Ohio State Football: Kourt Williams finally getting a shot?

In his true freshman season, Ohio State football’s Kourt Williams was turning heads during the offseason of 2020. Unfortunately, Williams suffered a torn ACL prior to the season, holding him out for the year. After fully recovering from the injury, Williams is looking to make noise once again.

Prior to the 2021 season kicking off, it sounded like Williams could be playing the bullet position rather than a traditional safety role. He has a large, lengthy frame at 6’1, 220 pounds that would allow him to play up in the box by the line of scrimmage. Plus, the redshirt-freshman has some eye-popping athleticism, which again shows he could fit the bullet position well.

Early in the season, Williams’ availability coming off his ACL tear seemed to be unknown. Since then, the Buckeye starting safety Josh Proctor sustained his season-ending injury, and Ohio State began running far more two-safety high when Matt Barnes made his changes to the defense.

Ryan Day and the coaching staff tinkered with the idea of moving defensive players around to find more safety depth. This included testing Latham Ransom and even Craig Young at safety. At one point, the 6’3 cornerback Ryan Watts was mentioned as a potential candidate to move to safety.

Williams seems to be emerging, bringing safety depth

The Buckeyes may have found their answer for new safety depth in Williams. He is now hitting his stride as he begins to see the field more and more. The St. John Bosco graduate is starting to really shine, making impact plays in his brief meaningful snaps.

That closing-speed by Williams was fantastic, and the tackle was textbook. To suddenly get more reps and play with some starters, Williams must be flashing in practice as well. It is quite possible Williams has begun to feel like himself again after missing so much time, which was suggested in his post-Indiana-game interview,

"I’ve felt good since the beginning of Fall. I just had to get those reps to get it rolling again and feel comfortable on the field. So that’s all I needed."

Part of his emergence is partially due to just “getting it” as a young player. This is basically Williams’ first year since he could not play at all last Fall. He is making his own case of joining the youth movement on defense as he was graded a champion in the Indiana game.

This would be a welcomed sight, of course, the idea of Bryson Shaw hardly splitting snaps is sort of uncomfortable. Shaw has improved a lot recently, but he does not contain the upside like someone like Williams has.

Seeing if Williams gets in at all or when he would get in against Penn State on Saturday night will be something to look for. The possibility of pairing Williams with Ronnie Hickman at times in that two-safety high look would have a ton of upside with Hickman’s recent play and Williams’ raw potential.

Williams is yet another young player on defense that could end up being a difference-maker for the Ohio State football team this season.