SEATTLE \u2014 It was the calmest spring in years around college football. The elimination of the sport\u2019s spring transfer portal cleared the way for optimism, warming weather and general good vibes to fill the deep offseason. But not everything had settled.<\/p>\n
Take for example the beautiful 62-degree night in early April when Demond Williams threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Washington softball game. Much of the crowd of nearly 1,500 cheered the Huskies\u2019 junior starting quarterback.<\/p>\n
It was a moment of appreciation for Williams that belied the limbo he has resided in for the last few months. The Huskies are focused on improving on last year\u2019s nine-win season, but some fans are still upset with their star QB after he briefly jilted the program last winter. A few had taken to the comments of the softball team\u2019s Instagram post<\/a> promoting Williams\u2019 pitch. One asked if the first pitch was part of an apology tour. Another called for Williams\u2019 appearance to be canceled.<\/p>\n In January, four days after signing a revenue-sharing agreement to stay at Washington, Williams announced that he would enter the transfer portal instead.<\/p>\n Two days later, after losing his agent and adding legal counsel, Williams announced he\u2019d stay at UW, making him the first high-profile college QB of the NIL era to attempt to leave a school and not get out. The saga left some scars.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was super stressful, for sure,\u201d Williams told The Athletic of his January drama. \u201cBut I\u2019m just glad to be where I\u2019m at right now, glad it\u2019s behind me and I\u2019m able to focus on the team at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n The Washington football team and the athletic department are moving forward arm-in-arm with Williams, saying the fallout from his unprecedented failed exit is all in the past. If the Huskies win in 2026, all will be forgiven. But the rest of the college football world has also kept an eye on that January firestorm with a question that may show up on their own campuses: Was this a one-off situation or a sign of more major contract disputes to come?<\/p>\n Jedd Fisch, Pat Chun and Tony Petitti walked together to Alaska Airlines Arena in the late afternoon on Jan. 6. They were headed to a memorial service for Washington women\u2019s soccer player Mia Hamant, who had died in November from a rare form of kidney cancer. Hamant was one of the top players in the Big Ten before the diagnosis forced her to sit out her senior year. The UW community rallied around her fight, and the football team put an orange ribbon sticker on their helmets late in the season. Hundreds of people showed up for the celebration of life event. Petitti, the Big Ten commissioner, had flown in to join the Huskies head football coach and athletic director as the campus mourned.<\/p>\n During the walk over, Fisch got a call from Williams and stepped aside to take it. On the phone, an emotional Williams told his head coach he was changing his mind and leaving Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was a possibility at all,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cI just said to him, \u2018Take a deep breath,\u2019 because he was crying and was very upset. I said, \u2018Let\u2019s talk in an hour.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 newly signed deal with Washington was worth around $4 million in 2026, according to people familiar with the agreement. Suddenly, that was in question.<\/p>\n Fisch continued his walk to the memorial. Inside the building, the athletic director Chun and his coach stayed off their phones out of respect. Hours later, Williams posted a social media graphic<\/a> announcing his plans to enter the transfer portal, sending the Washington base into an uproar and the college football world into a panic. Fans attacked Williams on social media, both over the decision and the choice to do it on this night, of all nights.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty immature,\u201d said TV analyst Brock Huard, a former Washington quarterback, \u201cand the timing was horrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n Administrators and coaches at other schools began texting each other and reporters, asking whether a player could really back out of a contract signed with a school. Last summer\u2019s House v. NCAA settlement allowed schools to sign players to revenue-sharing deals, and the stability that system was supposed to create had just been loudly called into question.<\/p>\n Williams was represented by Doug Hendrickson, an agent with a slew of high-profile clients \u2014 including Fisch.<\/p>\n Washington leadership informed Williams\u2019 camp that it was legally prepared to hold Williams to the contract. Chun said in a public statement that contracts should be \u201crespected by everyone within the college sports ecosystem,\u201d a not-so-subtle shot at schools interested in Williams. Among the teams known to be in need of a quarterback at that time were portal power players LSU and Miami (Fla.).<\/p>\n It helped Washington to have the Big Ten commissioner in town. It was Petitti who\u2019d led the charge for Big Ten schools to create a template revenue-sharing contract with players. According to a copy of one deal from another Big Ten school, a school \u201cis not obligated to enter the student-athlete into the transfer portal or otherwise assist or facilitate the student-athlete\u2019s transfer to another college or university.