returning from the national runner-up game that he sat and watched as an invited guest, Rogers has come to Seattle for two reasons: 1) to become NFL savvy in Jedd Fisch's pro-style offense and 2) to overcome last season's sour taste left with him when everything went wrong -- his coach, Mike Leach, died in the offseason, he pivoted to an offense that didn't suit him and he missed parts of five games with a shoulder injury.

"It's kind of been my mission as the quarterback, as the leader with this team, for this program, for this new program, to kind of run our own race," Rogers said. "We're not last year's team. We're not Arizona's team from last year. We're a bunch of different guys from different places."

The UW has been a bit of an obstacle course for Rogers, who entered the transfer portal and signed with coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, only to see them pack up and leave for Alabama and the Seattle Seahawks, respectively. He and Grubb had bonded, sitting together and going over Mississippi State game footage and discussing the decision-making process. Jedd Fisch's staff had to sell him all over again on what the Huskies would provide, do for his college career and how they would get him ready to pursue the pros.

HUSKY QB DEBUTS	PA-PC-I-YD-TD, outcome
Sonny Sixkiller, 1970, Michigan State	16-25-3-276-3, 42-16 win
Greg Collins, 1970, Stanford	2-2-1-9-0, 29-22 loss
Denny Fitzpatrick, 1972, USC	3-11-2-15-0, 34-0 loss
Mark Backman, 1972, Oregon State	7-12-2-93-2, 23-16 win
Chris Rowland, 1973, Oregon State	6-19-3-68-0, 31-7 loss
Warren Moon, 1975, Arizona State	12-23-0-121-0, 35-12 loss
Tom Porras, 1978, UCLA	9-15-2-89-0, 10-7 loss
Tom Flick, 1978, WSU	4-6-1-65-2, 38-8 win
Tim Cowan, 1981, Pacific	12-17-2-168-1, 34-14 win
Steve Pelluer, 1981, Oregon	20-40-1234-1, 17-3 win
Hugh Millen, 1984, Northwestern	11-23-1-103-0, 26-0 win
Paul Sicuro, 1984, California	8-20-0117-3, 44-14 win
Chris Chandler, 1985, USC	19-32-0-197-2, 20-17 win
Cary Conklin, 1988, Purdue	5-18-3-57-1, 20-6 win
Mark Brunell, 1990, San Jose State	7-27-0-66-1, 20-17 win
Billy Joe Hobert, 1991, Stanford	21-31-1-244-2, 42-7 win
Damon Huard, 1993, Stanford	14-23-0-174-3, 31-14 win
Eric Bjornson, 1993, Oregon State	7-16-0-113-0, 28-21 win
Shane Fortney, 1996, Arizona State	8-17-0-96-1, 45-42 loss
Brock Huard, 1996, Arizona	20-31-1-311-3, 31-17 win
Marques Tuiasosopo, 1997, Oregon	15-30-1-261-1, 31-28 loss
Cody Pickett, 2001, Michigan	13-22-0-199-0, 23-18 win
Taylor Barton, 2001, UCLA	22-44-1-316-1, 35-15 loss
Casey Paus, 2004, Fresno State	18-39-3-183-0, 35-16 loss
Carl Bonnell, 2004, Stanford	9-25-1-118-0, 27-13 loss
Isaiah Stanback, 2004, USC	3-16-0-27-0, 38-0 loss
Jake Locker, 2007, Syracuse	14-19-0-142-0, 42-12 win
Ronnie Fouch, 2008, Arizona	12-28-1-181-1, 48-14 loss
Keith Price, 2010, Oregon	14-28-0-127-1, 53-16 loss
Nick Montana, 2011, Oregon State	11-21-1-79-2, 38-21 loss
Cyler Miles, 2013, Oregon State	15-24-0-162-1, 69-27 loss
Jeff Lindquist, 2014, Hawaii	10-26-0-162-1, 17-16 win
Troy Williams, 2014, Arizona State	18-26-2-139-0, 24-10 loss
Jake Browning, 2015, Boise State	20-34-1-150-0, 16-13 loss
KJ Carta-Samuels, 2015, Stanford	9-21-0-118-0, 31-14 loss
Jacob Eason, 2019, Eastern Washington	27-36-0-349-4, 47-14 win
Dylan Morris, 2020, Oregon State	14-24-0-141-0, 27-21 win
Sam Huard, 2021, Washington State	17-31-4-190-1, 40-13 loss
Michael Penix Jr., 2022, Kent State	26-39-0-345-4, 45-20 win

Rogers comes to the UW after experiencing 4-7, 7-6, 9-4 and 5-7 seasons at Mississippi State, both winning and losing in large amounts, but beating Fisch's Arizona teams twice, Texas A&M twice, and Auburn twice, even memorably outdueling Bo Nix at the latter school.

In his top individual performance in 2021, Rogers connected on 44 of 55 passes for 415 yards and 6 touchdowns in the Bulldogs' 43-34 victory at Auburn, while Nix, in ithe season before he left for Oregon, was good on 27 of 41 passes for 377 yards and 2 scores. Nix, after losing to the Huskies and Penix and now starting for the Denver Broncos, must be shaking his head that Rogers is in Seattle.

Quarterback Will Rogers stretches out during spring ball. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Rogers left the comfort of home -- he's a native of Brandon, Mississippi, some 115 miles from Mississippi State, where he grew up as the son of a football coach -- to become the starting quarterback, a captain and one of the leaders of a brand-new UW team.

"It's kind of like our whole team, it's kind of like a whole new team, but especially on offense," the quarterback said. "A transfer here, a transfer there, A guy who was injured here, a guy who was injured there. It's been challenging but I think the strides we've made since the beginning of fall camp until now have been just tremendous for us. I think it's good for our confidence."

A debut victory for Rogers as the UW starting quarterback would go a long way to making people everywhere around the program feel good about Husky football again.

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