The 17-year-old sensation starring for Alabama and earning praise from LeBron James and Serena Williams
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — The wide receiver makes a tough, contested catch. He spins away from two would-be tacklers before sprinting down the sideline for an incredible touchdown.
Bedlam breaks out among the crowd and his teammates. He is swamped as he celebrates in front of his fans. Not only was it an astonishing play, but – even more remarkably – it was made by a 17-year-old in just his fourth college game.
Ryan Williams’ extraordinary 75-yard touchdown with just over two minutes remained was the decisive score in No. 4 Alabama’s dramatic victory over No. 2 Georgia late last month and continued the teenager’s fast start in his college football career.
He finished the game with six catches for 177 yards and that touchdown. After his first five games of his debut season for the Crimson Tide, Williams has 19 catches for 544 yards and six touchdowns. He also has one rushing attempt for a touchdown.
Williams looks the part, too. He is not overawed by the stage and his “Kill Everybody” face tape reveals his lethal mentality.
Williams’ performance and the ending to the game against Georgia set social media abuzz, with sporting legends such as LeBron James, Chris Paul, JJ Watt and Dez Bryant all expressing their amazement at his brilliance.
Former tennis superstar Serena Williams even jokingly remarked at how “impressive” her 17-year-old “cousin” has been doing at Alabama.
The step up in pressure and stage at such a young age might seem daunting to most. Williams, though, says he just enjoying being out there.
“No, there was never really any pressure for me because I knew we prepared well,” he told reporters after the Georgia game when asked if he felt nervous heading into crunch time with the scores close.
“Like our whole team, all week long we prepared very hard, very well so I just felt confident the entire time. And they gave me the opportunity and I just made a play.”
But for Williams’ former high school coach, Jeff Kelly, the moment was a bit more special as he watched on from the seventh row of a packed-out Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“Whether Ryan ever catches a ball again for the rest of his career, he’s already entrenched himself in Alabama tradition for that play,” Kelly told CNN. “That’s one of the best plays in the history of Alabama, I think.
“The physiological things that he did on that play is something I don’t know that anybody’s ever seen.”
A star is born
Williams has been a standout for a while now, and not just in football.
During his high school days at Saraland in Alabama, he was also a track specialist who ran a 100-meter personal best of 10.49 seconds and 21.28 seconds in 200 meters.
Williams blossomed into the star of the school’s football team, too, but his route into playing wide receiver wasn’t the most straightforward one.
Kelly remembers Williams being a quarterback at a younger age. He describes him as a “real slender kid, always going somewhere 90 miles an hour.”
It wasn’t until one afternoon when Williams and teammate Jarel Williams – now a wide receiver at West Virginia – went out to practice that this all changed.
Williams had agreed to throw passes to his teammate after practice to help him hone his skills. It was when the pair reversed roles – Ryan Williams now catching passes – that Kelly, whose office was overlooking the practice field, realized the young athlete’s potential as a receiver.
And with Saraland in need of a receiver, Kelly decided to throw Williams in, a decision which ultimately paid dividends.
As a 14-year-old ninth grader, Williams was playing against 18-year-olds. Kelly describes his debut season as “good,” though it was in his second year at the position when he really showed his skill as a receiver.
As a 15-year-old, he had 88 catches for 1,641 yards with 24 touchdowns in 2022, while also rushing 57 times for 700 yards and 15 touchdowns. For someone who has been around football for so long, Kelly describes that season as “probably one of the most epic high school seasons in the history of Alabama football.”
Williams was rewarded for his success with the top individual prize for high school football in Alabama – the Mr. Football Award. Previous winners of the award include current Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, seven-time NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones and 2007 No. 1 overall draft pick JaMarcus Russell.
Williams dominated the next season, too, totaling 72 receptions for 1,324 yards with 19 touchdowns, as well as 261 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. He once again collected the Mr. Football Award for Alabama, becoming the first two-time winner.
Williams was a star. But more than that, Kelly describes him as a pleasure to coach and be around.
“I’ve known him really for about 10 years,” said Kelly, whose son and Williams were in the same grade at school. “Ryan always has a smile on his face. He loves to have a good time. He is a young man that all of his teachers and his classmates just really gravitated to.
“They loved just his personality. He was always really smiling and just happy about whatever he was going on. And never once did he seem to have what seemed like a bad day or feel whatever he was, he was just a happy, happy kid coming through.”
‘Sky’s the limit’
Williams was the standout member of his Saraland team despite being one of the youngest members. And after consultation with his parents and his coaches, he decided to move up to college a year ahead of schedule.
While it might seem a daunting task for a 17-year-old to make the step up to play against a different level of competition, Kelly believes it was the “right thing to do” for Williams. But even Kelly can’t precited how fast Williams has settled into life with Alabama.
“I had no doubts ever that Ryan will be successful, and I had no doubts that he would be a dominant player. But I don’t know if anybody could tell you with a straight face that they expected it to happen this quick,” said Kelly, who was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2001.
“(Against Georgia) he looked like the seasoned veteran and the people that he was going against, he made them look like they were high school guys.”
Kelly added: “Ryan is not even old enough to vote, he’s not even old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes if he wanted to. He’s 17 years old and he’s a youngster.”
Williams’ start with the Crimson Tide couldn’t have been better; his first catch was an 84-yard touchdown pass against Western Kentucky and his second was a 51-yard catch in the same game.
The game against Georgia, and in particular his game-winning catch, was the moment when people sat up and took notice of this 17-year-old taking college football by storm. He finished his fourth college game with six catches for 177 yards, including that dramatic touchdown.
Kelly describes being present for that play as “pandemonium.” But while the majority inside Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium were still celebrating, he had to take a moment to soak it all in.
“I just had to sit down. Just had a moment where you know that one of your guys has made it,” Kelly remembered. “And so there was just a moment where I just wanted to kind of soak it in and just be proud for little Ryan.”
Alabama has a long history of producing star NFL wide receivers: Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith and Jameson Williams all played for the Crimson Tide in recent years.
And Kelly believes the “sky’s the limit” for Williams, in particular because of his ferocious work ethic.
“I don’t think there is a limit to what he could be. He’s got the ability and he’s got the makeup to be one of the best ever to come through the University of Alabama,” he said. “And I don’t want to put too much out there, but he’s got the chance to do some things that very few, if any, people in the game of football has been able to do.
“I can tell you what, I think Ryan wants to be the best to play. I think he wants to be the best one to come through there. And I wouldn’t bet against him.”
For Williams, though, he is just enjoying the moment.
“I think it just feels like a dream and I just keep going,” he said. “I like the dream.”
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