As coach Jedd Fisch indicated in advance of the game, the 5-foot-10, 187-pound Williams earned his first starting quarterback assignment against the nation’s top-ranked team in the polls. This came at the expense of senior Will Rogers, who started 51 games at UW and Mississippi State but has suffered a setback of late.

Williams was there in all four quarters. For the first time all season, there was no Husky quarterback job sharing. Rogers never moved from the sideline.

“It was about time,” Fisch said, referring to the passing of the quarterback torch from veteran to rookie.

Williams completed 17 of 20 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown and received 22 carries for a net 17 yards, with a long run of 12 yards. But most of the time he endured a particularly rough baptism, being sacked ten times by the Ducks, who continually tried to unsettle the teenager.

“I was happy to be out there,” Williams said in an interview tent set up outside the stadium. “I felt like I played pretty well, but I feel like there’s still a lot of work to do.”

Namely?

“I think he’ll learn when to get rid of the ball,” Fisch said.

Oregon still needed some time to get used to the quick little guy, as he came out early and did his best Russell Wilson impersonation. He ducked under tackles. He ran away from the defenders. He got the offense going on the first drive.

He was initially so unknown to the Autzen meeting that the announcer called him “Desmond Williams” a few times before getting it right.

On his first snap, Williams stood in the pocket and threw a 34-yard completion to wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter, who caught the ball close to the right sideline. This seemed to surprise everyone in the stadium. People could see the offensive possibilities, even if he didn’t have time to throw on that long night, he wouldn’t last long.

Williams moved the Huskies to the Oregon 8, where the drive stalled and UW settled for Grady Gross’ 26-yard field goal, making the score 7-6.

After exchanging punts, UW got a big break when cornerback Thaddeus Dixon made a big hit to separate Whittington from the ball on a screen pass and teammate Lance Holtzclaw fell on it at the Oregon 23.

Still, it was a missed opportunity. Williams was sacked at 17 yards on third-and-4 and the Huskies turned to Gross for another field goal, this one from 31 yards, to cut the score to 7-6.

With the introduction of a new starting quarterback, UW could have used some help from its defense, but received very little help from those guys. They couldn’t stop anyone. They had 10 fewer sacks than Oregon, meaning they had none.

The Ducks scored fairly easily on their next three possessions, took a 28-6 lead and immediately threatened to run away. There were 5:01 left in the first half.

“We want to get better and bigger up front and be able to make more plays to push the boundaries of the battle,” Fisch said. “They had way too many yards after contact, and I think they somehow managed to rush the ball with what was available to them.”

Oregon running back Jordan James scored twice on 1-yard runs, the second score coming after the Huskies’ Jonah Coleman fumbled the ball at the UW 19, and Oregon quarterback Gabriel Dillon ran for a 4 -Yard keeper into the end zone. James led all rushers with 99 yards and 15 carries.

However, Williams had another chance to show his skills before the half was over. The Arizona native moved the Huskies 75 yards on 11 plays leading up to Coleman’s 1-yard TD run up the middle with 51 seconds left. Next, the young QB threw a 2-point conversion pass to Denzel Boston and the UW trailed 28-14 when everyone headed to the locker room.