December 9, 2025 • 27 mins
In the second hour, Dick Fain and Hugh Millen break down the season and skills of UW quarterback Demond Williams including key moments from 2025 and the coaching he is getting from Jedd Fisch, then they discuss his health, running ability, and protecting him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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up while they last. All right, we spent the first
hour talking NFL football. It's four a into the world
of the Huskies. I was over there a couple hours
ago listening to the coordinators speak. They had a couple
(00:58):
of players that they brought out to to talk to
the media.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Desnt Roebuck, Alex McLoughlin.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No DeMont Williams today, but That's kind of where I
want to go with you, Hugh, is just the performance
of the quarterback.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we'll start just kind of open ended.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Let's just evaluate what you saw from DeMont Williams in
his first full season as a starter, second overall season.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, you see an electric athlete that has a very
compact throwing motion with a relatively live arm, that is
a playmaker in a lot of different ways. But I
think his challenge is going to be the drop that
he had from and we've talked about a number of times.
(01:44):
We defined the good teams in the conferences and the
top twenty five defenses, and then the Huskies five wins
were of teams that were in the bottom twenty out
of sixty seven Power five. Right, all five wins were
against defense in the bottom twenty. And so we said
his expected points average per dropback, which has the highest
(02:06):
correlation of any quarterbacks that you can find, he had
a point seven drop which was number one of all
power for quarterbacks, and then his pass efficiency dropped us
seventy two point seven that was number two. So I
think that would be a goal. He's got to play
better against the good teams. And one thing that I
(02:29):
think is really a factor here, Dick. It's a little
bit hard to describe on the radio, so let's make
this interactive with you and me. But it's important enough
to bring it in because you're asking me as a
quarterback to identify things that are not just minutia, are
central to a performance. And this is what I'm going
to focus on the depth of Demond Williams from the
(02:51):
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Got me, yep?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
How far he drops? Yeah, So when he's in shotgun,
which he usually is, his toes at five yards. Now
some are it heals it five yards, but his toes
are at five yards, And then how far he's dropping
back and the method in style with which he does it,
and what depth does that get to him? Because in
(03:16):
a playbook, any playbook, you're going to have an odd
number of steps because you're as a regardless of your
left handed or right handed, you're if you're right hand,
we'll just talk about a right handed and you go
three step drop is right foot, left foot, right foot right,
got me, and a five step is right left, right,
left right, Okay, So so it's always an odd number
(03:37):
and of course seven step. So the question is that
what depth are you? And then what's your inclination to
come up in the pocket? So that so where are you?
And it's important for two reasons. Number one, how long
it takes the football to get to the target and
number two how easy does it make make it on
(03:58):
the offensive tackles? Who would they want to have the
defensive ends as they run around, the offensive tackles would
like to push you around. And the defensive end has
got to like turn a tighter radius because it's like, oh,
the quarterback is stepping up in the pocket. I can't
get If the quarterback is not stepping up into the pocket, then.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The offensive line is kind of pushing him right and
into the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Then so let's just say so let's say hypothetically, if
you throw, So let's talk about the first one, the
ball getting to the target. When the ball gets to
the target early, you can beat defenders. Right if the
ball gets to the target earlier. You're looking at these
zone defenders. They want to bat the ball down. It's
(04:41):
a game of inches. How many times have you watched
you watch enough football? How many times do you see
a defender just barely get a finger on a ball
and get a pass breakdown right.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The interception and overtime to Hurts last night.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, and so I made a comment with you and
Softy kind of it sounded like an offhanded comment. I
actually put a lot of calculation to it. It's not hard.
I said, imagine if you had the defenders had tennis
rackets in each hand. Tennis racket is twenty seven inches,
but that's not beyond the length of your fingers because
(05:17):
you gotta grab it. So on average, the tennis racket
is about nineteen and a half inches longer than.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
What you would reach. Got me.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If a quarterback is a yard and a half further back,
then so we're gonna have two variables in this, okay,
regardless of where it is. Let's say, when is it
eight yards from the line deep and one's at nine
and a half by being a yard and a half deep,
and then you say, what's the velocity of the ball. Well,
(05:47):
I'll give you some velocities at the combine. Jordan Love
was fifty four miles an hour, Jalen Hurts fifty five,
Russell Wilson was fifty five, Dak Prescott fifty five, Mitched
Trubisky fifty one, Perty fifty two let's get let's be
generous and just go fifty five miles an hour. You
go a mile and a half or a yard and
(06:08):
a half deeper, and you throw it at fifty five
miles an hour. A defender running at twenty miles an hour,
and now some defenders are up at twenty one to
twenty two. Let's just say twenty miles an hour. That is,
you're right at that nineteen twenty inch difference.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You're giving them go go, gadget arms basically because you're
throwing the football.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I want you to imagine all the defenders that their
their arms are at the length of their ankles. Okay,
and now you'd say what, but it's not. I don't
want you to or holding tennis rackets. Well, if you're
holding two tennis rockets, that's going to.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Slow you down.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No, I want you to imagine defenders that are just
as fast and just as quick, and just as agile,
and just as their ability to drive on the football
as as if they had Longs's arms at tennis racket.
This is an enormous difference. And when you watch them
on Williams what he does with his steps, he takes
a cheap step with his left foot the first one.
You can slow this down, anybody, if you got this DVR.
