Rogers Withdraws from Portal, On Board with Huskies Now

The Mississippi State QB was on the lam for 11 days between UW coaching staffs.

The Kalen DeBoer and Jedd Fisch coaching staffs can agree on this point: Having Will Rogers signed to a University of Washington scholarship is a comforting feeling.

Fisch's people, however, had to agonize over the Mississippi State transfer going on the lam for 11 days following the coaching change before the new Husky leader could entice him to back out of the portal and spend his senior season in Montlake.

Where there were no scholarship QBs officially on the UW roster for about day, Rogers on Tuesday withdrew from the portal and gave his new coach a 40-game starter and 12,315-yard passer to craft his first team around, a major step in putting together a competitive Big Ten entry.

When introduced as coach a week ago, Fisch was asked if the situation was daunting not having a veteran quarterback locked in to his program. Come to think of it, he didn't seem all that worried at the time.

"There's guys that went into the portal at quarterback, but they were still at the team meeting," the coach said with a smile. 

Here’s our ESPN story Will Rogers, who tells ESPN he’s exiting the transfer portal and will stay at Washington. He’s the No. 2 passer in SEC history and is excited to learn from UW coach Jedd Fisch, who has extensive NFL experience as an OC and QB coach. https://t.co/hLFbYQG9j8

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 24, 2024

The addition of the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Rogers once and for all will give the Huskies little falloff from Michael Penix Jr., who won 25 of 28 games while standing behind center for DeBoer, finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting and guided the UW to a national runner-up finish.

Rogers quite possibly was the most attractive quarterback in the transfer portal. He committed to DeBoer's coaching staff on Dec. 15, enrolled early in classes and accompanied the Husky football team to Houston and the College Football Playoff title game against Michigan, pulling on No. 15 as a spectator while throwing passes to Dillon Johnson on the sideline.

Johnson and Rogers played together at Mississippi State, and the running back had a hand in convincing the signal-caller to finish up his college career in Seattle similar to him.

Rogers and Fisch are well-acquainted on the football field after twice going head-to-head.

In 2022, Rogers enjoyed a 313-yard, 4-TD outing in Tucson as he led his SEC team to a 39-17 victory over Fisch's second Arizona team.

In the return match last September, Rogers threw a 29-yard scoring pass for Mississippi State to pull out a 31-24 overtime win over Fisch's Wildcats in Starkville, Mississippi.

While Rogers is locked in, Fisch has made a lot of headway in recent days with the quarterback position by getting a pair of players he had committed to Arizona, early enrollee freshman Demond Williams Jr. and high schooler Dash Beierly, to flip to the UW.

With roughly 20 roster spots left to fill, a logical next step for Fisch and his coaching staff is to find plenty of veteran linemen to surround Rogers and protect him in the pocket. The coach never seemed to waver in planning for his commitment.

"I think sometimes a player goes in the portal because of their opportunity to speak to other teams," Fisch said. "That doesn't necessarily mean they're not in this program, in this unique set of circumstances."

The new coach was right about that.

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