Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. might not be available when the Huskies attempt to snap a three-game skid Friday night against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.
Williams suffered a “significant” rib injury late in the first half of last Friday’s 41-24 Big Ten home loss to then-No. 20 Iowa.
Huskies coach Jedd Fisch originally said Williams was day-to-day, but then acknowledged he wasn’t confident the junior signal-caller would be ready by Friday. Williams has a streak of 20 straight starts dating to the final game of the 2024 regular season.
“We still have to do all sorts of imaging and everything else,” Fisch said. “So I’m not under the impression he’ll be playing this week based upon where he’s at physically, but I don’t want to predict the future either.”
The Huskies (3-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) trailed 27-0 when Williams Jr. was hurt late in the second quarter. Elijah Brown, a transfer from Stanford, came on after the half and completed 28 of 39 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns to make things respectable.
That has led some in Seattle to call for a quarterback change.
“The last thing I want to do is put added pressure on Elijah or added pressure on Demond,” Fisch said. “Right now, that’s not going to benefit anybody. Elijah needs to go out there and play the best Elijah football he can play. And Demond needs to go out there and do everything he can to try and get out there this Friday night or whatever the next game is he can play.”
The Boilermakers (3-3, 2-1) rebounded from losses to UCLA and Notre Dame, ranked No. 12 and No. 2, respectively, in this week’s AP poll, with a 24-17 victory at Illinois and a 41-13 drubbing of Minnesota at home. That’s the same Minnesota team that won 27-24 on Sept. 26 at Seattle to start the Huskies’ slide.
Purdue running back Fame Ijeboi was named the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Week after gaining 195 yards and scoring three TDs on 31 carries against Minnesota, his former school.
Boilermakers QB Ryan Browne has completed 68.9% of his passes for 1,549 yards with nine TDs and just one interception this season.
After entering October with a 19-game losing streak in Big Ten play, Purdue suddenly can claim its first three-game conference winning streak since 2022 with a victory Friday.
“It’s always a unique challenge in this league to build the plan for the week,” Boilermakers coach Barry Odom said of playing on a Friday night. “We’ve got to take the approach that it’s a one-game season. When we do that and prepare the right way, you give your team a chance to go play free, play fast, play confident and play together.”
Odom’s younger brother, Brian, is Washington’s inside linebackers coach. Huskies defensive coordinator Ryan Walters was the head coach at Purdue in 2023-24.
