Brock on UW Huskies’ QB situation: ‘Elijah elevated everybody’

There’s suddenly a potential quarterback competition brewing on Montlake.

With starter Demond Williams Jr. sidelined by a rib injury, backup Elijah Brown completed 21 of 27 passes for 302 yards and three touchdowns in the UW Huskies’ 38-26 road win over Purdue last Friday night.

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Brown also threw three interceptions, but he more than made up for the mistakes while leading Washington’s sputtering offense to its best performance of the season against an FBS opponent. The Huskies hadn’t scored more than 24 points in each of their previous five games against FBS foes, all which came with Williams as the starter.

Brown, a transfer from Stanford, also played well in UW’s 41-24 loss to No. 15 Iowa on Oct. 9, when he completed 28 of 39 passes for 251 yards, three TDs and no interceptions after Williams exited with an injury late in the first half. Williams completed just 6 of 11 passes for 69 yards before getting hurt.

During his Monday news conference, UW head coach Jedd Fisch said Brown has “earned consideration” for the starting job. The Huskies (4-3, 1-3 Big Ten) have a bye this week before traveling to face Nebraska on Oct. 31.

“We’ll see how Demond does over this week physically and medically, and then we’ll make a decision here probably in a week or so how we want to proceed,” Fisch said. “But I certainly believe that in the six quarters (Brown has) played, he certainly has earned consideration.”

Former UW quarterback Brock Huard went a step further Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“I don’t know how you take Elijah Brown off the field now after he’s given you that through six quarters of play,” Huard said.

It’s been a difficult third season on Montlake for Williams, who briefly entered the transfer portal in January before returning to the Huskies two days later. The dual-threat quarterback has completed just 66.7% of his passes for 1,396 yards, eight TDs and three interceptions this fall, while rushing for 183 yards and two TDs.

In the five games that Williams started against FBS competition, UW went 2-3 and averaged just 21.8 points and 334.6 total yards per game. In Brown’s lone start, the Huskies scored touchdowns on five of their first 10 possessions and finished with 488 total yards.

“The bottom line is Elijah elevated everybody around him,” Huard said. “He elevated everybody around him, … even through some adversity and a couple of mistakes and bad throws that he’d want back. But it didn’t bother him. He elevated and guys believed in him. And for me, that’s the bottom line.”

Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation at this link or in the audio player above. Tune into Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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