Success of Ryan Williams not surprising to Saraland coach Jeff Kelly

Success of Ryan Williams not surprising to Saraland coach Jeff Kelly

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
We'll go back to Sports Talk nine ninety five Randy
Kennedy in the Threaded Faster Studio the Whole Country talking
about Ryan Williams, the freshman from sarah Land at Alabama
leading the Tide to the victory over Georgia on Saturday.
But we've been seeing that for a while, including his
head coach at sarah Land who joins us now, Jeff Kelly. Jeff,
I know you're in Tuscaloosa Saturday. Wow, what a what
a crazy night?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Huh, you know it was a uh, it was a
really awesome day, you know, just uh had from we
got there about noon during the day, you could tell
the atmosphere was just different. It was electric. It was
uh you could tell it was a big game atmosphere
and and uh and the way the game unfolded there
is coming down to the end. You know, it lived

(00:47):
up to the building for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
You had your son with you, right, your son coming
off a touchdown catch and you guys last game too, right,
that's kind of a cool thing.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, we all we all went up there and uh
and enjoyed the day and enjoyed uh the weekend had
had beautiful weather and uh, you know had Lisa with us.
So it was it was just a good day. Really
wanted to get up there and and uh and go
watch Ryan and play and uh, you know, just enjoy it,
enjoy a good game together.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Did you get a chance to talk to him pregame
or post game?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, yeah, we talked a little bit of pre game,
you know, talked, uh talked there as uh as he
was out there before pregame started getting lose, Just catching
up and uh and just saying hello and and just
lett him know how proud we are of uh of
what he's doing, and just checking up on him. High
classes are going all that kind of good stuff. So
uh yeah, just uh just getting a chance to catch up.

(01:41):
But it was a good Uh, it was a good day.
And you know, I thought that he played really well
and uh, especially in a big game like that, that
was a sing to make plays. Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
So you say you got a chance to catch up
with him pregame. My experience with him is that he's
not one of these like uptight sort of guys for pregame.
Is is that true? And was that what you saw
on Saturday?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah? No, right, right, it's just always uh, he's always
kind of just before the game, just just kind of
himself and and uh, you know, he's he's definitely focused
and locked in and and those kind of things. But
he's he's confident, laid back, and just ready for the
game to start. So now you could tell he was
in a good spot mentally, and and uh, you know,

(02:26):
he was really prepared well and confident. It seemed like
that that that he was confident and high was gonna
play and you know, thought that he had a chance
to make a difference in the game. So he had
that look that he was gonna do something special look
that we've seen many times over the years.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
So he had a couple of real highlight plays, the winner,
the seventy five yard touchdown play. They also the tip
ball that he made an incredible catch on, Jeff. I
wonder any of that surprise you at all.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, no, yes, And though uh, you know, we've seen
all that stuff for years and and he's always you know,
seems seems ready and able to pull something that I
was hat you know in a big time part of
the game where you just you just kind of smile
and scratch your head and that kind of stuff. But
but you know, to see him do it, you know,

(03:17):
on that stage, in that setting against who he was playing,
you know, even somebody that knows him well and has
scene you know, every just about every game that he's
played competitively over the last four or five years. It
was it was just extremely you know, being somebody that
that that has kind of been been there, that kind

(03:38):
of stuff. It's really hard to appreciate, you know, what
he's doing, what he's doing at this time, at the
level he's doing it, who's doing it against, just really
proud and and uh just continues to to impress and
continues to uh answer every call that uh, you know

(03:58):
when when anytime anybody douse him or you know, because
we've heard it the last several weeks, say he's had
some success, but has he really played anybody good? Just
wait till he plays Georgia. That's what everybody's been saying.
And everybody knows Ryan. You know, he's always been up
for every challenge, and every time somebody's doubted him, he's
you know, he's been ready to go make that play

(04:19):
and prove people that not only does he belong, but
he's got that different competitive switch. And I think that's
one of the things that makes him different. He's got
that competitive switch that you put him in a competitive
situation and he's always going to find a way to
come out on top. It may not be pretty, it
may be you know, he may have to tip it

