Recapping DeOdyssey
Six thoughts on a wild 48 hours.
There have been a lot of things holding me back from writing a column in the past few weeks. Sloth, the holidays, etc. But I really was going to write a “26 Thoughts” piece last weekend before I fell about eight thoughts short of having 26. Luckily for me, for you loyal readers, the Demond Williams Jr. (that suffix is now very relevant) situation has provided enough ammo to complete the double baker’s dozen.
We’ll start with just six of the 26 about DeOdyssey this week. The next 20 will come… soon.
1. Extension graphics
The first “EXTENDED” announcement I saw was for USC running back Waymond Jordan. It was jarring to see these types of announcements that have previously been reserved for professional sports, but content is content and USC is USC. Sadly, other schools, including Washington, started doing it and all of a sudden I saw a Pete Thamel tweet with Demond Williams Jr.’s (again, suffix important) face on it.
I damn near swallowed my esophagus. I thought it was a blindside transfer announcement.
Alas, it was simply news of Demond’s new deal with UW. While I had no reason to think Demond would be going anywhere this winter, the (momentary) assurance was appreciated.
2. The next Pete Thamel tweet about Demond Williams Jr.
On January 6th, Thamel gave Oregon fans yet another reason to celebrate the day when he announced a blindside transfer announcement with a no-contact tag. “No-contact” is modern college athletics shorthand for “this is a done deal and you’ll learn his destination soon.”
Because of Thamel’s first Demond-related tweet, I had accidentally prepared myself for the emotions I’d feel if Demond were to transfer. Even with that impromptu exercise under my belt, the news was devastating.
The devastation was three-fold.
1) I really, really like watching Demond Williams Jr. play. He has flaws and needs to put together a great performance in a big game, but he is supremely talented and I love(d) that he was our QB.
2) Just like the Kalen DeBoer departure in January 2024, Demond’s exodus for School X was a reminder that Washington is further away from the top of the college football world than we’d like to be.
3) The manner and especially timing of the announcement - during Mia Hamant’s celebration of life - were callous and not indicative of a kid who cares about the University of Washington like we do.
3. The aftermath
Remarkably, there really wasn’t a lot of meat between Alpha (the transfer) and Omega (the return) in this saga. There were no statements, press conferences, exclusive interviews, or insights of any kind from Demond, Jedd Fisch, Pat Chun, or School X along the way.
Very quickly after the news broke, UW put out that it would pursue “all legal avenues” to make sure that if they were going to lose their quarterback, they wouldn’t get punked in the process. It became abundantly clear that this conflict was going to have far more to do with lawyers than it would with football players.
While the legal battle commenced, we learned Wasserman, Demond’s then-agency, was just as stunned by the transfer news as we were. We’ve also learned that an interloper by the name of Cordell Landers may have been involved with the move. Thanks to a Landers tweet that is still up for some reason, we definitely know he had contact with Demond Williams Sr. (hence the note about suffixes). Shockingly, it appears that none of the parties who advised Demond Williams Jr. considered the legal ramifications of the move or the financial burden that School X would be saddled with if they took an under-contract player.
Wasserman went on to dump Demond due to “philosophical differences”, which is a very funny phrase. Did Demond believe in reincarnation while Wasserman believes this is our one and only chance at life?
4. School X
It was very interesting to me that LSU was the assumed transfer destination / villain in this story from jump street… without any reporting to prove it. Sure, new LSU coach Lane Kiffin is a) villainous and b) got Williams Jr. to commit out of high school before Fisch flipped him, but there was never a report explicitly naming LSU as Demond’s destination.
Had Williams Jr. not eventually returned to Washington, who’s to say another QB-needy school - perhaps one just down I-5 - wouldn’t have gotten in the mix for his services. CBS has reported that LSU, Alabama, Miami, and that school down I-5 were of interest to Demond Williams Jr.’s family. Was that interest mutual in every case? Would it have been if this dragged on for another few days?
5. The return
In the moments before the Fiesta Bowl between Ole Miss and Miami, Thamel reported that Williams Jr. may be on his way back to Washington and an announcement may be imminent.
Imminent indeed. Minutes later, Williams Jr. posted an Instagram graphic minutes later indicating that after allllllll the ruckus, he would be returning to Washington.
I could give 26 thoughts about the text on the graphic alone. Here are five.
It starts with a space. Not an indent. Why?
The shadow effect and the font give an indication that this graphic was made in Powerpoint. Why?
Each paragraph appears to have a different width. Why?
The third paragraph allows the word “community” to go to the literal edge of the graphic. Why?
The last paragraph appears to be manually adjusted to appear to be centered, rather than just being centered. Why?
Other than the insane design choices, the words within the graphic were fine. There were no written words Williams Jr. could have used that would fix the situation, but he addressed the Hamant timing, which was the most unfortunate component of his decision.
6. Now what?
We are all a little shell shocked and confused by what happened. But as annoying, hurtful, and gross as this saga was, I think it all ended for the best.
The 2026 Washington Huskies are undoubtedly in a better place. Demond Williams Jr. is a far better quarterback than any potential replacements who were on the market.
Your retort to that may be something like, “I don’t want a mercenary playing quarterback for my football team.”
Fair. But response would be that any replacement QB you could find would have even less investment in the program than Demond does. Nothing against Beau Pribula, but you’d really rather have him take snaps next year over Demond Williams Jr.? Even if the talent and productivity were equal, Pribula has never taken a snap west of the Rockies and probably never thought about playing for Washington before this week.
I’ll argue college football is in a better place after all this, too. A signed contract got a player assurance of earnings, protected a team from losing said player, and scared School X off from poaching. If we want order in this sport, these contracts have to hold weight. Now we just need these contracts to be multi-year deals and be for actual employment rather than just for players’ marketing rights.
Shout out to Christian Caple and others for effectively transcribing Jedd Fisch’s appearance on KJR in Seattle on Friday afternoon. Fisch didn’t say much, but I thought his most interesting quote was, “I need to do a better job of continuing to educate the team on 2026 college football, in comparison to what 2024 and 2025 was.”
To me, that reads that the Wild, Wild West may be taming down to just the Wild West.
If the Husky football team and college football came out victorious in this saga, Demond Williams Jr. most certainly did not. No one should cry for the, let’s say $1.3M ($6M from School X, $4.7M from UW) he lost out on, but, still, this move blew up in his face in a very public way. He now has to carry the burden of everyone knowing what he makes. He has lost tremendous cache with Husky fans. He has probably lost some standing among his coaches, teammates, and fellow University of Washington athletes. Those 48 hours will drastically tarnish his legacy at UW forever.
For Demond, the only way out of this will be through time, contrition, and performance. He’ll have to speak into a microphone - the sooner the better - at some point to take questions and show humility. He’ll have to say and do all the right things between now and the Huskies’ opener against Wazzu on September 5th. Even then, he’ll hear boo’s from a contingent of the Husky faithful.
Even if he aces the impossible test of public relations, Demond may never be able to beat the prevailing assumption some may have of him that he is only at Washington because he has to be.
That, my friends, is a consequence. If this sport has any chance of surviving, we need those.
Great read! I agree with everything. Damond needs to mend fences and soon. Husky faithful have a right to be upset. Fix this Damond! Go Dawgs! Great work Brandon!