Ryan Williams' Big-Play Ability Defines No. 4 Alabama's Comeback Against No. 2 Georgia

There aren't many 17-year-olds who can do what Ryan Williams did in Alabama's SEC opener on Saturday.

Sep 28, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Williams (2) runs against the Georgia Bulldogs during the first quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Will McLelland-Imagn Images / William McLelland-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— In case anyone needed reminding, Ryan Williams is 17 years old. The conventional expectation is not for individuals of that age to be responsible for co-authoring one of the greatest moments in recent SEC football history. Williams, however, is anything but a conventional 17-year-old.

Never was that fact, which is rapidly becoming readily apparent around the college football landscape, on display more than in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against No. 4 Georgia. Seconds after the Bulldogs (3-1) scored to go up 34-33 with 2:31 left to play, sucking all the air out of Bryant-Denny Stadium and erasing what had been a 28-0 deficit, No. 2 Alabama needed a big play.

They don't come bigger than the ensuing offensive snap, a 75-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jalen Milroe to Williams that sent the stadium into the kind of raucous celebration that is capable of registering on the Richter scale. Milroe, who himself accounted for almost 500 yards of all-purpose offense, found the freshman wideout at the Alabama sideline, and Williams broke free and did the rest.

He made a sensational back-shoulder catch, spinning two Georgia defenders into one another as he raced into the end zone. Following a successful two-point conversion, the Crimson Tide (4-0) was able to hold on and win 41-34. Everything about the play, even before the yards after contact, effectively worked to perfection: Milroe's placement of the throw was exactly where it had to be for Williams to catch it inbounds and have the opportunity to make a play. With 2:18 on the game clock, the home team had taken the lead back in its SEC opener for good.

"There are reasons he's open," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said. "Understanding of timing and concepts... I think the thing I'm more impressed with is what he's doing after the catch. It's not surprising but it's certainly impressive."

Williams had six catches for 177 yards and a touchdown. That line also contains a play in the third quarter wherein he tipped the ball to himself for a 54-yard completion. His 75-yard score, far and away the most iconic play in the short time since the stadium's playing surface was renamed Saban Field, moved slowly for him.

"Whenever the ball was in the air [on the game-winner], I felt it going to my back shoulder, so I said, I've gotta open up, like now," he said. "I opened up, I caught it, and I'm running, and I was like, 'Oh, I can't get tackled!' So I did a spin move, and it was in, like, slow motion. It was a little faster on the [video board] screen."

Milroe and Williams have had some fun this season with the sum of their jersey numbers, four and two respectively. That connection has become so strong that the latter didn't even have to tell the former directly that he was planning on being open. "He knows four plus two equals six. I know four plus two equals six, so the ball just go[es] in the air and we've gotta make it do what it do," said Williams.

The Crimson Tide signal caller took notice of Williams' approach throughout the week of practice that led up to the marquee matchup. Milroe knows Williams' playmaking ability but is also impressed by the freshman's acknowledgement that he isn't a finished product and his willingness to do the things that are important for the team.

"It's hard to say," Milroe remarked about which of Williams' plays impressed him most. "That man's always making a play on the ball," he added with a laugh.

"I just have so much trust in him," said Milroe. He's gonna do something special with the football, and it's also after the catch, what he can do with the football in his hands. He's just a key resource for us moving forward and I'm just super happy to have him as my teammate. One thing about Ryan is that he has an approach to constantly grow... That's something that has been evident as he's been here."

Perhaps it's a lot to ask of someone Williams' age to meet the kind of moment that Saturday's game called for, but the in-state product was the picture of confidence after the game, and he was resolute that if one play ended up making the difference, it might as well be him playing a role.

"A play don't care who make[s] it, so I was like, why not me?" he said. "Everybody was composed. We were just talking to each other, keeping each other level-headed, cause, I mean, sometimes it happens like that. We were just trying to win the game, do what we gotta do to win." As for his spin move, he couldn't explain the instinct that went into the maneuver. "I just had the ball, and the end zone looked pretty close, so I had to get there."

The roaring start to Williams' college career is entering the kind of territory that ensures it will be echoed past just one season. To him, it doesn't entirely feel real just yet.

"I think it's usually, it just feels like a dream. And I just keep going. The dream, I like the dream," he said with a smile.