Meet the new QB: What to know about UNLV's Hajj-Malik Williams

It has been a turbulent week for UNLV football, with quarterback Matthew Sluka’s sudden and shocking departure from the team over an NIL dispute throwing the Scarlet and Gray into a state of uncertainty. But now that the dust has settled, UNLV is still 3-0 and, in the minds of many prognosticators, still the frontrunner to earn the Group of 5 bid to the College Football Playoffs.

And regardless of any ongoing roster chaos, Barry Odom’s squad still has a key matchup against Mountain West rival Fresno State set for Saturday (12:30 p.m., FS1).

That means UNLV is going to need its next quarterback to step up and deliver under pressure.

Is Hajj-Malik Williams up to the task? The sixth-year senior will take over as the starter, and there is little margin for error.

What we know about UNLV’s new starting QB:

Experienced hand

Making a sudden, mid-week change at the game’s most important position is not ideal, but if any quarterback is capable of getting up to speed in four days, it would be Williams.

Few quarterbacks across the country have as much experience as the sixth-year veteran. Williams played in 41 games across five seasons at Campbell, and he’s even got more experience in UNLV’s offense than a typical backup, as he took the majority of practice reps in spring and then split evenly with Sluka for most of training camp.

Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion can put the ball in Williams’s hands and at least know that he understands the nuances of the go-go and can execute the playbook. That’s big, and more than most teams can say about their backup quarterback.

Williams’s teammates have noticed his studious work ethic, with senior receiver Jacob De Jesus praising him early in camp for his ability to absorb the concepts of the go-go offense.

“With Hajj, I think it’s his knowledge of the game,” De Jesus said. “He’s been around for a while and he’s been here since the spring, which is helping him a lot. He’s in the film room all the time getting work in with [offensive analyst Kenneth Merchant] and coach Marion. His decision-making, that’s what Hajj brings to the table.”

Let’s get nuts

A quarterback transferring in with five years of experience in a more traditional offensive system may have needed more time to come to grips with the go-go, but that’s not Williams.

At Campbell, Williams ran an extreme up-tempo offense that averaged 67.2 plays per game, which wasn’t far off from the 68.1 plays that UNLV averaged in 2023. The principles of a speedy attack are something he innately understands and embraces.

In other words, if Marion wants to get nuts, Williams is down to get nuts.

During training camp Williams was asked about Campbell’s wide-open system, and he said there are definite parallels that aided his transition to the go-go.

“This is not my first time being in a unique offense,” Williams said. “It did prepare me for that, doing something unique and making defenses rule-break and all the confusion. We did it as far as tempo, now we’re doing it with this two-back set. It’s lovely. I love keeping defenses on their toes. They don’t really know what’s going on, and that’s really what I’m used to as far as my upbringing and development as a quarterback.”

Go-go getter

So how does Williams project to fit in the go-go offense? At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, he is a solid athlete, but what Marion likes best about his skill set is his fast processing speed.

Though Sluka was brought in to be the starting quarterback, Williams acclimated to the offense so well that he made it a real position battle that carried on through the final week of training camp. He did it by distributing the ball to his playmakers and doing it quickly.

During the camp battle, Marion extolled Williams’s ability to find his receivers on time.

“He has really fast hands,” Marion said. “He can get the ball out quick.”

Williams is certainly having a good time running the go-go.

“I love everything about it,” he said. “I think we’re the best offense in the country. It’s so dynamic, no matter who’s at the quarterback position. It plays to a factor of your strengths. We do a lot of different things; you can’t really get a beat on it. The quarterback is the point guard.”

Passing

Williams and Sluka are different quarterbacks with different skill sets. When it comes to the passing game, Sluka’s strength was the deep ball; in practice and in games, he was at his best when targeting receivers down the field for big plays. Williams doesn’t have Sluka’s arm, but he is much, much more accurate in the short and intermediate areas.

In his three full seasons at Campbell, Williams went from completing 56.5% of his passes (2019) to 62.2% (2022) to 70.4% (2023). That’s the type of development you want to see, and it’s a massive step up from Sluka’s all-or-nothing approach, which yielded a completion percentage of 43.8% through three games.

Another factor that should give the coaching staff confidence in Williams is his passing volume. He has launched a lot of balls during his college career, hitting 662 of 1,072 attempts (61.8%), so he’s seen just about anything defenses can throw at him.

Thoughout the offseason, Williams looked like the team’s most consistent and accurate passer. He will get UNLV’s talented receiving corps more involved again, which was an issue in the Sluka-led offense, as All-American wideout Ricky White had just five catches for 15 yards in two games against Division-I opponents this season.

In the spring game, Williams completed 14-of-22 passes for 227 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Anything close to that kind of performance in the real games will be a major boon to the UNLV offense.

Running

This is where UNLV is downgrading. Sluka is an elite ballcarrier, as evidenced by his 124 rushing yards in the comeback win at Kansas. He can break tackles, make defenders miss, and when all else fails, put his shoulder down and power through for tough yards. It made UNLV very difficult to defend in short-yardage situations.

Williams is not going to do all that. But that doesn’t mean he’s a negative value as a runner — quite the opposite. During his time at Campbell, he ran for 1,600 yards and 24 touchdowns while averaging more than 10 carries per game. So he’s a threat with his legs, even if he’s not as weaponized as Sluka.

Marion won’t call as many designed QB rushes with Williams behind center. But when it comes to scrambling for the occasional first down, that’s something he can do.

Intangibles

This may be Williams’s biggest advantage. Under ordinary circumstances, any backup quarterback stepping into a situation like this — short week, high stakes, controversy swirling — would have a tough time corralling the disparate opinions and leading his teammates. But Williams was clearly the locker-room favorite coming out of training camp, and his teammates were quick to express their support for him taking over the job in the wake of Sluka’s departure.

The biggest endorsement came from senior linebacker Jackson Woodard, a team captain who speaks for the entire roster in a way few UNLV players have.

After Wednesday’s practice, Woodard took to Twitter and retweeted a photo of Williams that had been captioned “QB1.”

Woodard added his own commentary: “Bout time! Let’s ride!”

That says it all.

UNLV teammates jumped online to back Williams publicly. On the same post that Woodard quoted, senior defensive lineman Antonio Doyle retweeted and said “Finally. Let’s work #in6wetrust.”

Running backs Greg Burrell and Kylin James also posted in support of Williams, as did cornerback Tony Grimes and others.

It makes sense. Williams assumed a leadership role early in the offseason, taking charge of the offense during spring practice while Sluka was still at Holy Cross finishing his course work. That dynamic continued into training camp when all quarterbacks were on hand, as Williams was the guy pulling players together during breaks and timeouts and delivering messages.

During camp, Williams expressed a desire to lead and make the most of his short time at UNLV.

“I’m only here for a year, so I want to make sure I leave this place better than how I found it,” he said.

Now we’ll find out if he can lead UNLV through a crisis and take the Scarlet and Gray on an unprecedented run to the College Football Playoffs.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.