Roydell

Williams

Williams is a six-year college player who spent four seasons at Alabama and two seasons at Florida State. He notably suffered a season-ending knee injury in 2021 and never once cleared 600 yards rushing in a single season. Williams is likely a long shot to make the Titans’ roster.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Williams (5'10/208) has been ruled out for the season, after Saban said earlier in the week that he would be out for, “a good while.” Williams saw more playing time after Alabama lost backup running back Jase McClellan for the season to a meniscus injury in Week 5’s game against Ole Miss. Now with Williams done for the season, Bama will likely lean on redshirt sophomore Trey Sanders, who is fourth on the team in rush attempts (39) and third in rushing yards (195). Sanders is a former five-star recruit from the 2019 class, and was the no. 1 running back in his class according to 247Sports.com’s composite rankings.

Williams (5'10/208) left in the second quarter of Bama’s blowout win over New Mexico State, and head coach Nick Saban said after the game that the Crimson Tide have probably lost Williams for, “a good while.” Bama has already lost running back Jase McClellan (meniscus) for the season, and now it appears that it will be without Williams for at least the next several weeks. On the year, Williams has rushed 48 times for 284 yards and one touchdown, while averaging 5.9 yards per carry.

Williams (5'10"/2018) hasn’t seen much playing time in his career with Alabama, in fact, he didn’t lead the team in carries in this game, that was Jase McClellan, but he was able to make the most with the opportunities he was given. He was able to run through this Akron defense who ranked 114th in rushing yards per game. He ran for 16 yards then 43 yards in his first two carries. He handled the ball for that entire Alabama possession, which ended when was able to bulldoze through the line scrimmage for the one-yard touchdown. Alabama will host Ole Miss next Saturday in an SEC showdown.

Alabama does not release spring game stats. However, Saban himself claimed Williams (5'10/210) had the most rushing yards of any player in the team’s spring game. This should be no indication that Williams will suddenly jump to the No.1 spot on the RB depth chart, especially with Brian Robinson still around, but it is now worth keeping an eye on how many touches Williams could get next season.

Williams (5'10/200) verbally committed to remain in-state and play at Alabama back in November, but other power conference programs have continued to express their interest in the four-star back. Florida State has been one of those programs, with Williams telling Rivals.com analyst Chad Simmons that the program has been watching him since he was in the ninth grade. “It is a school I plan to visit now,” Williams told Simmons. “I want see what it is like and just take it from there. It is a strong program and they came up to see me, so I will go down to see them too.” The Hueytown, Alabama native also said that Auburn and LSU have continued to recruit him hard as well.