Rogers arrives at UW with chance to shed ‘Air Raid’ QB label

Wyatt Rogers is taking this phone call in the middle of a hay field. It’s 91 degrees outside, though it feels hotter because of the humidity.

This isn’t where he’d normally be at 6 p.m. Aug. 19. For the past four years, Wyatt Rogers would’ve been embarking on the 90-minute drive northeast from Brandon, Miss., to Mississippi State, where he’d celebrate his eldest son’s birthday. They’d go to the best steakhouse Starkville had to offer — 44 Prime — or perhaps Anthony’s Good Food Market in nearby West Point, Miss.

Wyatt Rogers can’t do that this year. Will Rogers isn’t in Starkville, right up Highway 25, anymore. Wyatt Rogers’ son is celebrating his 23rd birthday more than 2,500 miles away in Seattle, while preparing to play quarterback at Washington. It’s the sacrifice Will Rogers chose when he decided to spend the final year of his collegiate eligibility under center at a school on the opposite side of the country.

“It’s been an adjustment,” Wyatt Rogers said. “And I don’t think it’s all been bad. It’s kind of made us appreciate the times we do get to spend with him.”

Will Rogers enters the 2024 season with the pressure of a city and a fan base desperately hoping he can be the worthy successor of Michael Penix Jr. His potential success with new coach Jedd Fisch can immediately catapult Washington back into the highest echelons of college football and establish the Huskies as a force to be reckoned with in their first season in the Big Ten.

He’s here because of that opportunity. He spent the past four years at Mississippi State conducting Mike Leach’s vaunted “Air Raid” offense. He holds 30 single-game, season and career records for the Bulldogs, and he owns the SEC’s single-season and career completion records, too. His 12,315 career passing yards ranks second in conference history, while his 94 passing touchdowns is No. 4 all-time in the SEC.

But this is his chance to prove he’s more than a system. That he can overcome the stigmas attached to the quarterbacks who succeeded in Leach’s offenses in college only to sputter out in the NFL. That he’s not Kliff Kingsbury or Graham Harrell or Anthony Gordon or Luke Falk. That he can thrive in Fisch’s pro-style offense the same way he did in Leach’s Air Raid.

“I think that’s always been appealing to me, even when I was an Air Raid quarterback,” Rogers said during Washington’s media day July 30. “You obviously get the knock that you’re just an Air Raid quarterback, so any time I can prove that wrong to people and show that I can run a pro-style offense, that’s really appealing to me.”

An unexpected journey

Of course, this isn’t exactly what Rogers signed up for when he initially committed to the Huskies.

The 2023 season was devastating for Rogers, both on and off the field, his father said. He suffered a shoulder injury Oct. 7 during Mississippi State’s 41-28 win against Western Michigan, causing him to miss four games.

Even before his injury, however, Rogers was struggling in Mississippi State’s new offense under coach Zach Arnett and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kevin Barbay. The 6-foot-2, 216-pound quarterback endured career-low marks in total passing yards, completion percentage and passing yards per game, even though his yards per pass hit a career high.

Arnett’s promotion and Barbay’s arrival was necessitated by tragedy. On Dec. 12, 2022, Leach died following complications from a heart condition. For Rogers, the loss of his mentor, coach and “second father figure” was heartbreaking, his father said.

“He used to tell me that coach Leach would call him sometimes at 11 or 12 at night after he’d just watched ‘Yellowstone,’” Wyatt said. “They would kick that around. Or sometimes, coach Leach would call him and talk about nothing, just to talk. … I know that Will still misses him.”

So Will entered the transfer portal looking for some stability. He thought he found it with Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb, who were looking for a veteran quarterback to replace Penix.

Washington already had highly touted freshman Austin Mack after he decided to forgo his senior year of high school to enroll early with the Huskies, but UW needed a quarterback to step in and allow Mack a second year of development before potentially taking the reins in 2025. It was the perfect environment for Will Rogers to step into considering he only had one year of eligibility remaining.

“It’s kind of a weird situation,” Rogers said. “I don’t have two or three years to learn the offense or develop relationships. I have one year to get this thing right.”

UW’s pitch was appealing, and convinced Rogers to uproot himself from Mississippi. He signed with UW on Dec. 15, and was on the sideline as Washington played Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game Jan. 8.

The plan seemed simple and straightforward. Until it wasn’t.

“We left him in Washington,” Wyatt said. “And when the bottom fell out on us, he’s 2,500 miles from home and doesn’t know a soul.”

Fresh air in dark times

DeBoer left Washington for Alabama on Jan. 12. Will Rogers re-entered the transfer portal, kicking off a confusing two-week period for the Brandon native. Wyatt recalled some other newly arrived Washington transfers who’d moved into the same apartment complex as his son immediately went home. The family’s contacts with the football support staff weren’t around anymore, either.

Wyatt said new opportunities for his son came pouring in once he hit the transfer portal again. South Carolina offered the chance to become the SEC’s all-time leading passer. For a few hours, Will thought he might follow DeBoer to Alabama. Michigan came calling late in the process, as did Northwestern among others.

“I was just so over it,” Will Rogers said, “just because of how the season ended with my injury and you transfer out thinking you’re getting into a better situation and then two weeks into that situation it kind of flips again. So man, I was just so over it. I was just ready to play football at that point.”

Rogers was still in Seattle when he finally met with Fisch. The UW coach’s pitch was simple. It essentially boiled down to one question.

If you’re the quarterback you think you are, why would you not want to play in this offense?

“I know that’s arrogant,” Fisch said at Big Ten media days July 25. “I know that’s not necessarily what everyone wants to hear. But if you’re a quarterback, you should want to play in this offense.”

Fisch didn’t promise Rogers playing time or the starting job. He offered the fifth-year quarterback a chance to compete and play in the same offense where signal callers like Noah Fifita, Josh Rosen, Blake Bortles and Jared Goff, among others, had found success. For Wyatt, a longtime high-school football offensive coordinator who’s been around lots of college coaches, that was a good sign.

“In my opinion, you’d better be careful of the guy who promises you the starting job,” he said. “At the end of the day, you have to compete and earn it. That’s all we were looking for was an opportunity to compete and earn the position.

“It was definitely a breath of fresh air in some dark times for us.”

Rogers certainly has his job cut out for him as he learns the new offense. Every offensive staff has its own terminology to learn. Fisch declared his scheme is definitively not an Air Raid during Big Ten media days. The new Washington coach — who is also the offensive play caller — said his quarterbacks have to take more snaps under center and Fisch emphasizes play action.

“He’s going to have to learn how to turn his back to the defense and flip his head around,” Fisch said. “That’s a little bit unique for guys that played in that Air Raid.”

Rogers has relished the challenge. This is what he came for, even if it isn’t the exact opportunity he thought he was signing up for nearly nine months ago. Wyatt said he gets calls once a week from Will, often excitedly describing a concept the team is working on or how much he’s enjoying playing for Fisch.

Most important to Wyatt, however, his son seems happier than he’s been for almost two years.

“Man, I’m just excited to let him get up there and have fun,” Wyatt said. “I’ll tell you, probably within the last two months, I really realized how low he’d gotten when coach Leach passed away. The twinkle is back in his eye. His voice sounds like it used to when he was happy and having fun.”