Test Run? Demond Williams Has Freedom to Get Out and Go

The freshman quarterback doesn't hesitate to tuck the ball and take off.

Demond Williams Jr. presents the UW with a dual-threat option. / Skylar Lin Visuals

For the coming season, everyone knows that Will Rogers is the starting quarterback for the University of Washington football team. That's not up for discussion. The SEC's second all-time leading passer from Mississippi State will prove to be a smart player who stands confidently in the pocket and gets the ball out quick.

Yet behind Rogers, it's a whole different story. When he enters a Husky game, whenever that might be -- first quarter, fourth quarter, close encounter or a blowout -- freshman signal-caller Demond Williams Jr. will survey the field, feel the pressure close in around him and be inclined to run all over the place.

Fans will love it, coming out of their seats and feeling the excitement that comes with each 20-yard run. Opponents will dread facing the improvising kid, especially after thinking they were just beginning to figure out Rogers, the other guy.

While Jedd Fisch and his staff strategize in how to get the most mileage out of two dramatically different quarterbacks, it's a fair question to ask the UW coach whether his rookie quarterback runs maybe a little too much?

After all, Williams has a decent arm as well as those fast feet. Yet in one fall camp scrimmage, the first-year player felt compelled to run four times in eight consecutive passing plays. His coach thinks he knows why.

"It's a natural habit as a freshman, just like it is as a rookie in the NFL, that you just scramble quicker," Fisch said. "You get out of there faster because you're not accustomed to necessarily trusting everything around you."

Fisch went through the same thing with a mobile quarterback in Jayden de Laura, who transferred after two seasons at Washington State to to play two more at Arizona and is finishing up at Texas State, and then with the equally elusive Noah Fafita, who as a redshirt freshman replaced an injured de Laura and wouldn't give the job back when the other guy got healthy again.

Initially headed for Arizona when Fisch was there before following him to the UW, the 5-foot-11, 187-pound Williams acknowledges in a lyrical manner there is work to be done involving his decision-making.

"I would say the development is like super key, just being able to know when to run and when to pass," he said. "Just know you're always like a passer until you're a runner, until you pass the line of scrimmage and you turn into a runner."

Demond Williams Jr. (2) and Will Rogers (7) are the UW's top two quarterbacks. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Fisch merely treats Williams' scrambling situation as a nice problem to have, that the benefits far outweigh any downside to running out of the pocket too much. With his previous quarterbacks, he just made sure they received plenty of repetitions in which the choices became more natural for them.

Again, this is not a dilemma that keeps the new Husky football coach up late at night worrying about it, because Williams' speed is probably more elite than the others and certainly will move the football down the field.

"I think the more comfortable Demond feels. the more he'll stay in there," Fisch said. "But when you run as fast as Demond runs, we're OK with him taking off and running, too."

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