Greg McElroy Names College Football Program That Is ‘Flying Under the Radar’ originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The 2025 college football season is only a few weeks away, and the chatter is heating up. ESPN analyst Greg McElroy recently released another episode of his podcast, “Always College Football,” where he broke down the tiers of programs in the Big Ten.
He ranked teams from top to bottom and took a closer look at which ones are true contenders. After highlighting the Penn State Nittany Lions, Ohio State Buckeyes and Oregon Ducks as national championship contenders in Tier 1, he moved to Tier 2, where he named six teams as College Football Playoff contenders.
Those teams were the USC Trojans, Michigan Wolverines, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Indiana Hoosiers, Washington Huskies and Illinois Fighting Illini.
As for Washington, in particular, McElroy thinks they are being overlooked.
“Let’s go next to the Washington Huskies, and this is a team that is flying under the radar going into this year, but man, you need to start to wake up for what this team could accomplish,” McElroy said.
McElroy then revealed the reason he is higher on the Huskies this time around is quarterback Demond Williams, who really stood out in the Sun Bowl last season.
Despite the 35-34 loss to the Louisville Cardinals, Williams completed 26-of-32 passes for 374 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. He also added 20 carries for 48 yards and a touchdown.
“I think Demond Williams has a chance,” McElroy said. “He served a little bit of time last year when he was playing behind Will Rogers. We got to see a little bit of him and then got to going a little bit. Takes over the second half of the UCLA win. Doesn’t do so well against Oregon. That was a tough situation for him. Took a ton of sacks.
“But you look at the bowl game and he showed you exactly what he might be able to accomplish. … I think he has a chance to be a superstar in college football. And if he reaches his potential, then look out. This Washington team could become a real problem.”
Williams is entering his sophomore season after initially committing to Jedd Fisch during the coach’s time at Arizona. The 5-foot-9, 174-pound quarterback followed Fisch to Washington ahead of the 2024 college football season.
What Does Washington’s Schedule Look Like This Season?
- Aug. 30 vs. Colorado State
- Sept. 6 vs. UC Davis
- Sept. 20 at Washington State
- Sept. 27 vs. Ohio State
- Oct. 4 at Maryland
- Oct. 10 vs. Rutgers
- Oct. 18 at Michigan
- Oct. 25 vs. Illinois
- Nov. 8 at Wisconsin
- Nov. 15 vs. Purdue
- Nov. 22 at UCLA
- Nov. 29 vs Oregon
Related: Greg McElroy Names an ACC Program That Can Win the National Championship
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.