SEATTLE — The head coach was “very concerned,” until he wasn’t concerned at all.
The Eastern Washington defender’s helmet, Jedd Fisch said, merely struck Demond Williams Jr.’s “funny bone," and this knowledge set him at ease. That’s what team doctors told him after examining Williams in the medical tent, the last place anybody wanted UW’s quarterback to be in the first half of a nonconference tuneup against an FCS team.
He was in there for a few minutes after EWU safety McKel Broussard popped him just as he tried to throw a red-zone pass, which caused the ball to flutter into the arms of safety Marcus Nixon, UW’s first and only turnover so far this season.
Fisch consulted with doctors and poked his head into the tent. Williams emerged shortly after, flexing his right hand but appearing unscathed otherwise. After UW’s defense forced a three-and-out, Williams pulled his helmet back on, took the field and completed a quick throw to the left side that Dezmen Roebuck turned into a 43-yard gain.
Two plays later, Williams found freshman Jordan Clay for a 3-yard touchdown pass, one of four he threw in Washington’s 48-16 rout of EWU on another forgettable Saturday at Husky Stadium.
“We just had to handle that one part of anxiety,” Fisch said of the injury scare, “and then we got rolling.”