Jedd Fisch has a decision to make that will dictate whether or not the Washington Huskies' 0-3 start in Big Ten Conference play will continue to spiral.
Separate from what Demond Williams Jr.'s X-rays reveal following an injury he sustained late in the first half Friday night in the Huskies' 41-24 defeat against No. 20 Iowa, Fisch has to decide who the best option at quarterback is.
Elijah Brown, who arrived through the transfer portal from Stanford this past offseason, came off the bench with only two practice snaps with the first-team offense in the lead-up to UW's Week 6 matchup with the Hawkeyes, and delivered a quality performance completing 28-of-39 (71.8 percent) of his passes for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns without a turnover.
Even with
the game completely out of reach in the final seconds, Brown placed a perfectly lofted ball to first-year wide receiver Mason James for his third and final touchdown of the night to set a higher new career benchmark.
"I felt that Elijah Brown came in in his role and did an outstanding job," Fisch said after the game. "Of managing the game, managing the offense, making really good decisions. I thought at the end of the [first] half I would have liked us to throw the ball away on the sprint-out to give us a chance there to get us some points. To be able to go in there and manage the plays that he managed, I thought was outstanding."
Since Fisch arrived in Seattle in January 2024, Williams Jr. has always been destined to be the face of his program. In a season when the Big Ten team was viewed as a potential dark horse College Football Playoff team, there have been other factors that have contributed to an 0-3 start in league play, but the signs were there over UW's first three wins in 2026.
Against Washington State and Utah State, two schools part of the rebuilt Pac-12 Conference, the Huskies managed just four touchdowns, with half directly tied to the second-year starter: a 5-yard keeper in the second quarter and a 1-yard touchdown pass to Rashid Williams in the fourth quarter against the Cougars. The other two came from a pair of running backs, Jayden Limar and Ansu Sanoe, against WSU and USU respectively.
Limar suffered an elbow injury late in UW's 24-10 season-opening victory against WSU, and Sanoe hasn't had a rushing attempt in conference play.
Injuries to running backs Jordan Washington and Quaid Carr certainly have limited the Huskies' offense through the first half of the 2026 schedule, but it's not solely on the player next to or behind Williams Jr. that has caused Fisch's offense to fail to do enough to beat Minnesota, USC, and Iowa.
The energy on the sideline when Elijah came in was obvious. They were playing HARD for him.
— Dave “Softy” Mahler (@Softykjr) October 10, 2026
There's absolutely no question who I would start Friday at Purdue. https://t.co/zT749Z72yz
"Give me 48 hours to really kind of process exactly where we're at right now," Fisch said when asked about whether or not Brown has done enough to earn the right to start next Friday at Purdue.
"I think that Demond is the starting quarterback. He's been our starting quarterback, and we expect him to be our starting quarterback. We expect him to continue to improve, and get healthy, and play well, and play better, and keep getting better. But, at this point in time, I've got to see where he's at health-wise, and I have to make sure he's good to go before we declare any starter for this week. I have to see if he's medically cleared or not and then go from there."
UW outscored Iowa 21-14 in the second half, even without any true semblance of a run game, as Williams Jr. has also dealt with when he's led the offense. Last fall at Husky Stadium, the offense exploded against the Boilermakers through four rushing touchdowns, three by departed running back Adam Mohammed and the other by Washington, who has also been ruled out for the season by Fisch after suffering a serious neck injury during spring camp.
Separate from the run game, Williams Jr. still played effectively enough to lead the Huskies to a win, completing 16-of-19 for 257 passing yards with 2 touchdowns and no turnovers. He added seven carries for 27 yards on the ground, third-most in UW's 49-13 win over Purdue behind Washington (108 yards and a TD) and Mohammed (59 yards), which might lead the Huskies in rushing if he were to replicate that performance on Friday against Purdue.
Although Brown, who also was an Elite 11 finalist and a four-star quarterback out of Mater Dei High School in the same recruiting class as Williams Jr. in 2024, doesn't have the high-end athleticism that the ex-Basha High School product possesses, the latter hasn't shown as much of an elite dual-threat ability as he did in 2025 when he finished No. 2 in the Big Ten in total offense with 282.8 yards per game in his first season as UW's starting QB.
There is also no reason to believe Fisch and Co. can't lean into Brown to be the new face, given that when he was at Arizona he offered both quarterbacks only three months apart, with Williams Jr. being the first choice on January 24, 2021, before Brown received his offer on April 23. It took Williams Jr. backing off an initial pledge to then-coach Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss before he opted for Fisch's vision for him in 2023.
Of note, Kiffin offered Brown before he offered Williams Jr., but ultimately ended up with three-star AJ Maddox from Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, while leaning on Jaxson Dart and Trinidad Chambliss to guide the Rebels to consecutive double-digit win seasons in Oxford.
UW has its bye week following a trip to West Lafayette, Indiana this week, which could be a mutual benefit for all three parties involved: Fisch, Williams Jr., and Brown if the ex-Cardinal starter leads the Huskies' offense against the Boilermakers.
If deemed healthy enough to play, Williams Jr. could benefit from seeing things from the sideline while healing up and returning to complete the season in November as the program fights for a fifth straight bowl appearance.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington Football QB Dilemma Building After Eljah Brown Throws 3 TDs
