Ohio State football: Jameson Williams hype train is taking off

Ohio State has a lot of quality wide receivers on their roster, but Williams might be the most overlooked right now. That would be a mistake by both fans and defenses.

If you haven’t heard of Jameson Williams by now, I’ll assume you also think Todd Boeckman is still our backup quarterback because you just aren’t keeping up with the Buckeyes.

Williams is a true sophomore wide receiver and a former four-star recruit from Saint Louis, MO.  He was the number 13 WR in the country according to 247Sports, and the early rumblings coming out of Columbus make it seem like that this guy should’ve been even higher.

Over the past decade-plus, you can always tell in the weeks leading up to the season which players are poised to burst on the scene in the Horseshoe. In 2018, despite being the 3rd-lowest recruit in his class, Thayer Munford was the talk of the offseason before he snagged the starting LT job in just his second year.

In the fall of 2016, it was how Nick Bosa had the potential to be better than older brother Joey and how good of a receiver Noah Brown would be. In 2013 when the freshmen were the first to report to fall camp, the hype was for Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson.

This year, that guy seems to be Jameson Williams.  Despite being ranked 13th in the country at his position, he hasn’t received much attention from Buckeye fans up to this point, mostly because he was in the same class in which we landed #2 receiver in the country Garrett Wilson.

Wilson had a ton of time on the field as a true freshman last year, while Williams mostly saw mop-up duty. But I fully expect these two to be focal points of the passing game this year, because we got a glimpse of Williams’ potential against Rutgers last year in his 61-yard catch-and-run for 6.

Williams is a freakishly fast wideout, a guy you throw into the same category as Ted Ginn & Parris Campbell. His long strides make it look like he cuts past defenders like a hot knife through butter.  He was a three-time state champion in the 300 Hurdles, and event in which he broke Ezekiel Elliott’s Missouri High School record for.

If I’m Ryan Day, I’m going after every single person who wins the Missouri state finals in the 300m hurdles because those two guys bring a pretty good track record (ba dum tsss) to the Buckeyes football team.

So far in this week alone, he’s received public praise from Chris Olave, Justin Fields, and Brian Hartline. If you go back even further, that list grows much longer. Needless to say, Williams is the best player that Buckeye fans haven’t heard of. But there are only two more days until we’ll all hear Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt call his name on Saturday.