Turns out Demond Williams isn’t done at Washington after all.
That was my biggest takeaway from Washington’s comeback in Nebraska on Halloween.
Well, that and the fact that receiver Chris Lawson is impossibly skilled at making catches along the sideline.
When Williams left Washington’s loss to Iowa with an injury in the second quarter, I wondered if we’d see him play another down for the Huskies.
Not because I expected the injury to be season-ending, but because things had gone so horribly sideways through the first two months of this season that I wondered if everyone involved might decide to turn the page.
It said something to me that he traveled to Purdue for Washington’s game against the Boilermakers.
It said even more in the way he supported Elijah Brown through the first three quarters of Saturday’s game in Nebraska, then entered the fourth quarter ready to go.
The comeback
I underestimated Williams.
Not his ability per se. I know he’s a dynamic runner capable of ankle-breaking scrambles and a quarterback who’s made some utterly unbelievable throws under pressure.
But he’d struggled running the offense through the first half of this season. He wasn’t being decisive enough. He was holding the ball and taking sacks. The Huskies couldn’t get any consistency.
Then he got hurt, and the Huskies started moving the ball with Elijah Brown at quarterback. That may have been because Iowa stopped blitzing. Purdue’s deficiencies may have played a role, too.
But Washington looked better in the first six quarters after Williams’ injury than it had with him.
That changed in Nebraska. Brown started, but Washington’s offense did little the first three quarters.
Williams entered at quarterback with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter and jump-started the offense.
First 3 quarters | 4th quarter | |
|---|---|---|
Plays | 42 | 20 |
Total offense | 146 | 121 |
First downs | 12 | 5 |
Passing | 20-for-31, 145 yards | 6-for-12, 90 yards |
Positive rushing yards | 27 yards | 43 yards |
Negative rushing yardage | -26 | -12 |
Points scored by offense | 3 | 7 |
If this were baseball, a tip of the cap would be in order. An acknowledgment of the fact that Williams remained absolutely locked in even as Brown started, and he entered the game in the fourth quarter to deliver what is the most important victory of Fisch’s three-year tenure at Washington.
📍Where things stand
The Washington Huskies are not as good as we hoped they would be. They have not made the jump that Arizona made in Fisch’s third season in Tucson.
The issues were evident right out of the gate. The offense was leaking oil even against inferior opponents.
But the Huskies aren’t as bad as we feared, either. After Iowa administered that Friday night wedgie, it seemed that even bowl eligibility might be out of reach for Washington.
Now, I believe they’ll reach that threshold. If you huffed a bunch of sunshine, you could even talk yourself into the possibility that Washington might win eight games this season.
While that shouldn’t be mistaken for a successful year, the Huskies and their coach do deserve some credit for pulling themselves up off the mat after an 0-3 start to the conference schedule.
🔮 The future
This is a young team. Six first-year players have started conference games for Washington this season. Six! Seven starters are second-year guys.
The struggles they're experiencing now, especially along the offensive line, will be the scar tissue that toughens this team for the future.
Linebacker Zaydrius Raney-Sale and safety Rylon Dillard-Allen are already mainstays on the defense, and freshman Derek Colman-Brusa looks very much like a defensive lineman who’s going to play on Sundays. Second-year receivers Dezmen Roebuck and Chris Lawson make Washington the only team in the Big Ten with two players with more than 40 receptions apiece.
The question is at quarterback.
🤨 What we’re still trying to figure out
Will Demond Williams want to stick around? Only the threat of a lawsuit kept him from bolting back in January.
If he does want to stick around, will Washington want to stick with him? At what level of compensation?
I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. In fact, I’m not sure anyone does yet, including Williams and Fisch. There’s a lot on the line in these final four games, and I’m not talking about what bowl Washington might wind up in.
The next four games will determine whether Washington has momentum going into the offseason or is scrambling to find an answer at the most important position on the field.
But Williams is still part of the conversation here. He made that clear with what he did when he came in.