Think Williams Should Replace Rogers at Husky QB? It's Not Going to Happen

Lose a couple of football games, and the University of Washington fan reaction is as automatic and instantaneous as the siren that wails following each successful scoring opportunity for the Huskies.

Change quarterbacks. they demand.

Put in the other guy, they insist.

In this case, following the UW's 31-17 weekend loss at Indiana, the loyalists not afraid to voice their displeasure on the message boards called for the Huskies to swap out senior starter Will Rogers with freshman back-up Demond Williams Jr. behind center.

After all, the speedy, dual-threat Williams seems to make opposing defenses extremely nervous whenever he's in the game and the first-year player had the Hoosiers badly fooled on his 8-yard, third-quarter touchdown run.

Jedd Fisch's reaction: It's not going to happen.

"Demond is going to be ready to take this team over at some point in time," the UW coach acknowledged. "I think that, right now, Will continues to give us the best chance."

Fisch pointed out how his older quarterback has completed 72 percent of his passes this season and he's done a decent job of protecting the football, though Rogers served up two interceptions in Bloomington, including a 67-yard pick-six returned by Hoosiers cornerback D'Angelo Ponds in the first quarter.

The coach gave Rogers an out on the touchdown runback, citing irregular circumstances.

"The first one was a total fluke play, that the center just hit the quarterback's arm into the blitzer and, the blitzer it was crazy," Fisch said.

What the coach didn't say is, with the Husky continuing offensive-line struggles against Iowa and now Indiana, the outcome likely wasn't going to be any different with Rogers or Williams running the team.

It also sends a bad message to the team and to outsiders who might consider coming to Montlake to play for this staff to yank the SEC's second all-time leading passer from Mississippi State, now with 48 college starts, from the lineup. After all, he was the guy who listened to the selling job and stayed put in Seattle following the UW coaching change that sent Kalen DeBoer to Alabama and brought Fisch in from Arizona. The coaches owe him something for that.

Also, Williams, as good as he's shown, remains in steady development, which the current staff doesn't want to veer away from at this time and cause him any disruptions.

"Demond's improvement has been really good for the last eight weeks," Fisch said. "Each week he's gotten better. Each week he's gotten more comfortable when he goes in the game."

Huskies QB Will Rogers (7) is tackled by Indiana defender Mikail Kamara (6) during the first quarter of Saturday's game. — Huskies quarterback Will Rogers (7) is tackled by Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara (6) during the first quarter of Saturday's game. | Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

Rogers, who was sacked three times at Indiana, has the numbers to back up the assertion that he deserves to be the starter by completing 172 of 238 passes for 2,022 yards and 13 touchdowns while serving up just four interceptions, including the two to the Hoosiers.

Give him some pass protection, as everyone has seen earlier this season, and he can beat a team such as Michigan.

"We've got to make plays round Will," Fisch said. "We've got to make bigger plays in the passing game. We've got to hit the big ones."

As the same time, the Husky coach has to like the fact that team followers already are enamored with Williams at quarterback and what he can do on the football field. But his time as the No. 1 quarterback will come soon enough.

"Demond is going to be special," Fisch said. "Demond will be the face of Washington football moving forward next year."

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