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Williams aids improved defense
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Sometimes the best way to get your team to forget about what happened last season is to bring in players who don’t remember.
At this time last fall, Travis Williams was a true freshman at the University of Miami trying to open the coaches’ eyes on the scout team. Davion Rogers was sitting out the season after failing to make the grade at Michigan. And Teven Williams was playing high school football in Dayton.
Those three played the bulk of the snaps at linebacker in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against Illinois State.
“Basically, we feel like a new team on defense,” said Travis Williams, who made seven tackles in his third start. “We’ve preached finishing the game a lot and we came out there focused and made big plays.”
The Penguins forced the Redbirds to punt on four of their last five possessions, a big reason why YSU was able to hold on for the 34-27 victory.
“We just try to keep everybody focused; we don’t want to lose our composure,” said Williams. “You’ve gotta know how to carry yourself in tight situations like that.”
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect performance. Lost in the strong ending was the defense’s poor start. Illinois State scored touchdowns on four of its first six possessions (not counting a kneel-down at the end of the first half), gained more than 300 yards and held a slight edge in time of possession.
“The biggest thing I see is, knowing where we’ve got to be,” said Williams, when asked about what they need to improve. “There were some alignments we were shaky on. Plays were if we could have been there, we would have made the play.
“Other than that, everybody showed good hustle to the ball and we finished pretty well.”
The Penguins have held all three opponents under 30 points this season, something they couldn’t do in their final seven games last fall. They’ll get another test on Saturday against Indiana State’s talented quarterback Ronnie Fouch.
“Everybody is talking about Indiana State and how good they are,” said Williams. “We want to get after them boys.”
As the Will (weakside) linebacker, Williams’ main job is to stop the Sycamores’ running game, which is led by Shakir Bell (46 carries, 312 yards, two TDs).
“For me, I’m not worried about the quarterback,” he said. “I know the front [defensive] line is going to do pretty well pressuring him, so my job is to tackle the back.
“We’re gonna get to that little speedy back and wrap him up. Put some pads on him. A body on a body.”
Williams was working with Miami’s first team defense in the spring when he decided to leave the Hurricanes and transfer to YSU. He said one of the biggest adjustments has been the size of the opposing running backs, including the ones at YSU.
“The backs here are actually bigger than the Miami backs I went against,” said Williams (6-3, 215). “That’s been a big part, being that I’m not a real big linebacker.”
With YSU’s offense looking nearly unstoppable at times this season, Williams knows the defense doesn’t have to be perfect for the team to be successful. But he also knows there will be times when the defense needs to carry the load.
“When we go out there and see the offense do good and be successful, that motivates us and then the momentum swings to us,” he said. “We’ve got to go out there and do our part and get the offense back on the field.”
With Fouch, that will be a challenge.