What Can Alabama Freshman Ryan Williams Do To Keep Improving His Game?

The Alabama coaching staff knows the freshman superstar still has several areas he can grow his game

Oct 5, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Williams (2) makes a catch over Vanderbilt Commodores cornerback Jaylin Lackey (27) during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The No. 7 Alabama football program heads to Knoxville this week to take on the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers as the Crimson Tide works to get its season back on track.

Alabama erased the memories of its Vanderbilt loss by defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks, but it wasn't the dominant, bounce-back performance the fan base was looking for. The Crimson Tide struggled offensively throughout the afternoon and it became superstar wide receiver Ryan Williams' first college game without scoring a touchdown.

Williams still hauled in four receptions for 32 yards but the Gamecocks were able to keep him out of the end zone and off the highlight reel. Alabama wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard said South Carolina didn't do anything unusual in coverage to limit Williams despite the quiet day.

"No, I haven't noticed that, to this point. It's just been status quo with what we've seen on film, that's what we've traditionally gotten, so it's just about us executing our plays one play at a time," Shephard said. "We have ways to move him around and things of that nature to try to eliminate some of those things and whatnot if that were to be the case. At this point, no I haven't seen that. Nor would I expect to see that, just because, a true freshman, he can't be that smart. He can't know everything. At some point, you hit a wall as a freshman and some of that production tends to go down. I wouldn't double him."

While Shephard was coy with how he would cover Williams if he were responsible for slowing him down, he was quick to say that the freshman played well against South Carolina, noting how highly he graded compared to his other games that he got into the end zone.

"He graded out one of his highest games, actually this past game, in our room," Shepard said. "Obviously, that takes into consideration, just his effort, obviously knowing what he's supposed to do and his technique and how he's technical and what he's doing. So he graded out to one of his highest levels this past week. He's very upset with me because it wasn't higher, but he knows the reasons why it wasn't higher so that's what's even more important. They understand how they can grade higher each and every week."

How can a a true freshman wide receiver with 23 receptions, 576 and six touchdowns improve? Shephard said the devil is in the details as the phenom is still learning the nuances that come with high-level route running and consistent correct formational alignment.

"Certainly there's a few opportunities where he's got to make sure he knows his assignment," Shephard continued. "So he had one assignment error in the game. So when you have an assignment error, missed assignment, that's automatic, that's a big deduction. Then, honestly, over the course of this year so far, I think he's had two missed assignments over the course of the year and to be quite honest about it they weren't assignments that were going to negatively affect the play.

"Beyond that, just making sure that he's getting in and out of his breaks efficiently. Making sure that he's hustling on the backside of the plays. I talk a lot about, 'ball, me, man' end of the play I want to make sure there's the ball carrier, there's me then there's the man that I'm blocking so want to be ball, me, man, frequently throughout every single play, but we're working on some small detail things just to help him get out of his breaks, and be flatter on some breaks and so on and so forth."