This is an opinion piece.
We all witnessed Ryan Williams’ college debut at Alabama on Saturday.
The 17-year-old former Saraland star was named SEC Freshman of the Week following his performance as a two-touchdown, 139-yard receiver in the Crimson Tide’s opening game against Western Kentucky.
If you were surprised by his performance, you shouldn’t have been.
Those of us who are fortunate enough to cover school sports or simply enjoy watching school sports have seen this over the last two seasons.
Ryan Williams is the state’s only two-time Mr. Football player for a reason. He’s just different. I don’t know how else to put it.
As I’ve said many times, every time I saw him play, he was the best player on the field, whether it was a regular season game, a championship game or the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic.
If he wasn’t the best player on Bryant-Denny Field on Saturday, he will be by the end of his career at Alabama.
Saraland coach Jeff Kelly told me earlier this week that after last weekend’s game, he was surprised by renewed interest from reporters who wanted to talk about Williams, his high school career and his recruitment.
Kelly’s recap of Game 1 was largely the same as mine, and I’ll summarize it:
He is who we thought he was.
“He’ll do it,” Kelly said of Williams. “He’ll do well. It’ll be interesting to see what he does when they get to some of the bigger games, the SEC games.”
I’m sure part of Saturday’s surprise comes from the fact that Ryan is only 17 and essentially skipped his senior year of high school.
He could be preparing for tonight’s game against Gulf Shores with his Saraland teammates and launching an unprecedented attempt to become Mr. Football three times, but instead he’s preparing for Saturday’s game against South Florida.
I’m obviously not as wise as some of my friends who cover recruiting on a daily basis, but Williams is the best college prep player I ever covered in high school. Nothing he does at this level would shock me.
With that in mind, I began to think about other college-ready football players I had seen at the high school level.
Here are some:
Peter Woods, DL, Thompson: The former 7A Lineman of the Year and Mr. Football runner-up was a freshman All-American at Clemson last year, playing 307 snaps in 12 games.
Kadarius Toney, QB, Blount: I still believe Toney would have been perfect for that position in Gus Malzahn’s offense at Auburn. Instead, he went to Florida and developed into an All-SEC wide receiver.
Cam Coleman, WR, Central Phenix City: Like Williams, Coleman showed what he can do in his first college game for Auburn on Saturday. Last year’s 7A Back of the Year should have plenty of highlights for the Tigers this season.
Cadillac Williams, RB, Etowah: Not much more needs to be said about his high school career with the Blue Devils or the impact he had during his time there at Auburn.
Andre Smith, OL, Huffman: Smith is probably the best recruit in Alabama high school football history. As everyone expected, he had a great career at Alabama.
Kerryon Johnson, RB/DB, Madison Academy: Johnson was very versatile in high school, even at the 3A level, scoring touchdowns in a variety of ways for the Mustangs and becoming the Tigers’ lead guard.
Reuben Foster, LB, Auburn High: Foster was one of the most physically imposing players I saw in high school. He won the Butkus Award at Alabama.
There are certainly others, but this is a good list to start with.
If you have an opinion, send it to me at [email protected]. Maybe I’ll use it in next week’s column.
Sabotage of social media
In today’s AL.com high school newsletters, I wrote about last week’s unfortunate game cancellation in Elmore County.
Due to social media threats, the Tallassee-Elmore County game was canceled/postponed in the third quarter. A similar incident occurred this week when Eufaula City Schools canceled classes Thursday and postponed a football game with Montgomery Catholic due to social media threats.
What’s going on? It’s pointless.
I hate for the players, cheerleaders, band members – everyone who worked so hard to be there on a few Friday nights in the fall.
I hope that those responsible for the threats are caught and punished. Kudos to law enforcement for their swift action in both cases.
You can read my newsletter column by subscribing to our Birmingham, Huntsville or Mobile newsletters. I hope you give it a try. It’s free!
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Thanks
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been praying for my family and my daughter Alyssa, who is preparing to give birth to her first child at UAB next week.
I have received so many texts and thoughts from coaches and friends across the state. It is truly heartwarming and we deeply appreciate it, and your prayers are felt. We place everything in God’s hands and trust in His strength and healing power.
Thought for the day
“There is only ONE NAME that will make the devil tremble in fear.” – Pastor Ed Newton.
Ben Thomas is the senior high school producer at AL.com. He was named one of the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s 50 Legends. Follow him on Twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at [email protected] He can be heard weekly on “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or Wednesdays at 2 p.m. on the free IHeart Radio app.
