Washington's Sun Bowl comeback fell short, but hinted at a bright future

Demond Williams Jr. showed why Jedd Fisch sees him as the face of the program.

EL PASO, Texas — The future of Washington’s football program sat crestfallen on a brown, metal folding chair, a white Gatorade towel draped over his head, teammates consoling him after their Sun Bowl comeback fell two points and one play short.

Demond Williams Jr. played well enough Tuesday to have imposed this fate upon his opponents. Give it some time — and not much — and the Huskies’ 35-34 defeat here to Louisville might be remembered more for Williams’ late-game heroics than for the fact that his final pass attempt fell incomplete, and that the scoreboard relegated UW to a losing season one year after it played for a national title.

Never mind how the stakes have changed. On Washington’s sideline, this afternoon in El Paso functioned as more than mere television inventory for holiday-season looky-loos. You could see what it meant to Williams. After Antonio Watts broke up his two-point attempt to Jeremiah Hunter with nine seconds remaining, the quarterback pushed his helmet up onto his forehead. Left tackle Maximus McCree put his arm around the freshman as they walked off the field. Williams made it to the sideline and sat on that chair and let that towel shield his anguish.

“I thought I played OK,” he said minutes later. “I thought I got off a little flat, but was able to pick it up. But obviously, I want the win. That’s all that matters to me.”