Williams at Career Crossroads As Playmaking Ability Disappears

Before Demond Williams Jr. was injured against Iowa on Friday night, the University of Washington quarterback had turned into damaged goods.

As he left the field before halftime, walking ever so erect while dealing with some sort of upper-body ailment and escorted by medical staff, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound signal-caller had lost his capability to cogently make things happen.

It was difficult to watch him struggle. He was like the baseball player continually swinging and missing. A golfer with unforgivable yips. No longer the guy who threw 4 touchdown passes in the Sun Bowl. His muscle memory had deserted him.

This season, Williams seems to have lost whatever magic he possessed before, to the point that Husky coach Jedd Fisch in the postgame was asked if he would replace the 20-game starter with back-up Elijah Brown whether Williams was healthy or not.

"Give me 48 hours to really process exactly where we're at right now," Fisch said. "I think Demond is the starting quarterback. He's been our starting quarterback. We expect him to be our starting quarterback."

The problem for Fisch is he's totally invested himself and the entire UW football program in the speedy dual-threat quarterback from Chandler, Arizona, and there's really no point where he can abandon him now.

Coming out of the locker room before Friday's game, Fisch walked directly to Williams with outstretched arms and they held each other in a long embrace before the coach moved on and looked over the rest of his players.

The thing about this Husky leader is he's staked his career on this quarterback who nearly left him in the offseason presumably for LSU and more earnings potential before reversing himself after a lot of discussion. All was forgiven.

Yet there was the understanding Williams would produce and it's not been happening this season so far.

"We expect him to continue to improve, get healthy and play well and play better and keep getting better," Fisch said.

A pair of Iowa defenders bookend Demond Williams Jr. | Dave Sizer photo

However in six offensive possessions against Iowa, the defense went after him with a vengeance and Williams immediately became indecisive.

It's as if the scouting report said this 20-year-old kid with the electric foot speed doesn't have a history of making good choices when under pressure so squeeze him.

In particular, call up last year's Michigan game film where he threw three interceptions in the second half and a 7-7 game consequently turned into a 24-7 defeat.

Williams almost seems to be pre-programmed in what he does, so often it's hard for him to improvise at a high level.

Consequently, the Hawkeyes decided to bring it and see how he reacted.

Demond Williams Jr. is brought down by an Iowa defender. | Dave Sizer photo

In those half-dozen drives, Williams and the Huskies went three-and-out on four of them, picked up a lone first down on a fifth series and finally moved the ball 63 yards for a Tyler Robles field goal and a 27-3 deficit.

Even in the latter, the quarterback had his team in a first-and-10 situation at the Iowa 18 only to hand the ball to running back Brian Bonner Jr. for 4 yards, throw an incompletion and scramble for 2 yards to bring on the field-goal team.

It wasn't clear if Williams was injured on that final run. He'd already been sacked four times in 28 prior snaps.

Demond Williams gets taken to the ground by a pair of Iowa tacklers. | Dave Sizer photo

In the starter's absence, Brown showed he could get things done by completing 28 of 39 passes for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns.

So the obvious question was, with Williams, how long do you wait for him to find his rhythm and bring some semblance of offensive production again before you turn to the other guy?

"At this point in time, I've got to see where he is health-wise," Fisch said of Williams. "I've got to make sure he's good to go before we declare any starter for this week. I've got to see if he's medically cleared or not and go from there."

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