(07:07):
He goes left foot first, and then he takes a
hop with his left foot, so he goes left, left, right, left, right,
And then when he gets back in the pocket, he
is routinely getting to eleven yards deep and ten yards
and I'm measuring from where the ball is. I'll go
(07:29):
and I don't just do the round to the nearest yard.
I'll go like a third of where the ball is.
Half you know, it's like the thirty seven and a
half yard line, the thirty seven and a third, okay,
And then I'll stop right when he throws the ball
or where he stepped up. I'll just say, where's the
center of his body? Where's his crops?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And and you look at them, and he is typically
at nine and a half to ten yards deep, and
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I was just gonna ask that.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I mean, I can just hear people drive around right
now screaming at their radios. Why is an this being
coached out of him? Then, I mean, if you know this,
I would hope that coaches making millions of dollars a
year would know this may.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Be a second let me let me give you a
fourth place in just the first half of the Oregon
game where that manifested. He goes up ten thirty nine
to go in the first quarter. If you can watch this,
if you have the Oregon game, he's got a post
wheel concept to the left. Now, the route on the
on the wheel is poor. It's a bad angle, it's
(08:29):
too flat. It should be more up the field. But
that point, notwithstanding, the ball is snapped on the eighth
on the eighteen yard line. You could be critically say
seventeen and a half. He he demand gets back to
his crotch is at six and a half the center
of his body, so he is eleven and a half,
(08:52):
you know, eleven to eleven and a half yards deep.
Now on that play the Oregon played at Tampa two
too deep, and then the middle guy of the underneath
the fenders is deeper, so he has got the read.
If you're coaching him, hey, dude, you know turn it off, don't.
The post wheel is dead against that coverage. Right now,
(09:15):
you've got Desmond Roebuck sitting right in front of you,
and Desmond Roebuck is sitting over the ball at the
twenty five yard line, and he's taking a long time.
He's too deep in the pocket to have been able
if he wants to get that little quick checkdown. That
defender is going to close in the manner. Now you
(09:36):
say he wasn't going to be twenty miles an hour.
Maybe he doesn't have a tennis rack in the hands,
but he's got a racketball racket.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Like his arms.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
We just extended defender's arms a long way. Okay, that's one. Now,
he had great feet later in the quarter on a
good call by jetfish Man, a man beater, and he's
got again Desmond Roebuck primary receiver, and was called a
now slant and his crotches six and a half the
center of his body is six and a half yards
(10:02):
from this and and that's good. That's exactly what I
want to But the rush is kind of in his
face and he sky mails.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It because he can't. Roebuck would have needed a tennis
racket himself just to bat the balls because he is
that because he's not deep enough and he can't see.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We got this writ that that's the that's the inference
I'm making. Yes, okay, So third play, third down on
a third and third and eight and a half, third
and nine, and uh, they're going they get a pick
for Raydon Vines bright They get a nice pick. They
get Bright Vines bright On back in the flat left.
(10:40):
He's going three step, three step, But I put in
quotes because his three steps is really a five step
because the left left memory I said in a playbook,
you're it's always an odd number because they assume your
first your your your first step is with your right foot.
He goes left left, then right, left right, and then
when there isn't really a lot of pressure when he
(11:01):
hits his back foot, he kind of bounces back because
he doesn't like the pressure that there is. He throws
in the less flat, but because he's bounced back, he's
got no he's got no velocity on the ball because
his inertia is going the opposite way. He throws the
balls on the right hash it's a long throw out
to the left flat, which is very late, and it's
it's floating. And so now you don't get the run
(11:23):
after the catch. There would have been run after the
catch if you stab it on him early, So you
don't get the run after the catch.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And then the last one, I'll mention. Uh, we'll see that. Oh,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Sorry, I mean we get the point. I mean, you
don't have to give us another illustration. Let's get let's
get to the question at hand.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Okay, so, yeah, there's one where he dropped his center
of the body.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Oh, oh, I got it. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It was late, one fifty one to go in the
second quarter. I apologize. I had lost my notes. Okay,
they're down thirteen to nothing. You're trying to now they
end up getting a score, right, But he drops back
all snapped at the thirty eight and a half from Oregon.
He goes all the way to the fifty, so his
back foot hits at eleven and a half yards, and
then he when he throws the ball, the center of
(12:12):
his body is at forty eight and a half, so
he is ten yards from the lion of scrimmage. Well,
the left tackle gets beat and Demon's arm gets hit,
the ball flutters, an Oregon defender gets two hands on
the ball, should have been intercepted.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
He drops an interception.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Had he been a maybe a yard and a half
up close to the lion of scrimmage, that's a more
favorable angle. So those are four plays where the depth
of the quarterback, in my judgment, is materially impacting the
offense four plays in one half, and there's others where
you could say it affected it, maybe not as drastically.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So is the is the coaching staff not fixing it
because they think that if he wasn't that deep in
the pocket we've had, we'd have even more issues because
of his height and he can't see.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, probably, they probably probably. Uh, Look, I'm not in there.
I don't want to speak for them, and I'm not
in their heads. I think that there's a way. And
so I told you. I went back and I watched
Fernanda Mendoza. I had already watched tape of him. Today
wasn't the first time I watched tape, but today I
put on. I watched the entire tape of him against
Ohio State the other night. And he is routinely at
(13:29):
at the seven and a half eight and and he
when he's in his drop, his his hips are lower.