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was invaluable guidance and help that Tony and his staff provided during that time,\u201d Chun said.<\/p>\n In the immediate aftermath, Big Ten ADs on a conference call supported Washington\u2019s defense of the contract. Even many player agents told The Athletic at the time they hoped Williams would stay with UW. It would be a bad look for their profession and the system as a whole if a player backed out of a signed deal with a school, a step further than the one former Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava had taken in ditching the collective associated with the Vols\u2019 program the year prior.<\/p>\n The offense around Williams was also in flux. Top players like running back Jonah Coleman and receiver Denzel Boston were going to the NFL. Leading returning running back Adam Mohammed announced he would transfer to Cal the same day Williams informed Fisch of his decision, while receiver Raiden Vines-Bright had left for Arizona State after starting seven games as a true freshman. In total, six receivers left the UW program over the winter. The Huskies added running back and receiver depth pieces, but the turnover was another reason why keeping Williams was so important.<\/p>\n Less than 40 hours after Williams\u2019 portal post, Hendrickson announced<\/a> he had ended his representation of Williams \u201cdue to philosophical differences.\u201d Hendrickson did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.<\/p>\n What was the driving force behind Williams\u2019 attempted move? Player adviser Cordell Landers, who worked with Iamaleava during his transfer, took to social media to deny initial reports that implicated him, posting a text message exchange<\/a> with Williams\u2019 father Demond Sr. as purported proof. Multiple requests for comment sent to a number registered to Demond Sr., a former player at Michigan State in the mid-2000s, were not returned.<\/p>\n Before Hendrickson removed himself from the situation, he\u2019d referred the Williams family to Darren Heitner, a Florida-based attorney who has worked on many high-profile NIL cases. Shortly after Hendrickson\u2019s post, Heitner posted on X that he would represent Williams.<\/p>\n Seven hours later, during the Miami-Ole Miss College Football Playoff semifinal game, Williams announced<\/a> he would stay at Washington.<\/p>\n Heitner says months later that his job was to provide the best information he could to the family. He told them this situation was different from cornerback Xavier Lucas, whom Heitner had helped unenroll at Wisconsin and enroll at Miami outside of the portal window in the spring of 2025. Here, dealing with a different contract and a shorter window than Lucas had, Williams was in an \u201cunenviable situation,\u201d Heitner said, but \u201che handled the aftermath exceptionally well.\u201d<\/p>\n Fisch stayed in communication with his quarterback, emphasizing Washington was the best place for him and that he would be welcome back on the team.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we fleshed through the options, I told him he made the right determination (to stay),\u201d Heitner said.<\/p>\n And Washington did want him back. Fisch has known Williams since the QB was 14. Williams first committed to Fisch at Arizona before following the coach to Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a relationship that had been formed, and this was an adverse moment in which the relationship was challenged,\u201d Chun said. \u201cRelationships matter, and we\u2019re all grateful that it ended like it did.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams still won\u2019t say much about what happened. In a February press conference, his first public appearance after the firestorm, Williams kept it brief, saying everyone makes mistakes and that he was happy to be back. He said his attempt to leave was a result of \u201creally bad advice,\u201d without elaborating further, and he declined to comment when asked directly if LSU had tried to lure him into the portal.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Athletic in April in the Husky Stadium players lounge, Williams\u2019 answers on the topic remained short. Asked if he\u2019d do anything differently or if there were misconceptions to clear up, he stayed focused on looking forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI just take it one day at a time and trust what God has planned for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After the decision to return, fences still had to be mended. Fisch went on local radio and asked fans for patience.<\/p>\n \u201cGive us eight months,\u201d he said on KJR in late January. \u201cThe first game is not until September. We are going to work extremely hard as a football team to continue to be a part of this community, and to reach out, and to be in the forefront, and to show the type of guys that we have brought in here and we will continue to bring in here.\u201d<\/p>\n Most importantly, Williams had to make right with the women\u2019s soccer team. The timing of his original announcement was the deepest cut. Williams apologized to the women\u2019s soccer team in his return post and also met with them in person shortly after.<\/p>\n \u201cHe handled it in a very mature way,\u201d Chun said.