Inside The Huskies

Cal Poly Takes On Another Former Husky QB

Dermaricus Davis will turn to the Big Sky after stops at Hawaii, UCLA and the UW.
Dan Raley|
Former Husky QB Dermaricus Davis (9) was with UCLA in 2024.
Former Husky QB Dermaricus Davis (9) was with UCLA in 2024. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

For the second time in four seasons, Cal Poly will turn to a former University of Washington quarterback to run the offense, picking up the well-traveled Dermaricus Davis from the transfer portal.

Davis will follow one-time Husky Sam Huard to the Big Sky school, similarly looking to try and jump-start his college football career.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound sophomore from Altadena, California, will turn to the Mustangs after signing with the UW and Kalen DeBoer's staff as a 4-star recruit and going through half of spring football, transferring and redshirting at UCLA, and spending last season at Hawaii as the Rainbow Warriors' No. 3 quarterback.

Not quite two years ago, Davis and Demond Williams Jr. were freshmen quarterbacks for Jedd Fisch's UW coaching staff, battling during the spring for the back-up job behind senior Will Rogers.

Williams moved past Davis in the QB rotation and the latter headed for the transfer portal with spring ball still ongoing.

Fisch acknowledged back then that Davis was a little jumpy in running the offense in Montlake.

He transferred to UCLA and sat out the entire 2024 season as as redshirt, while another former Husky QB, Ethan Garbers, was the No. 1 guy for the Bruins.

Next stop for Davis was Hawaii, where he appeared in seven games, but threw only 3 passes against Portland State, completing one for 10 yards. He also rushed the ball seven times for 67 yards, breaking a 37-yard run againt Utah State.

Demond Williams Jr. (2) is probably one reason Dermaricus Davis (9) is no longer with the UW.
Demond Williams Jr. (2) is probably one reason Dermaricus Davis (9) is no longer with the UW. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Now it's on to his fourth school where he'll join the group of candidates lining up to replace last year's starter, Ty Dieffenbach, who has transferred to UCLA.

In 2023, the Mustangs went with Huard as their quarterback starter after he had spent two seasons at the UW as a legacy player, as the son of Damon and nephew of Brock, both Husky and NFL signal-callers.

Huard since has transferred to Utah and USC where, similar to Davis, he's still searching for extended playing time.

As hard as it is for a player to be patient these days, and granted there have been UW coaching changes involved, one has to wonder if Huard and Davis wouldn't have been better served by remaining with the Huskies and letting things play out, rather than continually school shop.

With each change, Davis has gone from the Big Ten to the Big Ten to the Mountain West and now to the Big Sky.

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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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