North Carolina State University Athletics
Mario Williams is Waiting in the Wings
4/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 7, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-When he was dominating Friday night football games at Richlands High School just six months ago, Mario Williams often looked like a man amongst boys. Regarded as one of the nation's best prospects, Williams settled on NC State after being highly recruited and hotly pursued by just about every Division I school in the country. Now, after getting his high school diploma a semester early, the young defensive end is trying acclimate himself to the college game. And as Williams has already found out during spring practices with the Wolfpack, things aren't quite as simple as they were during those Friday nights last fall.
"I figured it would be a challenge and that's what I've gotten," Williams said following last Saturday's closed scrimmage at Carter-Finley Stadium. "I'm working hard and competing for the starting position at defensive end. It's going well and I'm pretty confident."
Standing 6-7 and weighing close to 260 pounds, Williams has been blessed with all the measurables that are almost always associated with great defensive ends. Along with featuring tremendous size and strength, he runs like a gazelle, having been timed at 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash. But natural ability alone won't cut it in the college ranks. Before he can truly reach his enormous potential, Williams will have to master the techniques of his position while also gaining a full and complete grasp of NC State's defensive system.
"You've got to work hard all the time," said Williams, who recorded 87 tackles, 13 sacks and 22 tackles for loss in his senior year at Richlands. "You've got to know when to go this way or that way and keep your pads low. The toughest part is learning the fundamentals and techniques of college football."
Having already coached some of college football's best defensive linemen during his days as an assistant at Florida State, Pack head coach Chuck Amato is a stickler for fundamentals, technique and hard work. It's pretty obvious that the message has already gotten through to Williams, who often uses those buzzwords in interview situations. And don't think for a moment that his head coach hasn't noticed.
"For somebody who should have been going to his senior prom last week, he's doing really well," Amato said. "He's got a long way to go, but he's got all the tools. He's intense, he's smart and he's going to be a really good player. He's got a lot to learn yet, but we're tickled to death with him."
Williams and the rest of NC State's young defensive lineman have not been immune to Amato's complaints about a pass rush that he says has been fairly non-existent this spring. No doubt, the 2003 unit has a long way to go before it match last year's defensive front, which helped to produce 48 sacks, a figure that led the entire ACC.
For now, Williams and the rest of the young defensive lineman are adjusting to a different game, one which requires an attention to detail and a time commitment that they never experienced in the high school ranks.
"It's basically you eat and sleep football," Williams said of the busy spring schedule. "The whole time you're here you're doing something with football, whether it's lifting weights or learning plays. You don't have a weekend...it's just football."
Throw in the grueling academic schedule the players face during the week and it's easy to see why a freshman could easily be overwhelmed. Even if that freshman is someone who looked like a man amongst boys just six months ago.
