Deuces run wild in Alabama
Ryan Williams and Zabien Brown, two freshmen who wear the same number, save the Crimson Tide in the year's best game so far.
There was a slice of time, a mere minute in the football continuum but an eternity for Alabama addicts, in which Ryan Williams was thinking about playing somewhere else.
He had committed to Alabama when Nick Saban was coaching, and when he was becoming the first player in state history to win the Mr. Football award twice. When Saban announced his retirement Jan. 10, Williams decommitted, and said he would visit Texas A&M, especially since ‘Bama’s receivers coach, Holman Wiggins, had joined the Aggies’ staff. It took two days for Alabama to hire Kalen deBoer, who had just gotten to the national championship game with Washington, and it took two weeks for Williams to follow the original plan. Now it has taken four games for Williams, a 17-year-old, to become one of the great tourist attractions of the college game, a must-see if you’re ever in the neighborhood.
Alabama’s 41-34 win over Georgia in Tuscaloosa Saturday night was one of the busiest, bulkiest and best college games in the text-message era. It was up there with Georgia’s 42-41 semifinal win over Ohio State two years ago, or Alabama’s 26-23 overtime win over Georgia to win the 2017 national championship, the night Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench to replace Jalen Hurts. It didn’t figure to have the same resonance, since there’s a 12-team playoff this year, and neither the Bulldogs nor Crimson Tide figure to be pressing their noses against the window when the selections come out. But its very existence made it the most important thing in anybody’s life within a 150-mile radius, at least. Even former President Donald Trump showed up, to reconnect with the working voter, as he watched from a suite in Bryant-Denny Stadium on a night when the median ticket price was $680.
Alabama had charged to a 28-0 second quarter lead against a team that hadn’t given up a touchdown all season. Then the Bulldogs got their heartbeats under control and came back like a team with a 42-game regular-season winning streak should. With 2:47 left, and with Alabama’s sweaty hands grasping a 33-28 lead, DeBoer chose to punt on fourth-and-one from his own 26. It took one play — Carson Beck’s 67-yard down the middle touchdown to Dillon Bell — to put the Bulldogs ahead, 34-33. Criticially, Beck tried a QB draw on the conversion and fell short, but this was not the ideal way for a new coach to handle his first SEC game on a field named after a coach who had won seven national championships.
And then it was. From his 25, Jalen Milroe spotted Williams in a one-on-one situation going down the right sideline. The pass hung just a bit, but Williams spotted it, somehow turned his body in the air to catch it, faced two Georgia pursuers, then did a spin-a-rama and the beginnings of a Michael Jackson moonwalk, and was suddenly gone. This, from a kid who reclassified so he could come to Tuscaloosa a year early — he could be a senior at Saraland High, near Mobile, and going for three straight Mr. Footballs. That, of course, would be unfair to the teenagers around him. Williams sought a higher league and, now that he’s in it, already has five touchdown catches and is averaging 28.8 yards a reception.
“He’s like a simulation,” said CJ Dippre, the tight end. “He is great. If he had problems, he could take all my NIL money. I’ll give it to him.”
But there were 138 anxious seconds left. Beck cashed a fourth-down pass, to Colbie Young, and the Bulldogs were on the ‘Bama 20 with :47 left. Beck tried to hit Young in t he corner of the end zone, the way he had on a 34-yarder against freshman cornerback Zabien Brown. But this time Brown got better position and anticipated the back shoulder throw. When he came down with it, the Crimson Tide had beaten Georgia for the sixth time in seven games with Kirby Smart, Saban’s former defensive coordinator, coaching the Bulldogs.
This also was Georgia’s first loss to anybody except Alabama since November of 2020, the Covid-19 season, when it lost to Florida, 44-28.
And, since we’re dealing with numbers, Williams and Brown are both freshmen and both wear No. 2. Brown is from Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Ca., as is the other cornerback, Domani Jackson, who transferred from USC. The new coaches weren’t sure where he would fit in, since ‘Bama had lost corners Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold to the NFL draft. But when Brown kept making plays in summer camp with a cast on his hand, they took a chance.
Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who was South Alabama’s head coach last year, got in Brown’s ear after the pick. “Plays like that are what you’re going to remember the rest of your life.” Certainly it will stick with the lifelong Alabama fan. But Williams might leave everyone a playlist of memories before he’s done.
The game-winner was too good for the kids to learn from. Williams’ body control and footwork can’t be taught or explained. But the kids can learn something from the way Williams got open against Malachi Starks, Georgia’s most celebrated defensive back, and juggled, batted and finally corralled Milroe’s third quarter pass, a 54-yard play that led to a field goal and a 33-14 lead. That was an exaggerated bit of concentration that can only go along with comfort. Williams was on the same field where he caught two touchdown passes, ran for another score, and ran a kickoff back for yet another, in a 31-28 state title loss to Clay-Chalkville.
