Inside The Huskies

Huskies Take Major Sack -- Demond Williams Just Up and Left

The talented UW quarterback posted "he had to do what was best for his family."
Dan Raley|
Demond Williams Jr. signals first down against Oregon in Eugene in 2024.
Demond Williams Jr. signals first down against Oregon in Eugene in 2024. | Skylar Lin Visuals

In the aftermath of the LA Bowl, Jedd Fisch sat next to Demond Williams Jr. and said his University of Washington football team was fully aware it had an elite player at quarterback going forward and consequently knew it was going to win a lot of games in 2026.

Well, in one fateful social-media post, everything changed for the Huskies on a rainy and miserable Tuesday night in Seattle, when Williams disclosed he will enter the transfer portal -- thus leaving the UW without anyone remotely resembling an experienced player at that position.

To say the least, it was a shocking development that takes all of the air out of Fisch's painstaking two-year rebuild in Montlake.

“I have to do what is best for me and my future," Williams wrote on Instagram.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Williams was entering the portal with a do-not-contact tag, which most likely means that a deal with another team already is firmly in place and there will be no further negotiation.

Williams reportedly signed an agreement with the Huskies that made him one of the better compensated players in the college game, but no numbers were leaked out or are required to be released. It's not clear if the school has any legal recourse.

Whether or not the UW could counter the offer, it sure sounded like the quarterback was saying good bye in his post.

"I also want to thank the fans and the Seattle community for the constant love and support during my time at Washington," he wrote. "I truly enjoyed my time over the past two years and am grateful for the memories and experiences."

For the UW coaching staff and the fan base, it had to feel like the ultimate betrayal because of what the Huskies did in putting together this team -- by stacking it around Williams, who started 15 career games and was named the LA Bowl Offensive MVP.

Williams and Fisch go back six years, forming a relationship when the quarterback was a freshman at Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona, and the coach was at the University of Arizona.

Yet this is the nature of college football now without any perceivable guardrails in place, in terms of rules on money amounts or player contacts, to prevent poaching.

Williams' reveal came just hours after the UW's once projected No. 1 running back Adam Mohammed signed with California.

While there's no clear indication of who might have intervened with Williams, big-money teams such as LSU and Oregon are seeking quarterbacks for next season, with the Ducks expected to lose Dante Moore to the NFL Draft once their playoff run is finished.

LSU, without any hesitation or shame, hired coach Lane Kiffin away from an Ole Miss team currently in the CFP semifinals with a chance at winning a national title.

Jon Wilner of the Bay Area News Group was quick to point out that Williams was once committed to Kiffin and Ole Miss before the quarterback flipped to Fisch and Arizona in July 2023, so there is previous crossover in the competition for Williams' services.

With his 4.3-second, 40-yard dash speed, Williams clearly is one of the nation's top dual-threat quarterbacks and it's not surprising someone came after him with a financial package too significant to resist.

Fisch even labeled him as a Heisman Trophy candidate and a possible NFL first-round draft pick, though that might have been more hype than reality considering Williams' height.

Yet now Williams apparently is gone, leaving the Huskies to scramble to find an experienced quarterback or two to try and salvage something out of next season, no easy task by any means.

On the roster, the Huskies have only a pair of scholarship quarterbacks in redshirt freshmen Kini McMillan from Hawaii and Dash Beierly from the Los Angeles area who have played, with incoming freshman Derek Zammit on the way.

Each player appeared in just one Husky game this past season, alternating handing off on the final series of the LA Bowl against Boise State.

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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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