<\/p>\n At the spring football game in early May, women\u2019s soccer coach Nicole Van Dyke served as the honorary coach of Williams\u2019 Purple team. Both the women\u2019s and the national championship-winning men\u2019s soccer team were honored during breaks in the action. There were no reports of boos toward Williams from the fans in attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team has a wonderful relationship with the UW football program, and that includes Demond,\u201d Van Dyke said in a statement to The Athletic. \u201cHe has personally apologized to every one of our players for the unfortunate timing of events, and we accepted that apology. Demond is a great representative of our university who simply made a mistake, and we\u2019ve all moved past it. We\u2019ll be cheering on Demond along with the rest of Husky Nation this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Within his own team, Williams spoke to players from last year\u2019s squad, and both Williams and his coach said there haven\u2019t been issues since.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s stepping up vocally,\u201d safety Rylon Dillard-Allen said. \u201cLast year, he wasn\u2019t very vocal and we didn\u2019t need that from him then. But we definitely need that from him now, and he\u2019s doing his thing well.\u201d<\/p>\n Fisch wasn\u2019t concerned about the team being a problem. With all players having the opportunity to transfer every year, teammates understand the situation, he said. Coaches take calls while under contract. Player holdouts and trade requests happen all the time in the NFL, too, only for both sides to forgive and move on. Or at least, that\u2019s the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve coached the NFL 15 years, and none of that is crazy to me,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cWe talked about it, and I\u2019m excited that he\u2019s back, but I never really feel like that should affect anything within our fan base, players or our administration.\u201d<\/p>\n With a new \u201cGODSPEED\u201d tattoo on his left forearm, added in January, and a new No. 1 jersey number, Williams bounced around at a practice in April. When a receiver and a cornerback started shoving each other, Williams got involved to separate them. It looked like any other spring practice, a young QB working on his leadership. Within those walls, it seems that everyone has moved on.<\/p>\n But some fans are less sure of how to feel.<\/p>\n Seattle KJR radio host Dave \u201cSofty\u201d Mahler was on the air when Williams released his first announcement and reacted live after being read the statement: \u201cF him, there\u2019s no loyalty in college football whatsoever.\u201d Mahler, a prominent sports voice in the city, describes Washington football as the frequent 1B topic on his show, alongside the Seahawks. Fisch\u2019s first public comments about the Williams drama came on Mahler\u2019s show.<\/p>\n Months later, Mahler regrets some of what he said, but he stands by the anger fans felt in that moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s dissipated a little bit, time probably heals all wounds,\u201d Mahler said. \u201cBut I do know there are still a good chunk of Husky football fans, including myself, that are uneasy a little bit about the idea of the starting quarterback for the Huskies being a guy that tried to quit the team and go play in the SEC, you know? I mean, how do you just move on from that and forget that?<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then you wonder, is he going to be here next year? If he doesn\u2019t go to the NFL, are we doing this same song and dance again next December or January with him?\u201d<\/p>\n The eight months of grace Fisch requested are halfway complete.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a talking point at least until the season starts,\u201d Mahler said. \u201cThe way that Demond plays and the way the team plays will decide how much of a talking point it continues to be after Week 1.\u201d<\/p>\n Huard, a fellow Seattle radio host who still holds multiple school passing records, said Williams\u2019 short public appearances and comments were missed opportunities to open up and rebuild public trust.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it\u2019d have been simple to have a press conference and be vulnerable and transparent,\u201d Huard said. \u201cHe did to a degree, but to really do it and answer some of these things. (Instead), there\u2019s a void there, and everybody fills it with the way they want to, their own hurt, their own frustration.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of that, you have to go win. And it\u2019s not beating Wazzu and Utah State, it\u2019s making sure you beat the teams you\u2019ve not been able to beat yet and take that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere, college sports industry leaders hoped Washington\u2019s successful retention of Williams would be a valuable precedent. It only partially played out that way.<\/p>\n Just before the portal closed in January, Duke quarterback Darian Mensah announced he would leave the Blue Devils. Duke sued Mensah, the sides reached a resolution<\/a>, and Mensah landed at Miami, which was still desperate for a QB.<\/p>\n Heitner worked with Mensah on that dispute as well, but he would not divulge the specifics of how Mensah left while Williams did not, only saying they were completely different contracts with different language.<\/p>\n