Most 17-year-olds who take football seriously dream about dominating in high school. Ryan Williams pulled it off in the SEC as a freshman wunderkind at Alabama, turning heads and twisting ankles.
He was a teenage revelation in 2024, taking college football by storm at the highest level and in the most intense pressure-cooker imaginable. This was the elite world of the SEC and this was mighty Alabama, where only the absolute best taste success.
Williams got that taste.
Before the calendar even hit September of his freshman season, the Mobile native gave Tuscaloosa a thrill. In the season opener against poor Western Kentucky on Aug. 31, Williams made his 2 catches count, turning them both into touchdowns that spanned 139 total yards. The first was an 84-yard connection with Jalen Milroe in the first quarter of his first game, and the second TD was a 55-yarder in the second quarter of a 63-0 beatdown.
Two quarters, 2 long touchdown grabs, and 1 potential Alabama football legend was born more than 5 months before his 18th birthday. It wasn’t even halftime of the opener yet and already T-Town was buzzing about this speedy stud from Saraland High School, about a 3-hour drive from Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Williams put on another show the following week at Bryant-Denny against South Florida, catching 4 balls for 68 yards and another touchdown to help the Tide roll to victory. He did about the same damage in Week 3 in his first career road game, grabbing 4 passes for 78 yards and a TD in a blowout win over Wisconsin.
In just 3 games, Williams already had 10 catches, and he had already found the end zone 4 times. He had already exploded onto the college football scene, a southern version of fellow true freshman Jeremiah Smith, who was equally off and running up at Ohio State.
With an early season bye week, Williams had a few weeks to prepare for his first career SEC game, which just happened to be a home, primetime, national TV showdown against Georgia. It was a top-5 slugfest that was 1 of the most-anticipated games in recent SEC history, and it was an opportunity for Williams to officially introduce himself to the country.
But this wasn’t an introduction. It was an all-time statement.
Williams tore apart the Bulldogs’ secondary on that late September night, catches 6 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown. The stunning stat line for a true freshman in such a big spot doesn’t even begin to give his performance the due it deserves.
That’s because 75 of those yards came on 1 iconic play that won hearts, broke hearts and cemented a 17-year-old as 1 of the brightest stars in the sport. The seemingly safe 33-15 lead that Alabama took into the 4th quarter was suddenly gone, and it was Georgia that now miraculously led 34-33 with 2:31 left.
That’s when Williams’s legend took flight, and he took off on a 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from MIlroe, breaking Bulldog tackle attempts after the grab before streaking into the end zone with the winning score in a 41-34 escape act of a victory. It was an instant classic, and Williams was instantly a rock star.
But as we also found out as last fall wore on, Williams was also still very much a true freshman, and he was still all of 17 years old. After the 4-0 start to the Kalen DeBoer Era, Williams couldn’t prevent Bama from going just 5-4 the rest of the way in its first season after Nick Saban‘s retirement.
The Tide intimidation factor was gone. They lost at Vanderbilt exactly 7 days after the Georgia win, and Williams never really recaptured his September swag. He only caught more than 4 passes in 1 other game after the Georgia coming out, and that was in another disheartening loss at Tennessee. And Williams didn’t catch more than 3 passes in any of his last 5 games.
His final freshman stat line of 48 catches for 865 yards and 8 touchdowns was quality stuff, but the numbers weren’t what they could have been. So, how does all that change for the young man who finally turned 18 on Feb. 9 of this year? How can Williams start with a bang and finish with one? How and why can he have staying power in 2025?
Here are 5 reasons why Williams can break through those 2024 growing pains this fall and take over the SEC:
Now he’s got Ryan Grubb as his new OC
Yes, Grubb is that good. Actually, when he’s been paired with DeBoer on a college football sideline, he’s been pretty darn great. The last example of that greatness came just 2 seasons ago, when the DeBoer-Grubb offensive tag-team helped take Washington all the way to the national championship game.
The high-octane Huskies averaged 36 points per game during that memorable 2023 season, ranking 13th in all of FBS. The Grubb-led offense scored 36 points to outlast Oregon in a regular-season thriller, then scored another 34 in toppling the Ducks again in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
After putting 37 on Texas in a Playoff semifinal win, things unraveled against Michigan in the national title game as the Huskies were held to 13 points. It was a disappointing ending for the DeBoer-Grubb machine, but it didn’t alter the years-long narrative that DeBoer and Grubb make offensive magic together.
