The Washington Huskies football team will enter the 2026-27 season with a decent amount of expectations.

The Huskies have been named in several pre-spring top 25 lists by various publications.

A common thread of thought across the various publications that have Washington included in their early top 25 lists is the potential of the offense, which features notable players such as 2025 All-Freshman guard John Mills.

The centerpiece of the offense and the reason why a lot of outlets are predicting UW's to have a great 2026 is due to junior quarterback Demond Williams Jr.

The 19-year-old signal-caller is coming off his first full season as a starting quarterback. He completed 69.5% of his passes for 3,065 yards for 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also ran 143 times for 611 yards and six interceptions.

Williams' 3,676 total yards led the Big Ten.

As much anticipation as there is for the encore Williams and the Huskies' offense has in store, there was a brief period earlier this winter where it looked like the junior wouldn't be returning to Seattle.

Williams signed a contract to return to Washington in the first week of January. On Jan. 6, he announced his intention to enter the transfer portal, going against the deal he signed. Williams reversed that decision Jan. 8 and announced he would stay with the team for this upcoming season.

In the 48-hour period in between when Williams decided to enter and withdraw from the transfer portal, the college football world was in an uproar. There were rumors the Huskies would attempt to legally enforce the contract Williams signed.

Since then, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch and Williams himself have attempted to flush and move on from the hectic 48-hour period, with Williams saying he received "bad advice."

Fisch recently appeared on On3 Sports' Andy & Ari podcast with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman, and offered a glass-half-full perspective to the January saga with Williams.

"It was a crazy time for a couple days," Fisch said on the podcast. "To be honest, though, it was one in which I think we're gonna see more and more. And as I looked at it, and as I talked to (Williams), I talked to our team ... Most of these top quarterbacks switched schools. Our's didn't. You look at where all these quarterbacks have gone, what's happening, we had two days where we had to work through some things and figure out what was best. A lot of people were trying to convince him to leave. And a lot of people — as we know, when you get recruited, it's hard not to at least pause for a minute. And that's what he did. And after about 48 hours, the pause was over and he's back and he's having a fantastic first (five) weeks of the offseason."

There will be a lot of fans that continue to feel negatively and have a bad taste in their mouths about how everything played out in January.

But if Williams and the rest of Washington meet those aforementioned expectations, a lot of those lingering feelings will likely dissipate.

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