D.J. Williams a game-changer

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Running back D.J. Williams a game-changer in win over Ole Miss

Posted Nov 02, 2019

4-5 minutes

For the first quarter, running back D.J. Williams was quiet, but as soon as he stepped onto the field in the second quarter, he became a game-changer.

The true freshman rushed for 93 yards in Auburn’s 20-14 win over Ole Miss on Saturday. He also scored the first touchdown of his college career.

Williams helped kickstart Auburn’s offense, which struggled to put points on the board through the first quarter. It had capped off two long drives with missed field goal attempts and went into the second tied at zero.

When Williams came in, he, along with running backs Kam Martin and Shaun Shivers, helped quickly move Auburn into scoring position. Williams contributed 26 yards to the 72 yard drive, which ended in a field goal — Auburn’s first points of the game.

That drive set the tone for the rest of the game. Until then, Martin had been dominating the rushing game, but Williams quickly overtook him as he became a critical component of Auburn’s drives. Martin finished as the second leading rusher with the third-most carries.

“D.J. Williams really had some good hard runs,” coach Gus Malzahn said. “He protected the football. Real proud of the way that he performed again.”

In the first half of the season, Williams had been limited as he recovered from a hip injury. The bye week helped him recover, and then starting running back Boobee Whitlow was injured, making his return even more important.

“Every week, I just told him, 'Your time is coming,' ” wide receiver Anthony Schwartz said. “And when Boobee went down … I'm like, 'Boobee's down, so you know you're the guy.' He just responded great. He's over there running over everyone. It's just amazing to see.”

Offensive lineman Prince Tega Wanogho said it’s been impressive how he’s embraced the next-man-up mentality, especially since he’s a true freshman. Every opportunity he’s had, he’s played hard.

Williams came out of the bye week with a strong performance against Arkansas. After he rushed for 48 yards on 11 carries against the Razorbacks, Malzahn said Williams would continue to see an increased role as the season goes on. He performed well against LSU, running for 130 yards on 13 carries, but against Ole Miss he was more of a critical component to the offense than ever.

Before Saturday, Williams had 31 carries for 210 yards and two catches for 21 yards over the course of five games. With his performance against Ole Miss, he almost doubled his involvement in the offense for the season.

After the second quarter drive where Williams helped the offense gain some momentum, quarterback Bo Nix connected with running back Harold Joiner for a 78-yard pass to set up Williams’ first touchdown of his career. When Joiner was tackled, he landed just short of the end zone, and they turned to Williams for the final yard.

He crossed the goal line, although he had some help from Wanogho who said he should get credit for it, too.

He said he saw Williams just standing there, trying to get the ball across, and so he suplexed him across the goal line.

“I thought somebody else picked me up and slammed me on my head,” Williams said. But he agreed that Wanogho should get credit for the touchdown, too.

With Williams’ (and Wanogho’s) help, Auburn turned a 0-0 game into a 10-7 lead.

Auburn got a quick start in the second half by riding on Williams’ back. He received the ball seven times in a 13-play drive which resulted in a touchdown. Out of the 54 yards that Auburn covered on the drive, Williams earned 35 of them as he spun, faked and bulldozed his way through Ole Miss defenders.

“He's a real good running back, too,” Wanogho said. “Like, he sees the hole, he hit the hole real hard.”

Williams had four touches and 19 yards on the next drive, which consisted of 13 plays for 53 yards. It ended in a field goal. He contributed 15 yards to the next drive and six yard the drive after that.

By the end of the game, Williams had three times as many carries as any other rusher and more than all the other running backs combined. Williams also had 11 yards on three catches and was one of just two players to score a touchdown.

[sevenlee36 1,703]

Yep and that 29 on defense is going to be good to.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,040]

The worst part is that we’re finally using the running game (other than in short yard packages) closer to how it should’ve been used from the jump. Martin and Shivers getting off tackle runs/tosses, the other RB hybrids (Joiner, FBs, Jay Jay) getting used in motion, whoever our dominant lead back is not being ran 6 straight times consecutively, ROs...it’s just stupid this guy can’t do that in the games that matter 

[Sizzle 3,948]

Man having all our RB’s healthy and holding on to the ball will be fun to watch