Williams impressing coaches

FAYETTEVILLE Reporting early to the University of Arkansas for 2017 football as a January enrolled December high school graduate in spring ball didn’t head start Maleek Williams beyond redshirting at running back last fall.

But the native of Punta Gorda, Fla., ran ahead of the Razorbacks pack in last Saturday’s scrimmage with eight carries for 72 yards and a touchdown in the new offense that new coach Chad Morris and his new to Arkansas offensive coaches brought with them from SMU.

“I've never run that type of offense. It was really fun though. I enjoyed it,” Williams said after Monday’s practice in pads.

Because the offense often operates from the spread and is hurry-up no-huddle it sometimes gets stereotyped as a pass-happy offense compared to the I-formation that the Bret Bielema staff that signed Williams preferred.

But Williams most run productive Arkansas scrimmage ever indicates otherwise to him.

“I think we're still going to run the ball a lot,” Williams said. “It's going to be a lot more snaps. I think it's going to be better. We're going to keep running and passing.”

That he had to redshirt last year even with a semester head start did not surprise Williams, who first had to shed 15 pounds to be at running back 215 instead of the fullback he resembled upon reporting and then had to adjust to last year’s offense that was as different from his experience at Charlotte High in Punta Gorda as this offense now.

“Definitely,” Williams said of needing to red-

shirt in 2017. “Me coming from like a Wing-T offense in high school that was really simple, I just kind of needed a year to develop myself.”

Development in his case meant less is more.

“When I came from high school, I was 230 and I hit that diet pretty hard,” Williams said. “I’ve just been lifting and stuff and I'm more leaned out this year. I feel really good (at 215). I feel explosive and I feel like I can be more efficient at this weight, rather than just bowl over people and be like gassed.”

Morris post scrimmage Saturday said Williams, “ran exceptionally hard.”

Williams Monday returned the praise exceptionally.

“Man, he’s a cool dude,” Williams said. “I had heard good things about him before I came up here, but he’s really personable. He talks to your for awhile and gets to know his players.”

With Morris, running backs coach Jeff Traylor and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, Williams has a trio of new bosses to whom he has something to prove, including all the things a running back must do besides the obvious of toting the football.

“I think every day is an opportunity to prove something because these coaches are always watching you,” Williams said, noting he still has much work to do. “I’m definitely not where I want to be, but I’m definitely going in the right direction.”

The direction sufficiently impresses senior defensive end Randy Ramsey to mention Williams in the same breath with former University of Texas and Miami Dolphins running great Ricky Williams, and not just because they share dreadlocks hair style and the same last name.

“He reminds me of Ricky Williams,” Ramsey said. “The physicality, he’s real tough to tackle. You’ve got to bring it when you’re trying to tackle Maleek Williams.”

Ramsey was subject of superlatives post scrimmage Saturday from Morris. And John “Chief” Chavis, the veteran defensive coordinator who turned out NFL defensive players like a factory coordinating defenses since 1995 at Tennessee, then LSU, then Texas A&M before joining Morris’ staff this winter, acknowledged Ramsey has more ability than he initially believed.

“He’s showing up a lot,” Chavis said post scrimmage.

That’s not faint praise to Ramsey.

“I was amazed because Coach Chavis has coached some of the top elite guys at LSU.” Ramsey said. “He coached Myles Garrett (the former Texas A&M Aggie starring for the Cleveland Browns). I was like, ‘Wow!’”

Jamario Bell, the fourthyear non-lettering junior from Junction City who has been shuttled to several positions during the Bielema regime and then broke his foot to end his 2017 season before it began in his first preseason practice as a first-teamer, also drew public praise from Morris last Saturday.

Bell acknowledged it’s a new beginning for him with a new staff in Chavis’ new to Arkansas defense which he says is less restrictive than the previous schemes he practiced under variously at outside linebacker and on the line and against in 2016 as a tight end.

“I feel like there is more freedom,” Bell said Monday of the pressure defense that Chavis espouses. "You just play. There’s not a lot of thinking out there. Just play and it’s fully wide open.”

Previously withheld by injuries, sophomore defensive end Briston Guidry and redshirt freshman offensive tackle Dalton Wagner and redshirt freshman running back Maleek Barkley all practiced full contact Monday for the first time this spring.

The Razorbacks wage a closed to the public and media practice Wednesday then break for the UA’s spring break that begins Friday.