Washington Football: Breaking Down the Game of New QB Commit Troy Williams

The Washington Huskies football program has always been known for their terrific quarterback play, and the team may have found their future gunslinger in Troy Williams, the star high school quarterback from Harbor City, California, who recently signed with the Huskies as part of the 2013 recruiting class.

Convincing Williams—the fifth-rated quarterback in his class—to commit to U-Dub secured the strength of this all-important position for the Huskies far into the future.

In recent years, the Huskies have had great success recruiting some of the top quarterback talent on the West Coast, and consequently, the team looks to have tremendous depth and a very rigid competition for the starting job—once the athletic junior Keith Price graduates or decides to leave for the NFL.

Therefore, Troy Williams will need to have a productive senior season at Narbonne High in order to keep up with the quarterbacks already on the Huskies' roster.

Cyler Miles, a 6’3’’, 210 pound quarterback out of Denver, Colorado, signed with the Huskies in 2012, and is quite a similar quarterback to Williams. Like the recent recruit, Miles is primarily a pocket passer but certainly has the ability to use his legs and athleticism in the option game and when plays break down. He was a highly recruited individual who will definitely compete with the young Williams for the starting position.

As a sophomore in high school, Williams completed 200 of his 317 passes for 2,597, 23 touchdowns and only nine interceptions.

As a junior, he showed vast improvement, throwing for 3,247 yards, 34 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. That same year, Williams also accumulated 587 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing.

If he is able show similar progress in his senior season this fall, Williams should have a good chance of winning the starting position by his sophomore year at Washington. 

When watching his tape, the aspect of Williams’ game that is most impressive is his ability to throw receivers open, especially on deep routes.

He steps up in the pocket well, gets his feet underneath him efficiently and has a great release.  Ultimately, this results in a very fluid and seemingly effortless deep completion. The ball is thrown just out of reach of the defender where the receiver is able to catch it in stride and create yards after the catch. With a number of speedy receivers signing on with the Huskies recently, this aspect of Williams’ game could be invaluable for the team in the near future.

While Williams excels at the long ball, the kid can make all of the throws, sideline to sideline, with good velocity and accuracy.

He throws the ball where only the receiver can catch it, especially on fade routes to the corner of the end zone and on outs and hitches along the sideline. His head coach, Manuel Douglas said (via MaxPreps), “Even though Troy is athletic, I never talked about him as an athlete. He's a true thrower, makes every throw, and is good at reading defenses.”

As Douglas mentioned, Williams is a terrific athlete who could be a very dangerous dual-threat quarterback at the collegiate level.

He has fabulous speed and is very elusive in the open field. However, he is also awfully good at using his athleticism to extend the play outside of the pocket and find an open receiver down field as the play breaks down. He is accurate throwing on the run and, consequently, effective on play action and bootlegs. In addition, he shows the whereabouts to make good decisions while running the option.

Williams has all of the talent to become a quality quarterback in the Pac-12 and, possibly, the NFL.

While he is capable of starting immediately at the college level, having a year, at the very least, to develop his strength and learn Coach Steve Sarkisian’s system will greatly benefit him and the team.

Husky Nation should be very excited about the 2013 recruiting class, especially because of Troy Williams.

He is the type of player that could lead the team back to competing for Pac-12 championships alongside USC, Oregon and Stanford.