For long, wide receiver Ryan Williams has been the face of the Alabama Crimson Tide. “Ryan Williams is going to be kind of that alpha number one,” predicted Clint Lamb ahead of the season. Eight weeks into the 2025 season, his stats stand at 21 receptions for 336 yards and three touchdowns. But looks like something might stop Williams from touching the “alpha number one” status. Drops have plagued the wide receiver during his sophomore season so far. That’s when Kalen DeBoer cooked up a strategy to fix it. And it definitely did not ‘fit’ into the conventional way of training.
On October 14, analyst Patrick Greenfield dropped clips of practice from the Tuscaloosa camp. The caption read, “Alabama WRs catching Tennis balls in practice today.” In one of the clips, Williams can be spotted not catching pigskins for a change. Well, he was treated like the king of college football throughout last season. The 18-year-old wide receiver came up with 865 receiving yards and 913 yards in total and became the co-cover athlete for EA Sports College Football 26. But this season, not everything looks perfect for Williams.
Ryan Williams is tied for the FBS lead with six drops.
After dropping three passes in the season opener against Florida State, he missed Week 2 with a concussion. Williams was back for the Wisconsin game with a roar- five catches for 165 yards and two touchdowns. But in that game, too, his drop problem followed him like a shadow, as he missed a third touchdown only because of a costly drop late in the game.
Now, Williams wants to get rid of this flaw and keeps himself open to innovative practices. “Really just trying to continue to stay on the JUGS machine, continue to do the extra stuff, catching rugby balls, tennis balls,” the Alabama wide receiver said. “Focusing in on the ball and not the next move. … Trying to be the receiver that I want to be, I have to catch the ball before can do all the extra stuff.” But what’s the purpose of introducing different types of balls?
“It’s just something that we have done throughout the years,” DeBoer enlightened. “Just changing up. You catch all sizes and different types of balls, from tennis balls to, obviously, (a) football’s really what matters. You just change it up the size of a tennis ball, that can help you with certain things and just a focus to a ball that could be heavier, hand strength and all that stuff.” While Williams tries to clean up the mess, he has too many things on his plate to get rid of.
Where the hell is Ryan Williams? Do we need to put out a missing person report? Do we need to alert the authorities because, my brother I’m going to go back to the Florida State game because that’s the only tape I’ve got of you so far,” Harris did not mince his words in a clip on September 13. He kept Williams on the edge, “He hasn’t had a 100-yard game since Georgia. He hasn’t had a touchdown since, what was it, Mercer last year? I mean, we’re going back five, six, seven, eight [games] all the way back to the Georgia game last year.” Did the vocal tonic work for Williams to oomph up his game?
Yes. After facing a nose-dive in the season opener with 5 receptions and 30 yards, in the next game against Wisconsin, Williams came up with 165 yards and 5 receptions. But then again, he had hit a slump. 5 receptions and 43 yards against Georgia, 6 receptions and 98 yards against Vanderbilt. And guess what made Williams’ seat hotter?
While the Crimson Tide squad was gearing up to face off against Wisconsin, Ryan Williams caught heat off the field with a risky statement. He ended up comparing himself with Ohio State Buckeyes star, Jeremiah Smith. Not just this, Williams shot to the headlines claiming that he can actually be “better” than Smith. The after-effect? As expected, he turned into a laughing stock with fans ripping him apart on social media. Hype has been scarce for Williams this season. Can he use the remaining games to make a case for stardom?
Fuente: https://www.essentiallysports.com/ncaa-college-football-news-ryan-williams-troubling-issue-forces-kalen-deboer-to-take-bizarre-action/