He's he's in a throwing position ready to go to
because because a quarterback will be instructed. Look, you can
take your deep drop if the if the defense tells
you to to throw to the deep but be prepared
(13:50):
to abort your drop, get your feet in the ground,
and throw quickly to the checkdown if you know you're
not going to have anything. Fernando Mendoza is much more now.
I'm holding him to probably the Heisman Trophy winner and
maybe a you know, a top five pick in the draft.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I get that. But Je Fish the other days was.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Talking about how Heisman UH or a first round draft
pick type guys wouldn't do any better against uh the
top teams. Well, that is not true. We talked about
that uh the other day. That's just uh, factually false,
that assertion. But when you look at at the state
of readiness where Mendoza is in the pocket, he's he
(14:30):
wants he's comfortable in that seven to eight and a
half yard range.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Because he's six fall on huh, because he's six.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Now, we're not going to make demon six five. But
what what what I'm saying is is that we can
have him better in this regard. Okay, we can we
can say, like, hey, we can have drills where there's
got you practice having visual chatter in your face over
and over and over again. Force him to get up
in there like you'd be surprised how hard coaching can
(15:02):
get a guy. I've heard coaches, you know, just say
you gotta get bad faster, you gotta back faster. Guys go,
I can't get faster, Yes you can, and then all
of a sudden, two months later you go, wow, droppers faster,
like if you demand it, and and and what I
think somebody needs to do at Washington is show him
the tape. Look at how much deeper he is on
(15:22):
a consistent basis. I just talked about a half of
football in one game. Show him like, this is okay
against UC Davis, This is okay against Purdue, this is okay.
But when you start going against the teams, would would
it be a safe assertion that Ohio State has and
and Michigan and Oregon have quicker athletes than Purdue and
(15:48):
every guy basically, yeah, the difference between the the best defenses,
it's not the size, it's the speed, the team speed.
So that hurts him when he goes to scramble because
he can't he's not as elusive. But it's also hurting
(16:08):
him because these are better defenders. They can react to
the ball. You lose the run after the catch because
the ball is arriving later. And then it also impacts
how he's reading where he says, is he open, Well,
he's turning down open receivers on occasion because he says, oh,
that defender will break on the ball.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, that defender will.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Break on the ball because you're ten yards deep, right,
if you were a couple of yards short, you would
instinctively know, oh, I can get that in there.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
An issue, but I think it's an issue that he
can improve upon. He's only nineteen years old, right, but
I think it is absolutely not a tertiary issue, not
a secondary issue. This is a primary issue that will
affect his quarterbacking, not just for the Husky's but in
the future. And I'll close with this. Ed mentioned two
(17:02):
guys that he wants to compare. It says last year
he goes Kyler Murray and Jayden Daniels. He goes and
Jed says, we're gonna break out the tape, I mean
the Cardinal tape and the Commander tape, and we're gonna
see how they're using them. That's what Jed said in
the offseason last year. So he's just saying, Hey, we're
just looking at what guys do for Dumont. Is he
(17:23):
going to be a Kyler Murray Oklahoma Heisman winner or
is he going to be Dorian Thompson Robinson who had
a damn good career through for ten thoy seven hundred
yards multiple and he was second second team All Packed
ten a couple of years and the Bruins went eight
and four one year in ninety three is last couple
(17:44):
of years. So are you Dorian Thompson Robinson or Kyler Murray.
If you're Kyler Murray, we're all gonna have a parade
for you because you're gonna win the Heisman. You're gonna
you know, and you got a chance to win a
national championship. That's the comparison that all of us want. Right,
you meet Jed Fish right, but he is going to
have to make some improvements to be more like Kyler
(18:05):
Murray and less like Dorian Thompson Robbins.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A couple questions. I'm not done chewing on this with you.
We'll come back and talk about in the next segment.
On ninety three point three KJFM, we were talking about
you were talking about the pocket depth and I kind
of want to get into the protection a little bit.
I mean in the eight wins, Demon Williams was sacked
ten times, like one point two sacks per game, less
than in the four losses he was sacked seventeen times,
(18:32):
so a fourfold increase in sacks in those games. Obviously
you're being playing better teams. It seems like a pretty
egregious jump though, from one time a game to over
four times a game. Did did they move the pocket enough,
did they boot enough? Or was it too much? Drop
(18:53):
back Demon Williams this season.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Well, I think there's a limit to how much you
can move the pocket because you kind of run out
of pass schemes. All the defenders are flowing to the
sideline because the receivers have to have outbreaking routes. You
don't you don't design any plays where the quarterback, even
a right handed quarterback, you don't design plays where where
(19:16):
uh you're breaking back across.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
There's one exception, the Russell Wilson boot deep over right.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, I mean Penix Penix hit that first play of
the Apple Cup at Pollman. You know, it's been in
the playbook for a long time. You see h Jedfish
has it in the playbook. In fact, they tried to hit.
They called that play. Vervines Bright going away from the
Lake against Oregon, that that play. But you're in that case,
(19:44):
you're you're starting to dash, but then you set up
and the protection is is created so that you have
an opportunity to set up and throw back to the left.
