Washington quarterback Demond Williams is doing his best to repair the relationship with his university. He rejoined the college football program in Seattle after flirting with the transfer portal.
The optics of his announcement were truly horrendous.
One of the top signal-callers in college football is trying to repair his image. It is equally as honorable as it is contrived.
Demond Williams was going to enter the transfer portal.
Williams, a former four-star recruit in the Class of 2024, began his careeer at Arizona. He later entered the transfer portal and followed head coach Jedd Fisch to Washington.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound duel-threat quarterback started every game for the Huskies in 2025 and completed 69.5% of his passes for 3,065 yards and 25 touchdowns with 143 carries for 611 rushing yards and six touchdowns. His impressive sophomore season earned him an honorable mention nod from the Big Ten Conference.
There is a lot of hype surrounding Williams’ rising junior season in 2026. Washington believes it is in a position to compete for the College Football Playoff. Its quarterback is the primary catalyst for success.
Williams signed a multi-million-dollar financial agreement with the university at the beginning of January. However, he announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal on Jan. 6.
Nobody saw it coming. Not even his coaching staff. Nobody.
There were rumors about LSU. The Tigers were supposedly offering $2 million more than the Huskies. Other programs might’ve been involved. Some kind of tampering, by someone, somewhere, was afoot.
Washington got him back.
Demond Williams created a lot of public backlash with his initial decision to enter the transfer portal. Washington was not going to let him out of his contract. The university was prepared to go to court.
And then the quarterback announced his return to Seattle two days later. Just like that!
“I don’t even know what exactly happened,” Fisch said. “I think that there was a lot of speculation on who was getting involved and who was trying to get involved. I don’t think it’s hard to kind of figure out through just what was going on at that moment in time in college football and who was looking for an elite quarterback. I don’t think that’s that confusing. But nothing ever got to the point – there was no visit, there was no him seeing and talking to another coach.
“There wasn’t a spot where he was saying, ‘Hey, I want to at least push the limits here.’ We didn’t get to any of that. We just had a couple days of some pretty heartfelt conversations and talked about how we got to where we are, where we want to go, what we want it to look like and how we’re going to do this together.”
The whole thing was weird. Poor career advice led Williams to be cast as a college football villain.
He skipped Mia Hamant’s celebration of life.
Not only did Demond Williams declare his plans to enter the transfer portal less than one week after he signed a financial agreement to return to Washington, he did so right in the middle of a celebration of life.
Washington women’s soccer player Mia Hamant died of cancer. The entire Huskies coaching staff and a majority of their players were in attendance at her memorial service when the quarterback announced his unexpected decision to seek a new opportunity at a different program.
Fisch’s wife publicly condemned Williams for skipping the “funeral” in a scathing post on Instagram. She was not the only person to put him on blast for the horrible optics. Williams later apologized.
“I apologize that the timing of these events coincided with the celebration of life for Mia Hamant, a beloved member of our University community. I never intended to call attention away from such an important moment. I am excited to reunite with my teammates and to lead the University of Washington to success in the 2026 season and beyond.”
He will also begin his public humiliation ritual later this week.
An apology tour is underway.
Jedd Fisch recently revealed that Demond Williams plans to speak with the soccer team later this week. Although it is admirable for him to own his mistake and apologize to the people he hurt most, I am of the belief that this should’ve been done in private. There was no need for the head coach to make it public.
Maybe Fisch revealed the meeting to the media to to help rebuild trust with the fans. They were hurt too. This is a good first step toward repairing that relationship.
I get it, I do. I still think it takes away from the true heartfelt meaning of the gesture, making it more about optics than actual emotions. It seems like something he has to do versus wants to do.
Nevertheless, Williams is doing the right thing! His meeting with the soccer team will go a long way.
He also showed up to the women’s basketball game on Wednesday night.
— Blyvs (@imBlyvs) January 15, 2026
His teammates were with him in the crowd.
Demond Williams is doing everything he can to repair his image. He wants to make things right— with the players in the locker room, with the coaching staff, with his university, with his classmates and with the fans. This is a good start.