Inside The Huskies

Fisch Is Hardly Radio Silent on Quarterback Demond Williams Jr.

The UW football coach shared more insights on his young signal-caller on the Jim Rome Show.

Dan Raley

Two of the Huskies' bright young stars are Demond Williams Jr. (2) and Rahshawn Clark (20), shown in the Spring Game.
Two of the Huskies' bright young stars are Demond Williams Jr. (2) and Rahshawn Clark (20), shown in the Spring Game. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The selling of Demond Williams Jr. as the University of Washington's next starting quarterback continued this week as coach Jedd Fisch went on Jim Rome's national radio show and shared more insights about this young kid.

What we learned that was new was Williams runs a sub 4.4-second 40, which the coach had been a little reluctant to share in detail before.

We thought it was 4.4, so that's a step faster.

That also has to be a disturbing revelation to any opposing defensive coordinator who was listening in.

Fisch, who's known Williams since the latter was a 10th-grader in high school, also shared how his staff is making a bunch of changes to customize the offense for his No. 1 quarterback.

"We're really creating an offense around Demond," Fisch told Rome. "We've done a lot of research. We've changed a lot from some of the core things we've done in the past."

Rome asked if Williams resembles any quarterback Fisch previously has tutored and the coach didn't offer up any names. It's probably because the speedster doesn't compare to anyone else. He's a player all to his own.

"His uniqueness is his running ability is so different from some of the other quarterbacks I've been around," Fisch said. "I kind of feel like for most of my career it's all been the pocket passer who can move versus the elite athlete who can throw. Demond is right there in the middle."

Fisch was quick to remind the radio host that his quarterback is still just 19, only a sophomore, and his potential is off the charts considering his youth and physical attributes, plus he's hard to tackle.

He referenced the Sun Bowl, where Williams passed for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth against Louisville, as the performance bar that's been set going forward.

"I think this kid has so much potential to be an elite player," the UW coach said. "He's working exceptionally hard. Now obviously, he's got to start a whole season. It's different. It's a completely new universe where you've got to get involved when you're the starting quarterback."

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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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