(04:40):
to himself two or three times or spin or come
out of it whatever, but you know he's got the
competitive character to go make the play in the big
moment against good people. And that's not something that you
can coach. That ain't something that anybody can take credit for.
That's just something that the Good Lord reached down put
on him and he's able to He's able to quiet

(05:02):
everything when it uh when it's a big moment, and
he's able to make the play and be his best
when it really matters.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, he's an incredible talent, no doubt. But Jeff, you
deserve some credit because you mentioned about you've been in
that arena before quarterback at Southern Miss. He could have
been a quarterback. You could have left him at quarterback
and uh, I'm sure he would have been all state
super successful. But you decided to go a different way
and did not play him at quarterback. Uh wop me
through that during his progression.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, that's what I can kind of give credit to
coach Bible a little bit. One of our you know,
one of our main guys here is our receiving coach.
We as a ninth grader, we're we're searching for somebody
to step up at the receiver position, and we were
really a guy short. And Ryan was the freshman quarterback
and he was a guy that that was was filling
in that role. And we were getting ready to play

(05:52):
and uh, Jerrell, uh Jirell, one of our receivers is
at West Virginia now. He asked Ryan to stay after
practice and throw him routes one day and and uh
so we're watching through the window and Coach Bible said, hey,
check check out Ryan running the routes. Because I guess
they flipped it up and Girell started throwing Ryan a
few routes. In fact, that may be our guy to

(06:15):
get us through. And we were trying to I think
we were playing field over maybe to open the year,
and we ended up getting beat. They popped us pretty good.
But uh, you know, Ryan showed enough and those two
or three reps just him and Jarrell out there under
the turf that uh, we wanted to give that a
shot and uh, he absolutely had no clue about it. It
was a new thing for him, and and uh, he

(06:36):
wanted to play. He wanted to compete, he wanted to
be out there with his guys. And I think he
felt like, hey, if I jump over the receiver, I
might can get out on the field on Friday nights.
And uh, and he just continued to grow and get better.
And then all of a sudden he started making plays,
and you had to remind yourself, Hey, this is a
fourteen year old kid out here, and he's doing some
pretty special things against good people. So uh, and then

(07:00):
that that transition from his ninth grade year to his
tenth grade year, he just he just absolutely blew up.
And and uh, in terms of you could just see it.
You can see it every day practice. And he's worked
with his dad and they would they would do some
training things and they were just you could tell he
was getting better. And I told a lot of people
going into his sophomore year, I said, y'all don't know
what y'all, y'all don't really know Ryan, but Ryan's about

(07:22):
to take this state over and he's gonna have a
huge year. And and I you know, it worked out
that way for sure, because that that sophomore year, he
just was unconscious all year and we did a great
job in terms of you know, the guys around him
played well, kJ was you know, they were just such
a great combination and uh and it just kind of

(07:45):
grew from there. So all the credit goes to him
and this work ethic. I mean, what he's what he's done,
what he's been able to do is is a credit
to you know, not only having a lot of the
ability part of it, but having a humble, humble nature
to go work every day to improve like he's done,
and I think like he's gonna continue to do so. Uh,

(08:07):
just really proud for him to see, you know, go
be at the point in his life and career that
that I know he's always wanted to be at and
kind of dreamed at, and uh, you kind of see
those dreams coming true, you know, every Saturday night, you know,
in Washington play Jeff.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I remember Media Days going into that his sophomore year,
and I remember talking with my good friend Ben Thomas
after you appeared at Media Days, and I said to Ben,
I was like, wow, Jeff, Kelly's like really confident about
this team. Like, I can't believe how confident he is
and being agreed with me. Of course, you guys went
on to win a state championship, But you knew something

(08:44):
we didn't know at that point.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, you could see it that spring before we went over,
I think, played the team out of Misissippi that was
at Southern Miss, that played in their stadium in a
spring game, and you know, you had it was just
you had young guys that were just unaware of how
talented they were, and they didn't care. They just wanted
to play. And I could see Ryan developing and just becoming,

