SOUTH BEND, Ind. — During a strong month of spring practice, Notre Dame sophomore running back Dexter Williams put himself in a good position to carve out a role on Saturdays this fall.
The former four-star recruit from Winter Garden, Fla. roundly impressed coaches and teammates in March and April, attacking those 15 practices with a certain confidence after a humbling first year on campus.
“I have more knowledge of the game and also just being out on the field, I feel like I’m myself again, like I was in high school,” Williams said.
While Williams may be third on Notre Dame’s depth chart behind senior Tarean Folston and sophomore Josh Adams, there are opportunities for him to make an impact. Despite possessing one of the nation’s best offensive lines, a 1,000-yard rusher (C.J. Prosise) and a record-setting freshman (Josh Adams), the Irish offense ranked 58th in power success rate and 87th in stuff rate.
While Williams has good quickness and speed — which he displayed on a 16-yard touchdown run in the Blue and Gold Game last weekend — coach Brian Kelly said he liked what he saw most from the 5-foot-11, 210-pound running back in those third-and-one or goal line situations.
“What we like about Dexter is his physical, inside, downhill running,” Kelly said. “That, to me, is where he’s impressed us in the spring. We’ve had some goal line, short-yardage runs where he gets his pads down, he’s an explosive inside runner.”
That was a somewhat surprising takeaway given what we’ve seen from Williams in the brief flashes he’s shown since arriving on campus last summer. He’s someone who fashions himself a quick, explosive back — “once a hole opens, I can just hit it and go,” Williams said — but if he’s able to grind out a yard or two when necessary, that’ll be an important addition to the Irish offense.
Williams said as he’s put on weight over the past 10 months, he’s also gained some speed. He feels like he’s improved in pass protection, too, a skill coaches view as critical to a running back getting playing time. In 2014, when Notre Dame was down big at Arizona State, Folston was benched for the entire second half because coaches didn’t like the effort he gave in pass protection.
Williams carried 21 times for 81 yards last year as Notre Dame’s third-string running back. He may be in the same position this fall, but did well during spring practice to close the gap between himself and Adams/Folston. Last year’s sporadic playing time — he didn’t record a carry in seven of Notre Dame’s 13 games — did and will continue to fuel his efforts to be a greater factor this fall.
“Nobody likes riding the bench, nobody likes sitting and watching people play,” Williams said. “That was one thing that humbled me and also just made me want to work harder so I could get on the field.”
While Williams worked on carving out a role for himself in the Irish offense, quarterback Malik Zaire had to play catch-up. What's his outlook coming out of spring practice? JJ Stankevitz and JB Long break it down on the Still Independent Podcast: