Inside The Huskies

Huskies Reportedly Add Back-Up QB They Once Tried to Recruit

Stanford's Elijah Brown will come to Montlake and enter the competition.
Dan Raley|
Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown (2) will join the UW.
Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown (2) will join the UW. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

Elijah Brown was the starting quarterback for Mater Dei's 2023 Southern California powerhouse, considered one of the top three high school teams in the country back then, and a guy seemingly with endless offers.

Kalen DeBoer's then University of Washington recruiters made a big push to pursue him, but couldn't make any headway with the 6-foot-2, 205-pound signal-caller, who would sign with Stanford.

Three years later, in an unusual turn of events, Brown reportedly will join the Huskies, according to On3, only as a potential back-up to junior Demond Williams Jr. rather than necessarily be the main man.

Husky coach Jedd Fisch recently suggested he might be in the market to add a seasoned QB to provide depth and assume the role that Kai Horton, formerly of Tulane, held for the Huskies this past season.

Brown would be that person.

Adding to the intrigue here, the UW already has redshirt freshman Dash Beierly, Brown's Mater Dei quarterback successor, on the roster.

Brown will join the Huskies following two seasons at Stanford, where he appeared in nine games and started four of them.

He brings career passing totals of 102 for 175 for 1,103 yards and 6 touchdowns with 5 interceptions.

He won just one of those outings as the starter, leading the Cardinal to a 31-10 victory over California by completing 10 of 20 passes for 123 yards and a score.

In his final Stanford outing, Brown started againt Notre Dame and, in a 49-20 loss, hit on 18 of 37 passes for 204 yards and a TD.

Stanford's Elijah Brown (2) throws a pass against Notre Dame.
Stanford's Elijah Brown (2) throws a pass against Notre Dame. | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

In his best college day in the pocket, he turned in a 27-for-39, 284-yard, 1-TD performance against Steve Belichick's North Carolina defense in a 20-15 defeat.

Brown led Mater Dei to a pair of CIF championships, winning 42 of 44 games, while fielding 16 scholarship offers that were mostly from high-profile college football programs.

A 4-star recruit, he dealt with Alabama, Georgie, Michigan, Ole Miss, Penn State, Tennessee and USC during the recruiting process, but made a strong connection to a Cardinal coaching staff headed up by Troy Taylor, a former Cal quarterback.

Elijah Brown (2) runs with the ball against California Golden Bears.
Elijah Brown (2) runs with the ball against California Golden Bears. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

He leaves Stanford following a 4-8 season with the coaching job going from Taylor to Frank Reich this past season to Tavita Pritchard, a former Cardinal quarterback from Tacoma, during his time there..

Brown joins a Husky quarterback position group that includes Williams, Beierly, redshirt freshman Kini McMillan and incoming freshman Derek Zammit.

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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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