But as far as staying on the move, no, And
you know, like Ohio State they had guys where they
played a five down front, a double eagle where they
(20:06):
would have four guys to be able to stop the
run and then the fifth away from the fake the
end could just come up the field because they were
sound in their other gaps and so there was a
plan to be able to stop Demand in the pocket.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I know you had a huge concern at the beginning
of the season, rightfully, so you told us about this
in non conference play about Demand getting killed out there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And he made it through. He made it through the season.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
We're not one certain how healthy Demand Williams is was
all year long. There were times when I was like, hey,
he doesn't look as explosive as he usually looks. But
he was out there every game this season and almost
every snap this season. Did Demand and or Jed do
a better job protecting him from injury than they did
(21:03):
last season, or did the Huskies just get lucky not
having demon get rocked.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well, they had too many free runners for sure. That
had been My contention is that there's a there's not
enough attention placed on getting a hat on a hat
and having a real plan for an overload. You know,
from a quarterback perspective, you know, you got to know
why are you in a five out protection? Okay, I
only got five offensive lineman you know, three to one
(21:29):
two to the other side. If it's a six man
protection like most as a general rule, the center is
going to go one way and the running back or
the tight end, whoever's involved in protection, they're going to
go the other way. So I got three three to
block three on each side. If they bring a fourth,
then I've got to throw hot or I gotta i
gotta redirect the protection and take four to one side
(21:51):
two to the other, in which case I can only
handle two to the weeks to the two side. If
a third time, I got to get hot, Like you've
got to go through that every single time. And I
don't think that they they were sound. I still don't
think that their sound in terms of preventing free runners
coming at the quarterback. The idea that well, our quarterback
(22:11):
has really has got a lot of juice. That's that's
our escape, our answer to pressure. I think that's that's
not a recipe for continued success, uh, nor for health.
I'm a little bit surprised that he made it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I mean, he so.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
He he's a lot of hard hits. He's tough.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Saw that as freshman year. I mean, he got planted
against Penn State in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
He kept Yeah, I did well.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
He had eleven free runners in seventeen dropbacks against Penn State.
Eleven And you know whether he made a miss or
whether you know eventually they're going to hunt you down.
But the point is is, I'm looking at these numbers.
These numbers are are undebatable. Demon Williams had the highest drop,
the most drop of any quarterback in power football between
(22:58):
the difference good opponents and poor opponents. He had the
second highest drop in pass efficiency. Those numbers cannot be disbated.
The only way you can beat me on the argument
is to say those releve those numbers aren't relevant, or
to say that you've got other numbers that are that
are that supersede them? Okay, what are the other numbers
(23:19):
that could supersede? See them? What Jed would probably say
if he was in this conversation, you say, yes, demand's
got to be better against the best teams, the whole
the entire football team's got to be better. But we're
getting closer, We're closing the gap. We were more competitive
against good teams this year than we were last year.
(23:40):
And that's the evolution of a quarterback who was eighteen
a year ago, who was nineteen this year, and who
will be twenty next year. That like, yes, we would
have we would expect to have those type of inflection
points on the chronological timeline, and so where he would say,
(24:01):
we're basically on schedule to where we need to be
for demand to be X. But and so, okay, that's fine,
that's a fair retort. But then you got to get
granular on the ways. You're not just gonna get better
because you know the three hundred and sixty five days
passed on the calendar. You're gonna get better because you're
(24:23):
gonna work on your weaknesses.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And in my.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Mind, his depth on his route, his state of readiness
to throw the ball when when there's checkdowns available and
short passes available, as opposed to just you know, kind
of taking a leisurely dropped He's so damn athletic. He bounces,
and part of his athleticism is bouncing this it gets
into a deeper like you don't really think of how
(24:48):
deepest drop is until you stop and you go, oh
my gosh, he's eleven and a half yards or ten
and a half yards behind the line. E scermens because
it's just so graceful because he's so athletic. But if
that's your launch point, the ball is in the air
in Ohio State and Michigan defenders are going they're going
to close ground while they're pursuing the ball. You're gonna
have zero run after the catch, and you're gonna have
(25:09):
balls batted, some of which are gonna pop up and
get intercepted. That's how to get better against the best teams.
You're gonna have to improve the things that need improving,
and your launch point is too deep.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It didn't seem like he ran as much against those
elite teams as he did against the UC Davis's and
the Wazoos, and was that primarily because he didn't feel
or Jed didn't feel like he couldn't he couldn't get
yardage against the elite front sevens of college football, and
he could only you know, he can juke at UC
(25:43):
Davis guy or a Wazu guy or Perdue guy and
he can get his twenty thirty yard runs.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Well, he had he had twenty. Uh, he had six
scrambles for twenty yards against Ohio State, a little over
three per.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Any of those designed they just know.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Those were scrambles. Those are those are scrambles. So he
had Yeah, let's see, prior to the Origan he had
had sixty yards total of scrambles against the three best defense.
He had thirty against Wisconsin, ten against Ohio State and
twenty against are going to be ten against Michigan, twenty
against Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So yeah, it's it's it's harder.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
They they they're generally well, they're better athletes for sure, right,
that's right, and then they tend to be better coach.
They're fundamentally South, so they know where their help is.
So they're they you know, they're not going to lose
leverage because because they know they have inside help. So
they're going to be more likely to do their job
and and just all of that, they're going to be
played better defense, and they're going to have a plan.
(26:48):
I mean, you know, look down in the red zone. Uh,
you know you had Matt Patricia is the defensive coordinator
for Ohio State and his plan. Uh, and how Jed
reacted to it it very clear. You know, hey, this
here's one guy who's got three Super Bowl rings and
you know he designed I know we're up against class,
(27:10):
but but he had a couple of coverages that that
that Washington didn't answer well to. You know, how they
how they doubled Boston and then the route concepts that
Washington chose to do to respond were not the type
of beaters that to beat what Ohio State was doing.
