Freshman NT Williams originally picked Fort Collins over Boulder
BOULDER Hell hath no fury like a Mike Bobo scorned, so Austin Williams was primed for the worst.
“I had a couple of people calling me out after the game,” Williams, CU’s freshman nose tackle, said of the moments that followed the Buffs’ Rocky Mountain Showdown victory over Colorado State back on Aug. 30.
“I just said, ‘ We got the Dub, that’s all I can say.’ I was like, ‘ We’re going home happy. How are y’all going home?’”
When a couple of CSU Rams sidled over and started pointing fingers at him, Williams just smiled and pointed to the scoreboard.
“I actually get a lot of Twitter and Instagram DMs about how excited ( fans) are that I came here instead of going to CSU,” said Williams, whose Buffs ( 3- 1) host Arizona ( 3- 1) on Saturday in an early battle for pole position in the wild Pac- 12 South. “It’s pretty good. Especially ( after) the CSU game, it was pretty crazy.”
You have to remember: For about 11 days or so last December, the 320- pound Williams, a man- mountain from Tifton, Ga., was a CSU Ram, one of the jewels of coach Mike Bobo’s 2019 recruiting haul.
Then Tyson Summers was hired as new CU coach Mel Tucker’s defensive coordinator, and holy heck broke loose. Summers and Williams had a relationship going back a few years — a couple of Tift County High School alums who’d bonded a few years back while Summers was running the show at Georgia Southern ( 2016- 17) and remained in touch. Same hometown. Same prep alma mater.
“Plus, it was Power 5 versus non- Power 5,” Williams explained with a grin. “It’s a better school. Better coaching here.”
Roughly two weeks after taking an official visit to Fort Collins, the 6- foot- 5 lineman headed back to the Front Range, only this time to Boulder. On Dec. 16, Williams announced he was flipping his commitment from the Rams to the Buffs.
“To be fair, when I first got recruited, ( Tucker) told me I had to be ready to play,” Williams said. “So I kind of got that in my head from the beginning. It was something that I knew I had to prepare for.”
Good thing, too. Junior defensive lineman Mustafa Johnson — the Buffs’ pocket- crusher and best in- the- box defender — is nursing an ankle injury suffered at Arizona State on Sept. 21 and remains a “game- time” decision for Saturday. Thus, Tucker and Summers could be rolling into one of the more critical home tests of the slate with a bunch of kids up front, Williams included.
“I trust those guys completely, ( the) young guys, just as much as I trust Mustafa,” CU linebacker Nate Landman said. “And having a couple of games this year of experience battling with them, I can see that they’re improving and they’re starting to understand the process and trust the defensive call and execute their jobs and not try to do too much.”
Williams, who turned 18 on Aug. 19, wasn’t thrown to the wolves so much as gently nudged. Big No. 55 has appeared in an average of 15.8 plays per game through the season’s first four matchups. But after Williams got a good chunk of work with the No. 1 defense over the past week or so, he anticipates getting in on closer to 40- 45 snaps Saturday — Mustafa’s health permitting, of course.
“He’s like a coach to us,” Williams said of Johnson, who leads the Buffs with three sacks. “Even though he plays end, he knows ( the) nose and tackle ( spots). So he teaches me, and I go back in and do what he taught me to do, and it makes the play so much better and so much easier for me to do.”
If the Buffs can’t get Johnson on the field, they’re going to need him in the ear of Williams and his fellow understudies as often as possible. Since 2012, whenever Arizona sees Ralphie, the ‘ Cats run wild: Over the last two meetings, UA has averaged a whopping 44 points and 314.5 yards on the ground on CU.
Coach Kevin Sumlin could be without starting quarterback Khalil Tate ( hamstring) and No. 1 tailback J. J. Taylor ( ankle) at Folsom Field, but the ‘ Cats still come into the weekend ranked No. 11 nationally in rushing offense ( 255.5 yards per game). CU’s rush defense, meanwhile, ranks 95th, allowing 175.5 yards on the ground per week, and is 125th out of 130 FBS programs in FootballOutsiders. com’s Opportunity Rate — the percentage of opponent runs that go for at least four yards ( 55.6 percent) when four or more yards are available. Among Pac- 12 programs, only Washington State ( 56.1 percent) is allowing their foes to pick up a greater percentage of healthy chunks on the ground.
“It’s definitely going to be something hard for us, because Mustafa, he’s the leader of the defensive line,” said Williams, one of eight CU true freshmen to see action thus far. “But we’re also prepared. Very prepared.”