(09:09):
you know, just a dynamic player and with great instincts
and ball skills and kJ you know, you could see
all the creativity that he was able to play with,
and you kind of knew what you had, you know,
with our defensive guys over there in Santy being a
great running back. That was a really good year in
terms of, you know, just having a bunch of young

(09:30):
guys that just love football and want to go out
there and work and get better every week. But I
had a feeling that Ryan was gonna bust on the
scene and do some special things. And I don't think
anybody could have guessed he'd win Mister Football as a
fifteen year old kid, But you know that's kind of
as just we're all we're surprised at that. I don't
know why we're surprised at seventeen that he's able to

(09:53):
treat the University of Georgia like he was able to
do Saturday Night. We've been seeing that for a couple
of years. But he just continues to one up, He
continues to accept the challenge and can you continue to
show kind of who he is, not just as a
football player, but just somebody that loves to compete and
loves the game.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Talking to Jeff Kelly, head coach at Sarland, who's current
Spartans are number one in the state in Class six
A and host Balwin County this week. So they're doing
perfectly fine without Ryan Williams. So everything's still going well
there at sara Land, all right, Jeff, I wanted to
ask you about, obviously a breakout performance for Ryan Williams
on the national stage, but during his career at Sarland

(10:33):
those three years freshman, sophomore, and junior, what's the most
impressive play? I want to ask you for a few,
but does one come to mind. If I say, show
me one play that Ryan Williams was impressive during his
Sara Land career, does something come to mind?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
You know, that's that's such a hard question, because every
Friday night it was it was something. There was some
kind of highlight reel or some kind of thing that
happened that you really didn't have words for. I know
what we called a double pass and Ryan, we always
tried to find ways to get Ryan to throw the
football to other guys and we would have trick plays.
And he was a great trick play guy because he
attracted so much attention. And we threw a we were

(11:10):
we called a double pass, and we were we were
throwing up through it out there the flat on our
sideline and Ryan was supposed to turn and throw it
to a backside post and uh and whoever we were playing,
they did a great job covering it. And you know, anyway,
it was about we were on about twenty five yard
line and he went back and forth sideline a sideline
about two or three times before he ended up breaking

(11:32):
about ten tackles and ended up scoring. But it was
a total broken play, a total terrible play call on
my part and It should have been a loss of
a lot of yardage, but it ended up being a
touchdown and everybody was celebrating in black man us a
great play call whatever, Really a terrible play call and

(11:53):
a terrible situation. The defense played it perfect, but Ryan
just did Ryan kind of things and made made you
look smart.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
What about last year's opening when you guys played against
Lipscomb Academy out of Tennessee. That's a big time opponent.
They've got a you know, defensive back who's now playing
at Tennessee. That game. Do you remember anything about him
from that game?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah? You know. I talked to Ryan after that game,
well after the South Florida game, when he talked a
little hits riding the flat to the left and he
digged the guy outside and went back inside, and I
told him, I said, that reminds me of the play
in the third quarter versus Lipscomb where we threw the
same route the same the same time, and he gave

(12:36):
the guy a little outside in kind of like he
did last Saturday night on the cow route, ending up
scoring in a big moment of that game versus Lipscomb.
And you know that was that was a big moment
in the game. But just you see some of those
things that happened, and it brings back those memories of
similar things that we've been fortunate enough to see over

(12:58):
the last several years here at sarah So yeah, that
was that was kind of a similar route, the same route,
really the same move and you know what, do you
know he was successful on that stage as well.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Great stuff, right Sarahland this week playing Baldwin County. Will
continue to follow sarah Land as well as Ryan Williams,
certainly one of the breakout stars in college football this year.
Jeff can't thank you enough. Man, appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Have a great one. Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
There you go. Jeff Kelly, head coach at sarah Land,
his most famous pupil, now Ryan William's seventeen year old
freshman at Alabama doing great things and certainly on the
national stage. I'm Randy Kennedy. This is Sports Talk ninety
nine five.