So Jet's got to be better as well.
All right, rolling into the four o'clock out, I want
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Just go to Seattle Golfpass dot com and snap them
up while they last. All right, we spent the first
hour talking NFL football. It's four a into the world
of the Huskies. I was over there a couple hours
ago listening to the coordinators speak. They had a couple
(00:58):
of players that they brought out to to talk to
the media.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Desnt Roebuck, Alex McLoughlin.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No DeMont Williams today, but That's kind of where I
want to go with you, Hugh, is just the performance
of the quarterback.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we'll start just kind of open ended.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Let's just evaluate what you saw from DeMont Williams in
his first full season as a starter, second overall season.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, you see an electric athlete that has a very
compact throwing motion with a relatively live arm, that is
a playmaker in a lot of different ways. But I
think his challenge is going to be the drop that
he had from and we've talked about a number of times.
(01:44):
We defined the good teams in the conferences and the
top twenty five defenses, and then the Huskies five wins
were of teams that were in the bottom twenty out
of sixty seven Power five. Right, all five wins were
against defense in the bottom twenty. And so we said
his expected points average per dropback, which has the highest
(02:06):
correlation of any quarterbacks that you can find, he had
a point seven drop which was number one of all
power for quarterbacks, and then his pass efficiency dropped us
seventy two point seven that was number two. So I
think that would be a goal. He's got to play
better against the good teams. And one thing that I
(02:29):
think is really a factor here, Dick. It's a little
bit hard to describe on the radio, so let's make
this interactive with you and me. But it's important enough
to bring it in because you're asking me as a
quarterback to identify things that are not just minutia, are
central to a performance. And this is what I'm going
to focus on the depth of Demond Williams from the
(02:51):
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Got me, yep?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
How far he drops? Yeah, So when he's in shotgun,
which he usually is, his toes at five yards. Now
some are it heals it five yards, but his toes
are at five yards, And then how far he's dropping
back and the method in style with which he does it,
and what depth does that get to him? Because in
(03:16):
a playbook, any playbook, you're going to have an odd
number of steps because you're as a regardless of your
left handed or right handed, you're if you're right hand,
we'll just talk about a right handed and you go
three step drop is right foot, left foot, right foot right,
got me, and a five step is right left, right,
left right, Okay, So so it's always an odd number
(03:37):
and of course seven step. So the question is that
what depth are you? And then what's your inclination to
come up in the pocket? So that so where are you?
And it's important for two reasons. Number one, how long
it takes the football to get to the target and
number two how easy does it make make it on
(03:58):
the offensive tackles? Who would they want to have the
defensive ends as they run around, the offensive tackles would
like to push you around. And the defensive end has
got to like turn a tighter radius because it's like, oh,
the quarterback is stepping up in the pocket. I can't
get If the quarterback is not stepping up into the pocket, then.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The offensive line is kind of pushing him right and
into the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Then so let's just say so let's say hypothetically, if
you throw, So let's talk about the first one, the
ball getting to the target. When the ball gets to
the target early, you can beat defenders. Right if the
ball gets to the target earlier. You're looking at these
zone defenders. They want to bat the ball down. It's
(04:41):
a game of inches. How many times have you watched
you watch enough football? How many times do you see
a defender just barely get a finger on a ball
and get a pass breakdown right.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The interception and overtime to Hurts last night.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, and so I made a comment with you and
Softy kind of it sounded like an offhanded comment. I
actually put a lot of calculation to it. It's not hard.
I said, imagine if you had the defenders had tennis
rackets in each hand. Tennis racket is twenty seven inches,
but that's not beyond the length of your fingers because
(05:17):
you gotta grab it. So on average, the tennis racket
is about nineteen and a half inches longer than.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
What you would reach. Got me.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If a quarterback is a yard and a half further back,
then so we're gonna have two variables in this, okay,
regardless of where it is. Let's say, when is it
eight yards from the line deep and one's at nine
and a half by being a yard and a half deep,
and then you say, what's the velocity of the ball. Well,
(05:47):
I'll give you some velocities at the combine. Jordan Love
was fifty four miles an hour, Jalen Hurts fifty five,
Russell Wilson was fifty five, Dak Prescott fifty five, Mitched
Trubisky fifty one, Perty fifty two let's get let's be
generous and just go fifty five miles an hour. You
go a mile and a half or a yard and
(06:08):
a half deeper, and you throw it at fifty five
miles an hour. A defender running at twenty miles an hour,
and now some defenders are up at twenty one to
twenty two. Let's just say twenty miles an hour. That is,
you're right at that nineteen twenty inch difference.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You're giving them go go, gadget arms basically because you're
throwing the football.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I want you to imagine all the defenders that their
their arms are at the length of their ankles. Okay,
and now you'd say what, but it's not. I don't
want you to or holding tennis rackets. Well, if you're
holding two tennis rockets, that's going to.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Slow you down.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No, I want you to imagine defenders that are just
as fast and just as quick, and just as agile,
and just as their ability to drive on the football
as as if they had Longs's arms at tennis racket.
This is an enormous difference. And when you watch them
on Williams what he does with his steps, he takes
a cheap step with his left foot the first one.
You can slow this down, anybody, if you got this DVR.
(07:07):
He goes left foot first, and then he takes a
hop with his left foot, so he goes left, left, right, left, right,
And then when he gets back in the pocket, he
is routinely getting to eleven yards deep and ten yards
and I'm measuring from where the ball is. I'll go
(07:29):
and I don't just do the round to the nearest yard.
