Best kept secret in college football: Demond Williams Jr. is a nightmare to defend
“Among the jinn arrived a jewel.”
That jewel is Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who could rise to the top of the Heisman Trophy race if he continues his high-level production against Michigan on Saturday. With his electric playmaking, he’s already drawing comparisons to NFL stars Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson
In more than 154 years of college football, only 16 players have thrown for at least 400 yards and rushed for at least 100 non-sack yards in a single game. What’s more, only two players have thrown for at least 400 yards and rushed for at least 140 non-sack yards in a single game. One of those players is Williams. The other is Jackson.
Williams has thrown for 1,628 yards through six games, averaging more than 10 yards per pass attempt with a 74.1 % completion rate. He has rushed for 382 at 5.2 yards per rush if we include sacked yards. He has accounted for 20 touchdowns and thrown just one interception. For context, in Murray’s Heisman-winning season, he threw for 1,764 yards, completed 71.1% of his passes, rushed for 377 yards at 6.2 yards per carry and threw three picks.
Williams’ numbers are there, and so are the physical gifts that make him so exciting to watch — and terrifying to defend. The only team that managed to keep him from looking like a kid at recess after downing a two-pound bag of Skittles and a two-liter of soda was Ohio State — and they did it by treating his talent with the respect it demands.
Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia made the comparison without anyone needing to ask.
“That first-step quickness that he has and his ability to get to top speed — it’s explosive,” Patricia said. “It’s fast. He’s quick. He gets out of the pocket, and he’s got a really strong live arm. They’ve got good players to get the ball to, so that’s going to be a huge challenge for us. Even when you … watch the tape [and] You think you kind of box him in, and he can get out, and it reminds me a lot of Kyler Murray.”
See?
Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch did what not many others did during Williams’ recruiting process — ignored his height and watched the dynamo blow up defenses. In 12 games as a senior at Bacha (Ariz.) High School, Williams threw for over 3,200 yards, 34 touchdowns and just three interceptions while completing 77% of his passes. Ranked as the No. 205 player in the 2024 recruiting class, Williams originally committed to Ole Miss in December 2022, only to flip his commitment to Fisch in Arizona in July 2023. Williams then followed Fisch, who was hired to replace coach Calen DeBoer, to Seattle in January 2024.
In just his second game as a starter, Williams completed 26 of 32 passes for 374 yards, with five total touchdowns and one interception in a one-point loss to Louisville in the Sun Bowl, a game that now feels like an advertisement for the upcoming 2025 season. Until Washington played Ohio State in Week 4, Williams had thrown for at least 290 total yards and a touchdown in every game he’d started since the Sun Bowl loss.
“She’s very fast for first step speed,” Patricia said of Williams. “When you can get to your top speed in one step, it makes it very difficult for defensive players, especially players up front. A lot of times they’re bigger, longer, slower. You’re trying to rush, or you’re trying to play the run game, because obviously he can run with the ball too. … You think you’ve got him, and then all of a sudden he’s avoiding it — and then he’s out of the gate.”
Against Ohio State, Williams rarely got a chance to cross his feet, let alone run the ball in open space. He was sacked six times and finished with a 22-yard run to illustrate the point. However, his poise showed.
Facing the rush, Williams completed 18 of 22 passes. Playmakers RB Jonah Coleman and WR Denzel Boston couldn’t do much to help him, as they found themselves on the business end of the best defense in the league, the No. 1-ranked team in the country and a program capable of repeating as national champions.
Aside from the Ohio State game, Williams has been nothing short of electric every time he takes the field. His most impressive performance to date came against Rutgers, when he torched the Scarlet Knights for 538 yards and four touchdowns.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano added, “The runs he made? Those were special, and we had him going right a few times. I tend to watch the back end, but a few times I knew he had him spying with some of our players and I thought, ‘Okay, we’re definitely going to catch him.'” I saw [Williams] Flash Then I turned my eyes to watch the coverage. I thought we caught him, but he escaped. “That’s what a dynamic man like that can do for you.”
Or what he can He does for you. Michigan, beware.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
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