Penn State Helped Usher In Demond Williams Jr. Era

The last time the University of Washington and Penn State met on the football field two years ago, the Huskies began the uncomfortable yet planned transition to then-freshman Demond Williams Jr. as the No. 1 quarterback.

At halftime of a game the UW was losing 28-0 in the middle of Pennsylvania, coach Jedd Fisch informed veteran starter Will Rogers he was taking the ball from him and putting it in the hands of Williams for the next two quarters, the young guy's first lengthy playing time.

Two games later in 2024, Williams was installed as the starter for the first of 21 consecutive Husky outings before he fractured a rib a month ago, missed parts of three outings and didn't start against either Purdue or Nebraska.

Well, here comes Penn State to Husky Stadium on Saturday afternoon and, by all indications, it's time for another UW quarterback reset -- with Williams most likely returning to his role and replacing Elijah Brown as the starter behind center against the Nittany Lions (4-4 overall, 1-4 Big Ten).

At his week-opening press briefing, Fisch intimated his plans were to use his now junior quarterback should the latter receive an extended clean bill of health going into the Penn State game.

“We’ll make a decision here at the end of the week, but if Demond is feeling good, I don’t see why he wouldn’t play and start,” Fisch said.

If that's the case, Brown will return to his back-up QB role for the Huskies (5-3, 2-3) and face the tough conversation that Rogers did in 2024, only Brown will hear it twice.

This past Saturday night, with the Huskies trailing 7-3 and unable to move the football against Nebraska, Fisch informed Brown on the sideline the team needed a spark and he was going to make a change to Williams to begin the fourth quarter.

Brown, the Stanford transfer who has re-energized his college career and made himself a reliable quarterback again, did the best he could to handle a tough situation.

“Elijah, as any competitor would be, is always going to be disappointed when you hear that,” Fisch said. “But he handled it exceptionally well. He went right to Demond and said, ‘Let’s warm up,’ and then was an amazing teammate.”

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Huskies quarterback Elijah Brown (7) lets go of a second-quarter pass at Nebraska. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Williams took over for three series at Nebraska, with the first one ending in a punt, the second one leading to a go-ahead, 25-yard touchdown pass to Chris Lawson with 1:30 left to play, and the final drive simply a one-snap kneel down to run out the clock.

Brown now likely retreats to the sideline for the Penn State game, this after throwing 3 touchdown passes against both Iowa and Purdue, and providing able relief.

He's gained enough cache it wouldn't be all that surprising if he was inserted in a game again just to keep him fresh.

Two years ago, Fisch, knowing the outcome was clear, raised a white flag at halftime in State College, Pennsylvania, and put Williams in a prominent role for the first time in his career at the expense of Rogers, who appeared in 54 games and passed for 14,773 yards for the UW and Mississippi State.

Demond Williams Jr. and Adam Mohammed, then freshmen of the future for the UW, leave the field at Penn State. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The young quarterback directed the Huskies to a pair of second-half field goals that day by Grady Gross, but no touchdown drives.

However, Williams left people salivating at what he might bring to the Huskies' offense when he got loose on a what is still a career-long 43-yard run in front of the crowd of 110,223 in State College.

Being a college quarterback can be an extremely insensitive job, no matter who you are. Once Williams became the starting quarterback for the final two games of that 2024 season, Rogers never played again for the UW.

Williams, who struggled at times over the first six games this season, should be a better quarterback now for staring down his first real adversity and overcoming his first significant injury as a Husky, and for coming back to save the day in Lincoln.

"I'm ready to go out there next week and play again," he said after beating Nebraska, sounding greatly rejuvenated. "I'm very close to 100 percent."

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