I'll go like a third of where the ball is.
Half you know, it's like the thirty seven and a
half yard line, the thirty seven and a third, okay,
And then I'll stop right when he throws the ball
or where he stepped up. I'll just say, where's the
center of his body? Where's his crops?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And and you look at them, and he is typically
at nine and a half to ten yards deep, and
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I was just gonna ask that.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I mean, I can just hear people drive around right
now screaming at their radios. Why is an this being
coached out of him? Then, I mean, if you know this,
I would hope that coaches making millions of dollars a
year would know this may.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Be a second let me let me give you a
fourth place in just the first half of the Oregon
game where that manifested. He goes up ten thirty nine
to go in the first quarter. If you can watch this,
if you have the Oregon game, he's got a post
wheel concept to the left. Now, the route on the
on the wheel is poor. It's a bad angle, it's
(08:29):
too flat. It should be more up the field. But
that point, notwithstanding, the ball is snapped on the eighth
on the eighteen yard line. You could be critically say
seventeen and a half. He he demand gets back to
his crotch is at six and a half the center
of his body, so he is eleven and a half,
(08:52):
you know, eleven to eleven and a half yards deep.
Now on that play the Oregon played at Tampa two
too deep, and then the middle guy of the underneath
the fenders is deeper, so he has got the read.
If you're coaching him, hey, dude, you know turn it off, don't.
The post wheel is dead against that coverage. Right now,
(09:15):
you've got Desmond Roebuck sitting right in front of you,
and Desmond Roebuck is sitting over the ball at the
twenty five yard line, and he's taking a long time.
He's too deep in the pocket to have been able
if he wants to get that little quick checkdown. That
defender is going to close in the manner. Now you
(09:36):
say he wasn't going to be twenty miles an hour.
Maybe he doesn't have a tennis rack in the hands,
but he's got a racketball racket.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Like his arms.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
We just extended defender's arms a long way. Okay, that's one. Now,
he had great feet later in the quarter on a
good call by jetfish Man, a man beater, and he's
got again Desmond Roebuck primary receiver, and was called a
now slant and his crotches six and a half the
center of his body is six and a half yards
(10:02):
from this and and that's good. That's exactly what I
want to But the rush is kind of in his
face and he sky mails.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It because he can't. Roebuck would have needed a tennis
racket himself just to bat the balls because he is
that because he's not deep enough and he can't see.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We got this writ that that's the that's the inference
I'm making. Yes, okay, So third play, third down on
a third and third and eight and a half, third
and nine, and uh, they're going they get a pick
for Raydon Vines bright They get a nice pick. They
get Bright Vines bright On back in the flat left.
(10:40):
He's going three step, three step, But I put in
quotes because his three steps is really a five step
because the left left memory I said in a playbook,
you're it's always an odd number because they assume your
first your your your first step is with your right foot.
He goes left left, then right, left right, and then
when there isn't really a lot of pressure when he
(11:01):
hits his back foot, he kind of bounces back because
he doesn't like the pressure that there is. He throws
in the less flat, but because he's bounced back, he's
got no he's got no velocity on the ball because
his inertia is going the opposite way. He throws the
balls on the right hash it's a long throw out
to the left flat, which is very late, and it's
it's floating. And so now you don't get the run
(11:23):
after the catch. There would have been run after the
catch if you stab it on him early, So you
don't get the run after the catch.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And then the last one, I'll mention. Uh, we'll see that. Oh,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Sorry, I mean we get the point. I mean, you
don't have to give us another illustration. Let's get let's
get to the question at hand.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Okay, so, yeah, there's one where he dropped his center
of the body.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Oh, oh, I got it. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It was late, one fifty one to go in the
second quarter. I apologize. I had lost my notes. Okay,
they're down thirteen to nothing. You're trying to now they
end up getting a score, right, But he drops back
all snapped at the thirty eight and a half from Oregon.
He goes all the way to the fifty, so his
back foot hits at eleven and a half yards, and
then he when he throws the ball, the center of
(12:12):
his body is at forty eight and a half, so
he is ten yards from the lion of scrimmage. Well,
the left tackle gets beat and Demon's arm gets hit,
the ball flutters, an Oregon defender gets two hands on
the ball, should have been intercepted.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
He drops an interception.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Had he been a maybe a yard and a half
up close to the lion of scrimmage, that's a more
favorable angle. So those are four plays where the depth
of the quarterback, in my judgment, is materially impacting the
offense four plays in one half, and there's others where
you could say it affected it, maybe not as drastically.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So is the is the coaching staff not fixing it
because they think that if he wasn't that deep in
the pocket we've had, we'd have even more issues because
of his height and he can't see.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, probably, they probably probably. Uh, Look, I'm not in there.
I don't want to speak for them, and I'm not
in their heads. I think that there's a way. And
so I told you. I went back and I watched
Fernanda Mendoza. I had already watched tape of him. Today
wasn't the first time I watched tape, but today I
put on. I watched the entire tape of him against
Ohio State the other night. And he is routinely at
(13:29):
at the seven and a half eight and and he
when he's in his drop, his his hips are lower.
He's he's in a throwing position ready to go to
because because a quarterback will be instructed. Look, you can
take your deep drop if the if the defense tells
you to to throw to the deep but be prepared
(13:50):
to abort your drop, get your feet in the ground,
and throw quickly to the checkdown if you know you're
not going to have anything. Fernando Mendoza is much more now.
