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Ryan Williams is great, but he hasn’t exactly earned the right to call Vanderbilt ‘an ant’
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I’m all in on Ryan Williams becoming a face of college football.
Shoot, he already is. The guy graced the cover of College Football ’26 as an 18-year-old. His stock is sky high, and deservedly so. No SEC true freshman receiver had as many touchdowns as Williams since 2012 Amari Cooper. The Georgia touchdown alone was as impressive of a play as you’ll see on a football field.
I’m by no means a Williams hater or even a skeptic. I am, however, skeptical of his choice of words for Vanderbilt. You know, the team that took down No. 1 Alabama.
During a film session with Jon Gruden, Williams was asked about what happened in that game and what he’ll tell his team ahead of the Vandy game this year when it comes to Tuscaloosa.
“Going into this game, we don’t call them revenge games … we’re going to kill an ant with a sledgehammer this year,” Williams told Jon Gruden during a recent interview. “Every game we fell short last year, we definitely got red eyes going into them (this year).”
Historically speaking, yes, Alabama is a sledgehammer and Vandy is an ant. Nobody can argue that. If we’re sitting here today predicting outcomes, it’d be foolish to predict Vanderbilt to repeat last year’s feat and take down Williams and the Tide. Nobody should argue that, either.
But killing an ant with a sledgehammer? Williams isn’t in position to make such a declaration.
You can love the attitude if you’re an Alabama fan. There’s nothing wrong with liking that Williams has a certain level of swagger. You can have that while not necessarily reigniting that fire. By “that fire,” I mean what fueled Diego Pavia and Co. Yes, Pavia already responded to Williams’ quote (“they actin’ like they tough but don’t want no confrontation” were the highlighted lyrics of his Instagram story).
You’re not a sledgehammer if you lost 4 times, 3 of which were to teams who lost 5-plus games
And on the flip side, nobody should be considered “an ant” when you lost 3 games as a double-digit favorite. The team who lost more games than any Alabama team since 2007, AKA the year that Williams was born, doesn’t get to call any SEC team an “ant.”
Well, check that. I would’ve been OK with Williams saying “yeah, Vandy was like ants at a picnic.” That would’ve been an accurate take. He could’ve followed that with, “when they come to Tuscaloosa, we’ll be ready this time.”
Doesn’t that communicate the same point without creating any sort of bulletin board material? If Williams says that, that quote doesn’t make the rounds. Instead, though, it makes me question if Alabama, who had 2 losses to give after beating Georgia and gave 3 in a Playoff-less season, is more entitled than it should be.
The signature trait of the Nick Saban era was that Alabama truly did kill ants with a sledgehammer. From 2008-20, Alabama didn’t lose to a team outside the top 15 of the AP Poll.
That included a certain 2017 game at Vanderbilt that was infamously preceded by an “Alabama, you’re next” declaration.
Alabama then handed Vanderbilt the ultimate “life comes at you fast” beatdown possible with a 59-0 win in Nashville. That win was en route to another Alabama national title while Vanderbilt went 5-7.
That Alabama team? Yeah, that was a sledgehammer. Vandy wasn’t even an ant to Alabama. It was a light gust of wind on a hot day. It was more of a welcome sight than ants at a picnic.
Nothing was a picnic about Alabama’s first year of the post-Saban era. Even Alabama’s biggest win of the year, wherein the Tide played seemingly a perfect first half against Georgia, was by no means a picnic. It included squandering a 28-0 lead and needing Williams’ heroics to save the day.
Williams certainly wasn’t the reason why Alabama lost to Vanderbilt the following game. The guy had 2 touchdowns in the final 16 minutes, one of which was a 58-yard score in which we were reminded that he was the best player on the field, but … he also had just 3 catches with 2 drops on the day. It was the only game of the year that he had multiple drops.
I’m just sayin’.
Williams is just saying what probably 99.9% Alabama fans feel when they look ahead to that Oct. 4 rematch. “Every blind squirrel finds a nut” would be a natural reaction to Vandy’s first win vs. Alabama since 1984.
But usually, sledgehammers don’t need to announce their presence. You see it. You hear it. You feel it.
Lee Corso likes to say “when you lose, say little. When you win, say less.” Williams said a little a few months after a devastating loss.
Ideally, he would’ve said less.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
