In a stunning reversal, the sophomore stud who shook the Huskies, after rebuking the $4 million deal, re-signed with them. Call it cold feet for the 19-year-old Demond Williams Jr. or a realization of his grave mistake; either way, the team has taken him with open arms. However, insiders are skeptical that loyalty once broken can be easily mended.

Urban Meyer sat with Mark Ingram II and Rob Stone and didn’t hold back on the cultural cost of the drama. Meyer framed it not just as a contract issue but as a grave locker room wound.

“I’m so old school about that. You know, the loyalty to your teammates and all that. I don’t know how you came back, but I think it’s a much different era. I think they’d love to have him back, and they’re willing to move on quickly. I don’t know. It’s one of the worst things I’ve read.” If you look at the matrix of things, it does look bad.

What Meyer was reacting to wasn’t just the decision, but how easily it happened. The details are murky, but the rumors all point towards LSU, Lane Kiffin, and an apparent $6 million offer on the table. That’s just a $2 million difference from what he signed with Washington.

Now, in a system where NIL contracts exist but enforcement doesn’t always follow, it doesn’t take much for such temptation to win. “They’re not worthless. But they are very difficult to enforce,” college football advisor and lawyer Cal Stein told the NY Times about the revenue-sharing contracts. College Football isn’t pay-for-play like the NFL or the MLB. Players are still considered students and come under the umbrella of amateurism. At the back of it, transferring seems easy, but the damage can be irreparable. 

In fact, the fracture was felt immediately, because this news didn’t stay behind closed doors; players and coaches all learned about it publicly when many were attending the memorial service for UW women’s soccer player Mia Hamant. And yes, the closest to the program did voice against Williams.

Head coach Jedd Fisch’s wife, Amber, called him out, saying, “Announcing during a funeral of an athlete at the University of Washington—how disgusting! While all of his other teammates were at the funeral!”

While that was harsh, Fisch himself took a measured tone once things settled. He mentioned that over the last few days, he and Demond had honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and the future. But he emphasized that the program would also start to “work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.”

Now, the keyword here is “process,” which clearly highlights that the trust now does remain in a wobbly space. Now, the way Williams can regain the trust lies in his hands alone and his ability to show up every day. Otherwise, this could lead to a long and uncomfortable year before his current NIL agreement expires.

Why have relationships taken a backseat in college football now?

How should coaches approach this new era of college football? This isn’t the time when legendary coaches like Meyer and Nick Saban could afford five stars as depth pieces. Instead, 5-stars are getting multi-million dollar deals and starting quickly. Veterans, in turn, are making use of their growth and finding high-paying destinations easily.

Sam Leavitt and Kenny Dillingham had a strong relationship in the team’s 2024 playoff run. Dillingham would chalk out a fake pitch play, and Leavitt would cruise into the endzone effectively. Brotherly bond indeed. How’s that relationship working now? Leavitt has now transferred to LSU, landing a reportedly $4.5 million NIL deal.

Another QB, Brendan Sorsby, chose Texas Tech, whose contract has a $1 million buyout alone. Amid the glitter of those multimillion-dollar paychecks, sometimes ‘relationships’ seem too easy to ignore. After all, players are maximizing their 5 years of college ball and rightly so. Entry into the pro arena is bottlenecked, and only 1 percent of college athletes make it. For now, that’s exactly how college football works, and coaches are just adjusting their sails to the wind’s direction.

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