I'm holding him to probably the Heisman Trophy winner and
maybe a you know, a top five pick in the draft.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I get that. But Je Fish the other days was.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Talking about how Heisman UH or a first round draft
pick type guys wouldn't do any better against uh the
top teams. Well, that is not true. We talked about
that uh the other day. That's just uh, factually false,
that assertion. But when you look at at the state
of readiness where Mendoza is in the pocket, he's he
(14:30):
wants he's comfortable in that seven to eight and a
half yard range.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Because he's six fall on huh, because he's six.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Now, we're not going to make demon six five. But
what what what I'm saying is is that we can
have him better in this regard. Okay, we can we
can say, like, hey, we can have drills where there's
got you practice having visual chatter in your face over
and over and over again. Force him to get up
in there like you'd be surprised how hard coaching can
(15:02):
get a guy. I've heard coaches, you know, just say
you gotta get bad faster, you gotta back faster. Guys go,
I can't get faster, Yes you can, and then all
of a sudden, two months later you go, wow, droppers faster,
like if you demand it, and and and what I
think somebody needs to do at Washington is show him
the tape. Look at how much deeper he is on
(15:22):
a consistent basis. I just talked about a half of
football in one game. Show him like, this is okay
against UC Davis, This is okay against Purdue, this is okay.
But when you start going against the teams, would would
it be a safe assertion that Ohio State has and
and Michigan and Oregon have quicker athletes than Purdue and
(15:48):
every guy basically, yeah, the difference between the the best defenses,
it's not the size, it's the speed, the team speed.
So that hurts him when he goes to scramble because
he can't he's not as elusive. But it's also hurting
(16:08):
him because these are better defenders. They can react to
the ball. You lose the run after the catch because
the ball is arriving later. And then it also impacts
how he's reading where he says, is he open, Well,
he's turning down open receivers on occasion because he says, oh,
that defender will break on the ball.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, that defender will.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Break on the ball because you're ten yards deep, right,
if you were a couple of yards short, you would
instinctively know, oh, I can get that in there.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
An issue, but I think it's an issue that he
can improve upon. He's only nineteen years old, right, but
I think it is absolutely not a tertiary issue, not
a secondary issue. This is a primary issue that will
affect his quarterbacking, not just for the Husky's but in
the future. And I'll close with this. Ed mentioned two
(17:02):
guys that he wants to compare. It says last year
he goes Kyler Murray and Jayden Daniels. He goes and
Jed says, we're gonna break out the tape, I mean
the Cardinal tape and the Commander tape, and we're gonna
see how they're using them. That's what Jed said in
the offseason last year. So he's just saying, Hey, we're
just looking at what guys do for Dumont. Is he
(17:23):
going to be a Kyler Murray Oklahoma Heisman winner or
is he going to be Dorian Thompson Robinson who had
a damn good career through for ten thoy seven hundred
yards multiple and he was second second team All Packed
ten a couple of years and the Bruins went eight
and four one year in ninety three is last couple
(17:44):
of years. So are you Dorian Thompson Robinson or Kyler Murray.
If you're Kyler Murray, we're all gonna have a parade
for you because you're gonna win the Heisman. You're gonna
you know, and you got a chance to win a
national championship. That's the comparison that all of us want. Right,
you meet Jed Fish right, but he is going to
have to make some improvements to be more like Kyler
(18:05):
Murray and less like Dorian Thompson Robbins.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A couple questions. I'm not done chewing on this with you.
We'll come back and talk about in the next segment.
On ninety three point three KJFM, we were talking about
you were talking about the pocket depth and I kind
of want to get into the protection a little bit.
I mean in the eight wins, Demon Williams was sacked
ten times, like one point two sacks per game, less
than in the four losses he was sacked seventeen times,
(18:32):
so a fourfold increase in sacks in those games. Obviously
you're being playing better teams. It seems like a pretty
egregious jump though, from one time a game to over
four times a game. Did did they move the pocket enough,
did they boot enough? Or was it too much? Drop
(18:53):
back Demon Williams this season.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Well, I think there's a limit to how much you
can move the pocket because you kind of run out
of pass schemes. All the defenders are flowing to the
sideline because the receivers have to have outbreaking routes. You
don't you don't design any plays where the quarterback, even
a right handed quarterback, you don't design plays where where
(19:16):
uh you're breaking back across.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
There's one exception, the Russell Wilson boot deep over right.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, I mean Penix Penix hit that first play of
the Apple Cup at Pollman. You know, it's been in
the playbook for a long time. You see h Jedfish
has it in the playbook. In fact, they tried to hit.
They called that play. Vervines Bright going away from the
Lake against Oregon, that that play. But you're in that case,
(19:44):
you're you're starting to dash, but then you set up
and the protection is is created so that you have
an opportunity to set up and throw back to the left.
