This is an opinion column.
The list of Alabama Mr. Football winners is dotted with SEC and NFL stars before they were nationally known.
It’s a who’s who of Friday night fame before they moved to Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Only one name appears twice.
Standing in the Montgomery ballroom lobby studying his second straight Mr. Football plaque, Ryan Williams enters a different conversation -- one he’s definitely not afraid to have.
The Saraland junior reclassified to graduate this spring or he’d be back in Montgomery doing the same thing next January.
Instead, he’s headed to Tuscaloosa with considerable expectations on his teenage shoulders. The five-star prospect ranked in the top 10 among 2024 recruits became Kalen DeBoer’s biggest score, recommitting to the Crimson Tide last week after reopening his recruitment after Nick Saban’s retirement. That put a bandage on the bleeding of 5-star talent both transferring and decommitting from the suddenly-Saban-less program.
It’s fair to say Williams knows his value.
The receiver speaks with unmistakable self-assurance of someone unafraid of expectation.
“Going into today,” Williams said, “a lot of people could argue that I was one of the best football players to come through the state, but now it’s kind of cemented. Because nobody has won it twice and I don’t think anybody else will … I can only thank God.”
Bold.
But it didn’t come across as cocky saying this while holding his award Tuesday afternoon.
He wasn’t done either because, while he still has to graduate from high school this spring, Williams has his eye on creating a bigger legacy at Alabama.
His talent, position and geography led to more than a few comparisons to the 2007 winner of Mr. Football. Coming out of Foley High School, Julio Jones was perhaps the most prepared high school receiver to explode once arriving in college.
He did and set the gold standard -- at least for the Saban era -- for high end freshman talent at the receiver position.
So how does Williams feel about those comparisons to Jones?
“I really accept the challenge,” he said without batting an eye or breaking eye contact, “because, I mean, he’s a great football player but I know I put the work in so with more work and what I’m going to do in the future, I could potentially be better than him.”
Oh yeah?
“Definitely. I always set a high bar for myself,” Williams said. “Everyone else, their bar is lower than what I expect for myself.”
The honesty was, frankly, refreshing.
Too often that confidence is discouraged for young talents like Williams. No doubt he’ll receive some media training in Tuscaloosa that’ll encourage more diplomatic answers. Exceeding the career of the No. 6 pick in the 2011 NFL draft who’s among the few in the Alabama first-name club (along with the likes of Tua) would be seen as unfair to practically any other prospect.
Williams is clearly different.
Few football recruits reclassify but Williams felt like he’d accomplished everything one can at the high school level. Not only was he the first to win consecutive Mr. Footballs but he was a no-brainer to repeat in a class that’s not exactly thin. In fact, Central-Phenix City receiver Cam Coleman is ranked higher than Williams in the 247Sports and On3 evaluations of 2024 prospects.
But it was Williams who beat the Auburn commit for the top honor Tuesday in Montgomery and nobody in the ballroom was surprised.
Williams is a year younger, a few inches shorter and 20-plus pounds lighter than his future Iron Bowl rival but entering college next fall instead of playing a senior season in Saraland isn’t worried about the physical aspect of entering the SEC.
“I’ve always done a lot of hard work, more than anyone else, so it won’t be anything different,” Williams said. “It will just be doing it at the next level.”
By now, there’s nothing Williams hasn’t heard -- no expectation that’s given him pause or created pressure greater than what’s self-imposed.
It’s refreshing.
But for what it’s worth, Julio Jones caught 58 passes for 924 yards (15.9-yard average) and four touchdowns and was named SEC freshman of the year while leading Alabama to an undefeated regular season as a freshman in the pre-explosive-passing-game era of 2008.
Julio will forever only be known as Julio, the first true star of the Saban era.
That’s your bar, Ryan.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.