The volume of proof is large. Because that 2023 season wasn’t even their best offensively out of their 2 years together in Seattle. During an 11-2 campaign in 2022, Grubb’s Husky offense was unstoppable, averaging 39.7 points to rank 7th in the FBS. Washington scored 40 or more points 6 times that season, it still put up 32 and 38 points in its only 2 losses and it only lost those games because the defense allowed a combined 85 points.
It was a 2-year offensive onslaught that Grubb put together, and it was just the latest example of his brilliance alongside DeBoer. Before Washington, there was Fresno State, where the Bulldogs averaged 34.6 points in 2018, 32.8 in 2020 and 33.4 in 2021. Before Fresno State, there was Eastern Michigan, where by the end of their 3 years together in 2016 the Eagles were churning out 29.6 points per game.
Well, after being separated for 1 little season in 2024 when DeBoer replaced Nick Saban and Grubb got a brief taste of the NFL as the OC of the Seattle Seahawks, the 2-man band is back together. What that means exactly for the Ty Simpson-led offense in Tuscaloosa in 2025 is still to be determined, of course, but Williams will now get the chance to thrive within that time-trusted DeBoer-Grubb framework.
And that could potentially be scary for SEC defenses. Yes, Nick Sheridan is still on the staff, but he’s not the guy anymore, working under Grubb again as he did for those 2 seasons at Washington. He’s not calling the plays anymore either like in 2024, when Alabama ranked just 56th in passing offense. Late-season fade aside, Williams still put up excellent numbers as a freshman last fall, and that was with Sheridan at the helm.
Now, close your eyes and imagine the possibilities of Williams during an entire season with Grubb, with a season of college football experience under his belt. Assuming he stays healthy, Williams will be primed to shatter his 2024 output with Grubb now on the scene. This could be must-see Tide football.
He knows the Tide need to be title-relevant again
Williams’ feel-good taste of stardom at Alabama was met with the cruel reality by season’s end that Alabama had fallen well short of the standard that Crimson Tide players always wax poetic about. Williams was a part of a lot of good in 2024, but he was also a part of the collective failure to turn that stirring September into a Playoff berth.
As much as Williams wants to take individual steps forward with Ryan Grubb as the new play-caller, he also will want desperately to make the Tide relevant again. Bama didn’t make it to Atlanta for a change last December, instead relegated to preparing for the irrelevant ReliaQuest Bowl. That had to sting every play — a lot — and it had to be a huge reality check for a guy like Williams in his first season.
But as much as Williams is a supreme talent, he’s also a supreme competitor, or else he wouldn’t have come to the pigskin pressure-cooker that is Alabama. He didn’t come to Alabama to not win at the highest level, and he surely didn’t come to Alabama to go 9-4.
Williams also didn’t recommit to Alabama just 2 weeks after decommitting following Nick Saban’s retirement so he could play in the ReliaQuest Bowl — with all due respect to the fine bowl game formerly known as the Hall of Fame Bowl and Outback Bowl. As nice as the weather is in Tampa around New Year’s, that’s not where Williams wants to be playing his postseason football.
When the numbers are crunched on Williams’ legacy at Alabama, media and fans will gloss over his individual numbers but they’ll also look hard at where the teams that Williams played on ended up. To be a true Alabama football legend, Williams needs to play in some games in December — and, just maybe, January — that truly matter.
That obviously didn’t happen in 2024 even as Williams made headlines so quickly. Williams will be hell-bent on changing the story this fall, and that kind of shear motivation for a talent like him could and should make SEC secondaries a little nervous about what’s to come.
He’s playing with an O-line that should be elite
Are things perfect with Alabama’s offensive line as we inch toward the season opener at Florida State on Aug. 30? No, they’re not. That’s because senior Jaeden Roberts, the presumed starting right guard, is still in the concussion protocol, with Kalen DeBoer giving reporters this not-so-cheery update after Thursday’s practice.
“He isn’t taking any team reps or anything right now, still making that progress through that protocol that we’re on with this injury,” said DeBoer.
With Roberts’ status very much up in the air for FSU, fellow senior Geno VanDeMark is filling in at right guard while Texas A&M transfer Kam Dewberry mans the left guard position. Naturally, an Alabama O-line that’s set up to be elite this fall would seem to need Roberts to be elite, but Tide offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb voiced complete confidence in starting VanDeMark and Dewberry until Roberts is ready.
And that alone speaks to the talent that’s on this Alabama offensive line. Junior Kadyn Proctor provides major star power at left tackle, which will be beyond huge as Ty Simpson adjusts to being the starting quarterback. Parker Brailsford will anchor this stacked line at center, and he was just named a team captain for this season, which speaks to what he means to the 2025 Crimson Tide. And redshirt sophomore Wilkin Formby, a Tuscaloosa native, is primed for big things at right tackle.
One would think the Roberts situation will get sorted out soon, even if it’s not for the season opener. And when that happens, the Bama O-line will really be ready to roll. This will mean a lot to all of the Tide’s skill-position players, and it’ll mean a whole lot to the Tide’s best skill-position player. If this offensive line plays to even near its capabilities this fall, then Simpson will have an extra second or 2 or 3 to find Williams or use his speed to escape the pocket and find Williams.
If the line is truly elite as many expect — Pro Football Focus ranked Bama’s O-line as the best in 2025 back in June — it’ll boost a running back stable that is a bit uncertain right now. Everybody will benefit, but nobody will benefit more than Williams, because even an extra second for Simpson means Williams’s speed will kill that much more.
There is future high-end NFL talent throughout this line. With Grubb at the controls now, a great O-line should mean a great offensive unit, with Williams at the centerpiece of all the damage.
Questions at RB mean more targets for the wideouts
Justice Haynes could’ve had his true breakout at Bama this fall. But the Georgia native decided to ship up to Big Ten country, transferring to Michigan. It was OK though, because new OC Ryan Grubb had Jam Miller coming back for a senior coming-out party after 3 years of teasing his talents.
Then disaster struck in Alabama’s second scrimmage of fall camp when Miller dislocated his collarbone. It could’ve been way worse for Miller, but it’s not ideal for a Bama team that was leaning on Miller to be its workhorse this fall. According to an ESPN report, Kalen DeBoer said his top returning rusher should be ready to return in a little over a month for the Tide’s SEC opener against Georgia.
Bama’s running game situation will be by committee until Miller returns, and of course there is the reality that even when Miller does come back, how effective will he truly be? Expecting him to miss that much time and return as good as new in late September against Georgia of all foes isn’t realistic.
All of this uncertainty with the running game translates to more pressure on Bama’s pass attack, which falls on first-year starter Ty Simpson. It also potentially means a ton more targets for the Tide’s No. 1 offensive weapon, and Ryan Williams could just take that reality and run with it.
If Miller does return for the Georgia showdown but his collarbone injury lingers through the season, somebody will have to emerge from Bama’s running backs room. It could all simply mean that Bama becomes a pass-heavy offense this fall, which would actually suit a passing guru like Grubb, and guess who would be getting a lot of those extra balls as he seeks staying power in 2025?
The 18-year-old who was already primed to take the SEC by storm, even before the running back uncertainty.
He’s got motivation from that slow finish to last season
No athlete in any sport wants to be pegged as someone with high-end who can’t finish. Alabama football players are supposed to be finishers. It’s part of what’s brought home all those wins and all those titles during the past century.
In 2024, Williams was that proverbial shooting star. He was brilliant, and then he faded. Williams didn’t finish, and he knows that better than anyone on the planet. His team didn’t finish either, so he was only a sliver of the problem.
In 2025, Williams will be possessed to change that individual narrative about fast starts and slow fades. There will be the aforementioned motivation to make Bama matter again late in the season, just like they almost always have. But there’ll also be motivation individually to make sure he doesn’t peak in September like last fall.
This is where that freshman year of grinding should pay massive dividends. Williams can use that experience as a 17-year-old to make sure he sprints through the tape at the finish line this time. If that does indeed happen in 2025, then Alabama has a real shot to make the Playoff again in 2025.
The responsibility on Williams’s shoulders this time around is hard to comprehend. Bama haters still delighting in that 9-4 record will be salivating to see the Tide fail again. Seeing Williams fall short too comes along with that package, and that’s where Williams has to draw the line and keep going, straight through the fall and into the winter.
He saw from a distance what fellow true freshman Jeremiah Smith did in leading Ohio State to a national title. He was on par with Smith early last fall, until he wasn’t. He’s got some catching up to do as a sophomore, and the motivation to go the distance this time might just set the stage for one of the best individual seasons in SEC history.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
