Maturity gives 3-star DL college opportunity

The thought of playing college football never crossed the mind of Ryan Williams two years ago.

In fact, the Shadow Creek (Texas) High School senior hadn’t given much attention at all to his post-graduation plans.

“I didn’t know what I was really going to do,” he said.

An encouraging father and motivating coaches helped Williams mature physically and mentally, however, and now he’s eager to become a Colorado Buffalo. Last Friday, the 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive lineman, who has a 3-star rating from 247Sports.com, became the latest prep prospect to verbally commit to CU for the 2021 recruiting class.

“It was a stress reliever,” said Williams, who is on track to become the first in his family to play college football. “It was very exciting for my family and me and my friends. We had a whole big party.”

Committing to CU was worth a celebration because of how far Williams has come in the past few years.

Inspired by his older brother, Williams played youth football, but he was a short kid at that point. He had a growth spurt before eighth grade, however, and said he stopped playing and became lazy.

“I just lost interest and my dad said I can really do something with my height, so I might as well make it worth it,” he said. “I’m trash at basketball so I chose football.”

He played as a freshman, but admitted, “I wasn’t really feeling football and I was not caring and not coming to practice.”

Before his sophomore year, that changed, as he got with a trainer and was pushed by Shadow Creek defensive line coach Kevin Drones.

“They really got all the lazy and childishness out of me,” Williams said. “My trainer really got that out of me and when Drones got out there, he really got it out of me. He wasn’t playing those games.”