Elijah Brown starts at QB for Washington at Purdue Friday

Brown spent the whole week with the first team, and on Friday afternoon Thamel made it official.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Source: Elijah Brown will start at quarterback for Washington against Purdue tonight. He's been working with the first team this week as Demond Williams is working his way through a rib injury.

None of this comes out of nowhere. Williams got hurt last Friday against Iowa, diving for extra yards with about 2 minutes left in the first half. He went into the medical tent, then to the locker room, and he didn't come back. Washington lost 41-24, and it was Brown's offense from that point on.

To be fair to the kid, he didn't look lost out there. In his first real extended action as a Husky, Brown went 28-of-39 for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns. That's not garbage-time stat padding either. It's the most anyone has seen from the backup, and it's the main reason the room isn't panicking about tonight.

Jedd Fisch more or less told everyone this was coming earlier in the week. He said he was "not under the impression" Williams would play "based upon where he's at physically," and that it would take a "pretty significant change" for that to flip. Nothing flipped. Thamel's report just turns the obvious into the official.

The bigger issue is what this means for the Huskies' season. Washington is coming off a loss and heading to West Lafayette for a second straight Friday night game, which means a short week for a backup QB getting ready for his first start. Purdue now gets to plan for a guy with one half of film instead of the starter they spent all offseason studying. That cuts both ways. Less tape on Brown means less for Purdue to prepare for, but it also means Washington is betting a big stretch of the season on a quarterback who has never started a game for them.

If you've got money on this game, the QB change is the whole handicap. Keep an eye on whether Fisch keeps the playbook simple and leans on short, quick throws like the ones that got Brown going against Iowa, and whether Williams even shows up in pads on the sideline. The rib injury has no timeline yet, so a strong night from Brown could make this more than a 1-week fill-in.