In Hickory Ridge (North Carolina) High School’s 2017 homecoming game, Butler High School running back Jamal Worthy broke loose after a handoff at the 20-yard line, on his way to an 80-yard touchdown run. But Worthy only went 79 yards when Garrett Williams — lined up in press man coverage on the opposite side of the field — made the tackle at the 1-yard-line.
Hickory Ridge’s defense held Butler for the next three plays, blocking a field goal attempt on the fourth. Williams scooped up the ball and returned it the length of the field for a touchdown. With Williams’ play, Hickory Ridge won the game 43-42. Williams, in his first season at defensive back, secured the victory with an interception in the red zone late in the fourth quarter.
After his breakout 2017 season as a junior, Williams was recruited by numerous D-I schools. He committed to Syracuse in August 2018 and redshirted in 2019. In 2020, Williams became one of the top cornerbacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference after leading the league in passes defended (12) and recording the most tackles per game by an ACC cornerback (5.8). He was named a Freshman All-American by The Athletic, an Honorable Mention All-ACC player and led the conference in passes defended. After two Syracuse DBs were selected in last year’s NFL draft, Williams’ name has been on recent 2022 first round NFL draft projections, too.
“I knew he could play D-I ball from the beginning,” Williams’ dad, George Williams, said. “But seeing those kinds of plays … I thought he could be the best cover corner in the country just because of natural instincts. He’s living up to everything I’ve thought about him.”
But Williams’ path to the ACC — and possibly the NFL — wasn’t always through being a defensive back. He started tackle football at 7 years old, eventually moving to quarterback three years later.
Once Williams did get the ball in his hands, his natural athletic ability — combined with his intelligence and skill set — took over, Raymond McClain, Williams’ youth coach, said. When Williams was 10, McClain met with him and his dad at a Wendy’s. McClain gave Williams a playbook and wristbands with plays on it that McClain said Williams “absorbed.” Williams was later able to start changing plays at the line of scrimmage.
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Williams continued at quarterback into high school, where he played on Hickory Ridge’s JV team for his first two years. While he was a junior, he entered a quarterback competition with senior Dylan Ratliff — who now plays at Charlotte.
But at a 7-on-7 weekend tournament, Hickory Ridge’s head coach, Jason Seidel, decided to give Williams to his defensive coordinator for the weekend and see how he fared as a defensive back. Seidel didn’t want Williams worrying about playing quarterback and the ongoing battle for the position.
In the first defensive series of the trip, Williams intercepted a pass and returned it to the end zone for a touchdown. He intercepted five passes in total over just two days.
“It really looked like it was natural for him when he transitioned over to DB,” former Hickory Ridge wide receiver Jarett Garner said.
Williams remained at the secondary, but his quarterback knowledge helped with his transition, former coaches and teammates said. He was already familiar with route combinations, the pre-snap motioning and shifting opposing offenses frequently employed, Seidel said. He knew how a quarterback thinks and was able to confuse them by disguising coverages, Williams’ senior year head coach, Sam Greiner, said.
“It helped a lot,” Williams said of his quarterback experience. “Knowing downs and distance, what you really want to run. … So that way you can match what you think the offense is going to do with the formation they run, and that way everything starts to come together.”
By midseason his junior year, Williams was matched up against opposing teams’ top wide receivers every game. When Seidel and Hickory Ridge would watch film on Saturdays after the previous night’s game, he wouldn’t even think about Williams since he hadn’t given up any big plays and essentially “locked down” an entire side of the field, Seidel said.
“You didn’t even think about him,” Seidel said. “He knew he was going to shut down their best receiver.”
As Hickory Ridge’s top receiver, Garner went up against Williams every day in practice in 2017. Garner gave him pointers, telling Williams how he usually tried to attack the defensive back guarding him depending on the different coverage scheme the defense was playing.
“We would push each other,” Garner said, “He’d get beat on some days. I’d get him on some days. But I just always knew when I would go against him, it was always going to be something good.”
Garner — now at Duke — and Williams were at home in North Carolina last December when they met with former Hickory Ridge receiver Jalen Brooks, who now plays at South Carolina, for workouts with Seidel.
The trio’s former high school coach threw for a few hours, allowing the wide receivers to take turns running routes with Williams covering them 1-on-1. Seidel said there was “no coaching” involved — the players took over the workout themselves.
As Williams’ confidence grew throughout his junior season at Syracuse, his on-field personality grew, bringing out his “G-dub” side. Off the field, Williams is a very “high character” person, Seidel said. He spoke to coaches with “yes sirs” and “no sirs,” and George tells people that Williams is a better person than he is a football player. He held doors open for others, and Greiner called him a “gentleman.”
But when it came to football, Williams’ competition came out. McClain recalled having conversations with Williams and his dad about football where McClain would tell Williams to calm down because he was so amped up that he was shaking. In one game, Williams was on defense when a timeout was called. As the other team huddled on their sideline, Williams went over and joined their huddle.
“That’s how much of a standout he was. He was that confident in his game and his talent,” McClain said.
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A 3-star recruit, Williams would ultimately get several recruiting offers, including ones from West Virginia and Maryland. Syracuse head coach Dino Babers told Williams and his dad that if he came to SU and worked hard, there would be an opportunity for him. But Babers didn’t promise anything, George said.
Before Williams’ senior season began, Seidel left Hickory Ridge to become the head coach at Blythewood High School in South Carolina. Hickory Ridge hired Greiner, who wanted Williams to play freely so his natural athletic abilities could take over.
Greiner and his coaching staff gave Williams specific objectives to accomplish before the snap, such as hitting the inside or outside shoulder of an opposing team’s player. Once Williams completed the objective, he could “just play football,” Greiner said.
“He is a special talent,” Greiner said. “You can just see it on film when he played. He’s different than the rest of the people he goes against.”
In his first year at Syracuse, Williams redshirted behind experienced cornerbacks Ifeatu Melifonwu, Scoop Bradshaw and Trill Williams. Garrett Williams said he needed to gain weight when he arrived at Syracuse. He arrived in 2019 at 5-foot-11, 175-pounds and entered the 2020 season 13 pounds heavier. He noted that many of the plays he made in high school were the result of his athleticism more than “truly knowing” football.
To help with his football knowledge heading into 2020, Williams ran late night training sessions with Andre Cisco in Ensley Athletic Center, linebacker Mikel Jones said. He also spent early Sunday mornings in the offseason training, Jones said.
Williams became one of the Orange’s top defensive players after being given more playing time in 2020. Cisco and Trill Williams both suffered season-ending injuries that opened up opportunities in the secondary. Garrett Williams and Melifonwu — one of three SU defensive backs who signed with NFL teams this spring — became the seventh-best cornerback duo in all of Football Bowl Subdivision in 2020, according to Pro Football Focus.
Several NFL draft experts said Williams is Syracuse’s next top NFL prospect out of the secondary. McClain compared Williams to Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander, a Charlotte-area player who was a first round pick in 2018. But for now, Williams has been working with SU’s younger defensive backs on Babers’ 3-3-5 defense while also working on his conditioning so he can stay on the field longer during drives, he said.
Syracuse is more comfortable with the defensive scheme after a year playing in it, and the focus has been on knowing assignments and positioning before the snap to “fast” and not having to think more, Williams said.
“I definitely feel like we have a chip on our shoulder,” Williams said. “Going 1-10, just knowing how that feels, it can make you feel some type of embarrassment. But the majority of our team is back, and we’re working on our goal which is to make a bowl game again.”
It’s not a secret that after a player’s third year of college football, they become eligible for the NFL draft, George said. Williams will look at the available information at the end of this season and decide then if it’s the right decision to leave Syracuse early, meaning entering the draft will be something that is “definitely” considered, George said.
“Garrett Williams is really good, you can’t get around it,” Babers said. “If you can’t see it, there’s something wrong. He’s a very very good player.”
Published on September 1, 2021 at 11:44 pm
Contact Connor: [email protected] | @csmith17_