Fortuantely for deBoer, Williams had watched Washington studiously last year and appreciated the way Michael Penix kept firing long to Rome Odunze and his other deep targets. He knew the new coach wasn’t bringing the triple option with him.
Williams also kicked up some Internet fuss with his “Kill Everybody” message on his eyeblack. That was deemed inappropriate by some, but Willliams said it was merely a reference to a famous line in the football movie “The Program.”
Williams caught six balls in the game for 177 yards. Milroe hit 27 of 33 passes for 374 yards and also ran for 117, the first time any quarterback in college football had reached 300-100 against a Top 5 opponent. Beck was 27 for 50 with three interceptions but three touchdowns, and Bell and Arian Smith both topped 100 yards in receiving.
Neither team should be worried about the 12-team playoff, but the SEC champion does get a first-round bye. The top two teams play in the SEC championship game, and that’s where the schedule rears its head. Georgia plays Texas (in Austin). Alabama does not. Georgia and Alabama play both Tennessee and Ole Miss. Texas plays neither. The top four conferences are bloated, as we all know. Each is more like an archipelago than a league. But it’s possible that Georgia and Alabama will play three times, counting the SEC title game and a College Football Playoff bracket.
So Ryan Williams doesn’t have to kill everybody. But he might have to dispose of some people more than once. His bare hands seem capable.
Other confetti:
Miami 38, Virginia Tech 34: In one of the more contentious replay arguments in recent college football, Kyron Drones’ last second 30-yard pass to Da’Quan Felton was ruled a touchdown, which would have given Virginia Tech (2–3) a large upset over the 7th-ranked team. But the ACC replay center ruled that a Miami player who was out of bounds touched the loose ball. “I hope they got it right,” said Hokies coach Brent Pry. Tech led Miami by 10 in the fourth quarter, but Heisman Trophy hopeful Cam Ward took over with an improbable winning drive. He hit Xavier Restrepo with a fourth down conversion after Restrepo had slipped and fallen, then bounced off Keyshawn Burgos and Kalen Spencer before he threw to Riley Williams for a 26-yard gain, setting up a 1-yard score. Miami (5-0) had three turnovers, two on interceptions thrown by Ward, who also threw four touchdown passes.
– Kentucky 20, Mississippi 17: Ole Miss was the first team in SEC history to score 150 points in its first three games and hold its opponents to under 10. As it turned out, that only said a lot about its opponents. Kentucky (3-2) solved the Rebels by hanging onto the ball for nearly 40 minutes, and denied Jaxson Dart and Ole Miss on nine of 10 third downs. A 63-yard pass from Brock Vandagriff to Barion Brown, on fourth-and-seven, set up the go-ahead touchdown, and then a sack by J.J. Weaver complicated Ole Miss’ final drive, which ended with a missed 48-yard field goal by Caden Davis. Kentucky, which only lost to Georgia 13-12 and has given up only 36 points in the past three games, won at Ole Miss for the first time since 1978.
— Colorado 48, UCF 21: Few teams have a pair of diamonds like quarterback Shedeur Sanders and receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, and they certainly were in evidence during this unexpected rout. . But the Buffs also ran for 128 yards and sacked UCF’s K.J. Jefferson five tmes, including two by Taje McCoy. Hunter had a spectacular interception and caught nine of Sanders’ passes, and Sanders was 28 for 35 for 290 yards and was 6-for-7 in the second half. The Buffaloes scored seven times on 13 possessions. They suddenly look threatening in the Big 12.
— Arizona 23, Utah 10: . The Wildcats knew Utah well from Pac-12 days, not that familiarity means that much against the Utes. What you need is the type of brilliance shown by Noah Fifita, who went 19 for 31 and threw two touchdowns. The Arizona defense had folded against Kansas State, but here it had two interceptions, eight passes defensed and seven tackles for loss. It also denied Utah on four fourth-down conversion attempts, and all of it came at Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
— Boise State 45, Washington State 24. One of the unexpected pleasures of a 12-man playoff could be the sight of Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and the havoc he creates. For the second time, Jeanty had a four-touchdown game and ran 26 times for 259 yards. For the year Jeanty has rushed 845 yards on 82 carries for 18 scores. His 59-yard rumble to the end zone built Boise State’s lead back to 14 points after a WSU rally. The Group of Five conferences get one spot in the 12-man field.
— Indiana 42, Maryland 28: Indiana’s last trip to the Rose Bowl was after the 1967 season, which is also the last time the Hoosiers began a season 5-0 the way they have for first-year coach Curt Cignetti. Indiana actually had a 42-14 lead in the fourth quarter. The Hoosiers go to Northwestern this week and play host to Nebraska the following week. Kurtis Rourke went 22 for 33 for 359 yards and three touchdowns. Indiana hasn’t been to a bowl of any variety since 2020, when it was 6-2 and lost to Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl.