A noise-free zone
QB Williams goes into his first start focused on matchup with Florida
The time has come for Jarren Williams to make his first start with the national college football spotlight on him and the Miami Hurricanes taking on the No. 8 Florida Gators in Orlando on Saturday night.
A tall task for a redshirt freshman that will have two fellow freshmen blocking for him at opposite tackle positions, but Williams’ approach: Block out the noise and the hype and be the same guy that won the starting job over N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell in camp.
“We’re not going to listen to the fans screaming. We’re tuning all out the noise. All the noise, we’re tuning it out and we’re just going to focus on our assignment,” Williams said. “Me and the guys, we’ve talked about it. We know it’s a big game, but our focus is that one play at that one time.”
One thing is saying it before the game, taking place at Camping World Stadium a week ahead of most other teams starting their seasons dubbed “Week 0.” Another challenge is actually fulfilling it when the lights come on, the fans are in a frenzy and the national audience is tuned in to ESPN for the 7 p.m. kickoff.
So just how exactly will Williams go about blocking out the noise?
“It’s kind of like this mental state we go into where we’re just locked in on the moment and everything around us is quiet,” Williams said. “I know for me and a couple other guys that I’ve talked to, we just go into that state where it’s like we just tune out everything and we just lock in and get ready to play.”
For Williams, the only outside noise he has paid any attention to has been the messages of support from those close to him.
“I have a lot of family and friends that texted me and called me, just letting me know that they were proud of me for all the hard work that I’ve put in,” he said. “I was very appreciative of them reaching out to me. It means a lot, but, yeah, I did get a lot of text messages and phone calls.”
Teammates have noted, like center Corey Gaynor said last week, that Williams has evolved into “a commander” of the offense since being named the starter. Coach Manny Diaz, on Wednesday, backed up that notion.
“It’s just the natural thing of having the confidence of the coaching staff and the team to know you’re the guy,” said Diaz, set to make his head coaching debut on Saturday. “That’s why we made the decision. That’s why we made it public. We felt that far superseded any value in a surprise on Saturday.”
It’s something junior offensive lineman Navaughn Donaldson, UM’s most experienced blocker, has noticed from Williams far earlier, though.
“Jarren has always been a leader,” Donaldson said. “Ever since he came in, he’s been a vocal guy, trying to communicate with the whole offense, even the whole team, trying to get us on the same page. That’s what [offensive coordinator Dan] Enos saw, I guess, and he just took that stuff further now.”
Williams said, nonetheless, it has taken growth to get to where he is now from a leadership perspective.
“I feel like it’s a gradual process because throughout the summer, the spring, my thing was I’m going to show these guys that I’m going to work and give everything I got for them,” he said. “So I go out there every day and I really gave everything I had into the team for them, just to show them that I’m going to be a guy that y’all can rely on.
“I feel like doing that time after time gradually built that leadership, so that when I had the opportunity to be named the starting quarterback I was already kind of in that leadership role. It has just kind of carried on.”
A great leader in a big game has to be able to handle adversity because it’s almost a guarantee not everything on Saturday against the Gators defense will go exactly according to plan. It’s a point Diaz has emphasized to his team.
Williams said, when adversity hits, on Saturday night, he’ll approach it like he’s back at Greentree Practice Fields or the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility.
“Just like in practice when you make a bad throw,” Williams said. “In a game when it happens, you’ve got to just think next play. You can’t harp on it. You’ve got to move on, next play and I’ve got to encourage my guys around me, let them know we’ve got a whole game to play.”