Cal Football: Talk Some Trash? `I Do Like to Chirp' - Junior Safety Miles Williams

Wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter confirms that Williams is the most talkative of Cal's DBs.

The Cal football team features two defensive players named Miles/Myles Williams.

They are distinguished from one another in several ways beyond the spelling of their first names. Miles Williams is a 6-foot, 190-pound safety from Texas. Myles Williams is a 6-3, 240-pound outside linebacker from Southern California.

Big Myles Williams is known to his coaches and teammates as BMW. Texan Miles Williams answers to TMW.

There is one other big difference: TMW is a trash-talker. Maybe the best on the team. 

“I’m not going to lie. I do get to chirping a lot," Williams says in the video at the top of this story. "I feel like that gets me going and I like to test people. I like to test the water, I like to test myself. I like to see, `OK, you talk all this trash, let me see where you’re at yourself, Miles.’ “

“It’s nothing personal. I feel like the guys know it’s nothing personal. I go into the locker room.. Out here we’re competing, but in there we’re friendly. Everybody knows it.”

In a separate interview, without prompting, wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter was asked who is the team's best trash talker. He provides his answer in the video above.

“I love it because he’s an energetic guy. That gets him going and I feel like that gets me going, too, so I love it," Hunter said. "We just have fun. We don’t mean nothing by it — it’s just all love. Got to be Miles.” 

Williams concedes that trash-talking has its downside. Defensive backs don't bat 1.000, and things can go sideways.

“Oh yeah, but that’s the nature of the beast," he said. "You can’t get discouraged. You put yourself out there enough times, somebody’s going to get you. We’re in a competitive environment. You could fail every day. You’ve got to just remember, next play it’s like I’m going to dominate this play."

Williams figures to compete with Craig Woodson in fall camp for a starting job at safety. He arrived at Cal in 2019 as a cornerback and has played behind the likes of Jaylinn Hawkins, Camryn Bynum and Ashtyn Davis - now all in the NFL - and Elijah Hicks, who was drafted Saturday by the Chicago Bears.

“I had guys in front of me who were great. I had guys in front of me who were just better," Williams said after the spring game. "I took the time to accept that and focus and soak up all of their knowledge. I feel like that helped me today.”

Cal coach Justin Wilcox talks in the video below about the progress Williams made this spring, competing for a starting job at safety. “He’s had a really good spring," Wilcox says.

Wilcox also addresses Williams' status as a premier trash-talker on the Cal roster.

“No doubt about it. He’s probably one of the leaders. He plays with a lot of passion. He wears that on his sleeve and it gets him going," Wilcox said. "That’s OK. As long as it doesn’t cross the line, that’s part of the game. It’s intense out there and different guys show their passion in different ways.”

Although he enjoys his verbal give-and-take on the practice field with Williams, Hunter says he's never the instigator.

"It's always in response," Hunter said.

Williams begins the video below by talking about his mother's reaction to his long hair, then talks about the progress he believes he's made during fall camp.

Williams understands the need to work hard over the next three months before fall camp begins. But he will keep talking whenever he's on the field.

“Whatever comes with it, I accept it. Keep balling and keep working. Keep working for the team. I gets me going for sure.”

Cover photo by Neville E. Guard, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo