The Washington Huskies have one of the nation’s top quarterbacks heading into the 2026 season in Demond Williams Jr., and ahead of spring practice, ESPN’s Bill Connelly placed him as the nation’s No. 20 signal caller in his pre-spring quarterback rankings.
After completing 69.5 percent of his passes for 3,065 yards and 25 touchdowns, throwing 8 interceptions along the way, while adding 611 yards and 6 scores on the ground during his first full season as a starter, he showed high-end potential in Jedd Fisch’s offense, which allows him to frequently display his athleticism by getting him outside of the pocket and giving him a chance to make plays with both his arm and his legs.
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“Williams showed epic potential as a first-year starter in 2025, and he has two tasks for going even bigger in 2026,” Connelly wrote.
“First, he’ll have to win the dressing room back after briefly entering the transfer portal following ‘really bad advice.’ Second, he’ll have to figure out how to raise his game against great defenses. His overall stat line was great (UW averaged 45.1 points per game in nine wins), but against the four best defenses he faced last fall — Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Oregon — the Huskies‘ offense averaged a dire 9.3 points per game and went 0-4. Time to learn some new tricks.”
In his first press conference since his flirtation with the transfer portal, Williams said he knows what he needs to do to make those strides, too, as he’s looking to be more consistent during his third season on Montlake.
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“Trying to find ways to play at a high level throughout the season,” Williams said in February when asked to review his 2025 campaign. “Definitely going through a lot of learning curves, having some rough games, being able to come back the next week and respond and figure out how to adjust on the fly week by week, and continue to just learn how to prepare.”
The ranking effectively places Williams as the No. quarterback in the Big Ten on Connelly’s list, behind USC’s Jayden Maiava, Oregon’s Dante Moore, Indiana’s Josh Hoover, and Michigan’s Bryce Underwood.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: ESPN ranks Demond Williams Jr. among nation’s top 20 QBs for 2026