But as far as staying on the move, no, And
you know, like Ohio State they had guys where they
played a five down front, a double eagle where they
(20:06):
would have four guys to be able to stop the
run and then the fifth away from the fake the
end could just come up the field because they were
sound in their other gaps and so there was a
plan to be able to stop Demand in the pocket.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I know you had a huge concern at the beginning
of the season, rightfully, so you told us about this
in non conference play about Demand getting killed out there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And he made it through. He made it through the season.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
We're not one certain how healthy Demand Williams is was
all year long. There were times when I was like, hey,
he doesn't look as explosive as he usually looks. But
he was out there every game this season and almost
every snap this season. Did Demand and or Jed do
a better job protecting him from injury than they did
(21:03):
last season, or did the Huskies just get lucky not
having demon get rocked.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well, they had too many free runners for sure. That
had been My contention is that there's a there's not
enough attention placed on getting a hat on a hat
and having a real plan for an overload. You know,
from a quarterback perspective, you know, you got to know
why are you in a five out protection? Okay, I
only got five offensive lineman you know, three to one
(21:29):
two to the other side. If it's a six man
protection like most as a general rule, the center is
going to go one way and the running back or
the tight end, whoever's involved in protection, they're going to
go the other way. So I got three three to
block three on each side. If they bring a fourth,
then I've got to throw hot or I gotta i
gotta redirect the protection and take four to one side
(21:51):
two to the other, in which case I can only
handle two to the weeks to the two side. If
a third time, I got to get hot, Like you've
got to go through that every single time. And I
don't think that they they were sound. I still don't
think that their sound in terms of preventing free runners
coming at the quarterback. The idea that well, our quarterback
(22:11):
has really has got a lot of juice. That's that's
our escape, our answer to pressure. I think that's that's
not a recipe for continued success, uh, nor for health.
I'm a little bit surprised that he made it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I mean, he so.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
He he's a lot of hard hits. He's tough.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Saw that as freshman year. I mean, he got planted
against Penn State in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
He kept Yeah, I did well.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
He had eleven free runners in seventeen dropbacks against Penn State.
Eleven And you know whether he made a miss or
whether you know eventually they're going to hunt you down.
But the point is is, I'm looking at these numbers.
These numbers are are undebatable. Demon Williams had the highest drop,
the most drop of any quarterback in power football between
(22:58):
the difference good opponents and poor opponents. He had the
second highest drop in pass efficiency. Those numbers cannot be disbated.
The only way you can beat me on the argument
is to say those releve those numbers aren't relevant, or
to say that you've got other numbers that are that
are that supersede them? Okay, what are the other numbers
(23:19):
that could supersede? See them? What Jed would probably say
if he was in this conversation, you say, yes, demand's
got to be better against the best teams, the whole
the entire football team's got to be better. But we're
getting closer, We're closing the gap. We were more competitive
against good teams this year than we were last year.
(23:40):
And that's the evolution of a quarterback who was eighteen
a year ago, who was nineteen this year, and who
will be twenty next year. That like, yes, we would
have we would expect to have those type of inflection
points on the chronological timeline, and so where he would say,
(24:01):
we're basically on schedule to where we need to be
for demand to be X. But and so, okay, that's fine,
that's a fair retort. But then you got to get
granular on the ways. You're not just gonna get better
because you know the three hundred and sixty five days
passed on the calendar. You're gonna get better because you're
(24:23):
gonna work on your weaknesses.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And in my.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Mind, his depth on his route, his state of readiness
to throw the ball when when there's checkdowns available and
short passes available, as opposed to just you know, kind
of taking a leisurely dropped He's so damn athletic. He bounces,
and part of his athleticism is bouncing this it gets
into a deeper like you don't really think of how
(24:48):
deepest drop is until you stop and you go, oh
my gosh, he's eleven and a half yards or ten
and a half yards behind the line. E scermens because
it's just so graceful because he's so athletic. But if
that's your launch point, the ball is in the air
in Ohio State and Michigan defenders are going they're going
to close ground while they're pursuing the ball. You're gonna
have zero run after the catch, and you're gonna have
(25:09):
balls batted, some of which are gonna pop up and
get intercepted. That's how to get better against the best teams.
You're gonna have to improve the things that need improving,
and your launch point is too deep.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It didn't seem like he ran as much against those
elite teams as he did against the UC Davis's and
the Wazoos, and was that primarily because he didn't feel
or Jed didn't feel like he couldn't he couldn't get
yardage against the elite front sevens of college football, and
he could only you know, he can juke at UC
(25:43):
Davis guy or a Wazu guy or Perdue guy and
he can get his twenty thirty yard runs.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Well, he had he had twenty. Uh, he had six
scrambles for twenty yards against Ohio State, a little over
three per.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Any of those designed they just know.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Those were scrambles. Those are those are scrambles. So he
had Yeah, let's see, prior to the Origan he had
had sixty yards total of scrambles against the three best defense.
He had thirty against Wisconsin, ten against Ohio State and
twenty against are going to be ten against Michigan, twenty
against Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So yeah, it's it's it's harder.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
They they they're generally well, they're better athletes for sure, right,
that's right, and then they tend to be better coach.
They're fundamentally South, so they know where their help is.
So they're they you know, they're not going to lose
leverage because because they know they have inside help. So
they're going to be more likely to do their job
and and just all of that, they're going to be
played better defense, and they're going to have a plan.
(26:48):
I mean, you know, look down in the red zone. Uh,
you know you had Matt Patricia is the defensive coordinator
for Ohio State and his plan. Uh, and how Jed
reacted to it it very clear. You know, hey, this
here's one guy who's got three Super Bowl rings and
you know he designed I know we're up against class,
(27:10):
but but he had a couple of coverages that that
that Washington didn't answer well to. You know, how they
how they doubled Boston and then the route concepts that
Washington chose to do to respond were not the type
of beaters that to beat what Ohio State was doing.
So Jet's got to be better as well.
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
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