Brock Huard explains problem facing UW Huskies and QB Demond Williams Jr.

The UW Huskies may be 2-0 to start the college football season, but their first two times on the field have not been encouraging.

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UW dropped out of the Associated Press top 25 on Sunday, a day after they had to hold off Utah State at home in a 16-14 victory. Utah State (0-2) was coming off of a loss to Idaho State, and the Huskies’ uninspired showing against the Aggies came less than a week after the offense had some troubles in the Apple Cup against a WSU Cougars team that is also 0-2 now.

Longtime FOX football broadcaster and former UW quarterback Brock Huard can see the problem his alma mater is facing right now.

“It’s the Demond Williams show, and it never works that way when it’s one guy,” Huard said, referring to third-year Huskies quarterback Demond Williams Jr. “And it’s not Demond’s fault.”

Williams has thrown for 517 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions on 50-of-76 passing in the two games so far, plus rushed for 117 yards and a TD on 18 attempts. But he doesn’t have much help when it comes to weapons in the UW offense, where injuries and departures from last year have hit both the running and passing games hard.

Huard said concerns about the players around Williams were a factor in the QB nearly going into the transfer portal last winter.

“This was I think part of Demond’s reservation when he signed, didn’t sign, tried to get out of signing (with the Huskies after the 2025 season),” Huard continued. “We talked about this, and I talked about some of the people in his camp that had kind of reached out to me to try to share more of the picture, and the Williams camp was like, alright, who do we got?

“Because you know what was really nice for (former Huskies QB) Michael Penix? It’s really nice when he got to throw to (receivers) Jalen McMillan and Roma Odunze and all these NFL dudes, and hand off to NFL guys and be blocked by two NFL tackles. … So who do I got? And what (Williams has) around him right now, especially with a fourth-string running back, is not what he’s had in the past. And a true freshman left tackle that’s going through it a little bit, Kodi Greene, injuries on the O-line, a backup center playing.”

While the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Williams gets to be the focal point of the Huskies’ offense, Huard explained the trouble with that.

“It’s all falling on him, and that’s no way to play the position. That’s no fun. You think it’s great, like, I’m going to have all these yards and I’m going to run and everything’s on me. Like, no, I want to be a facilitator and a point guard. And especially at his size when he’s between the tackles, it’s a whole lot easier when you’ve got guys creating instant separation, and that’s not really happening.

“So yeah, there’s some real concerns there with the injuries, with the backups and with the youth surrounding Demond right now, because they’ve gotten very little going offensively.”

Former UW Huskies QB Brock Huard answers three football questions at 7:45 a.m. during the Blue 88 segment of Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, which airs live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays.

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