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East Lansing, Mich. - Ronald Williams has been on the field with the best talent in college football, and played for arguably the best coach in history.
Along the way, he almost quit playing football. He came close to being another one of those lost talents from his hometown of Ferriday, La.
Those experiences, and a few in between, make the senior transfer Michigan State cornerback value his current opportunity with the Spartans. And the Spartans value his presence.
At 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Williams is the biggest cornerback on the team. His speed, physicality, ball skills, football IQ and toughness have helped him rise on the depth chart. He’s battling for a starting job, along with Kalon Gervin, Florida transfer Chester Kimbrough and true freshman Charles Brantley.
They’re all going to play. But don’t be surprised if Williams, who wears No. 1, emerges as the best corner on the team.
“Michigan State is everything the coaches said it was going to be,” Williams said. “The best player is going to play. They told me I’d have a chance to compete. That’s what it is.”
Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker likes what he sees in Williams.
“I’m really glad that he’s here,” Tucker said. “He’s a good football player and he’s getting better as we go.
“He knows how to practice. He knows what the expectations are. He has the length, he’s got some experience, he has the ball skills. He has the traits to be able to help us. I think he has learned a lot here as well.”
At this time last year, Williams broke his arm while in training camp at Alabama. He arrived in Tuscaloosa as a four-star junior college transfer with only one year of cornerback playing experience. He did enough during his sophomore season at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College to become the No. 10-ranked junior college prospect in the country by Rivals.com.
Nick Saban doesn’t hand out scholarship offers to just anybody, especially defensive backs. But Saban saw plenty in Williams, and signed him.
But Williams went down with the injury while covering an eventual Heisman Trophy winner.
“I was guarding DeVonta Smith,” he said. “A couple of dudes went down so I was with the ones. It was my first day with the ones. I was just guarding him on a go ball and as soon as I shot my hand in to try to break the pass up the safety came from over the top. He ran into me and snapped my arm in half. It wasn’t something he tried to do. Just football.”
Williams returned in time to play in three late-season games.
“When you have an injury like that, and it sits you out for six games, you’re going to be behind,” he said. “You have to try climb back up the ladder. But there’s dudes there (at Alabama). You look to your left or right and there’s going to be somebody as good as you or somebody better than you.
So it’s not going to be easy. It was kind of challenging, going through that.”
Listed as a senior for the 2021 season, Williams sought a clearer path to playing time and professional opportunities. He entered the transfer portal.
“It was a business decision for me,” he said. “It had nothing to do with coaches. I knew where I wanted to get to.”
Michigan State was among the first schools to take notice.
“Some of the first schools were Arizona, Colorado, Arkansas State but Michigan State was right there not too long afterward,” Williams said. “They said they need guys. They made it known that nothing was going to be given to me.”
That was fine with Williams.
“I made it known to them as well: I don’t want anything given to me,” he said.
Soon after August camp started, Williams began turning heads with his physicality. His background at Alabama has helped him at Michigan State, which uses many aspects of the Saban system.
He was instantly familiar with many of Michigan State’s drills. He inched ahead of other cornerback transfers such as Marqui Lowery and Khary Crump.
“Me being at Alabama made this way easier for me,” Williams said. “The scheme isn’t very different.
“When I first got here and I was just sitting in the meeting and they were going through stuff and I reached over and I was talking to Coach Till (Travares Tillman) and I said something to him and he looked at me like I knew what I was talking about. I didn’t know their playbook, it’s just because of where I was before. It taught me a lot so now when I came here things were a lot easier for me. And when you know stuff like that, you’re able to play fast. You don’t have to think that much.”
He has been free to unleash his physical attributes. He and the other new defensive backs have helped earn Tucker’s trust.
“I feel pretty good on what we have,” Tucker said. “We are working to build depth in the secondary. We have guys that can cover. We have to continue to work on our perimeter run force but I feel good about the guys that we have back there. The newcomers are going to contribute. They’re going to help us quite a bit.”
‘I ALMOST QUIT’
Playing a season at Alabama under Saban can rough. But Williams had been baptized by a few tough years of junior college.
“Junior college is hard,” Williams said. “Big difference from here or Alabama. Big difference.
“The living conditions are not the same. I was 12 hours away from home. The food is not going to be the same. You are not going to have all these good facilities, no indoor facilities, no cold tubs. It’s a grind.
“I feel if you can make it out of junior college, you can do anything.”
He almost didn’t make it out of junior college.
“When I first got there, it was a struggle for me,” he said. “I had never been away from home.”
Williams’ father, Ronald Williams Sr., known around town as “Big Ron,” was concerned.
“He wasn’t there too long when he got a plane ticket and flew back home,” Big Ron said.
“I thought about quitting, I almost quit,” Williams said.
Big Ron said he should go back. Told him to go back. Pleaded with him to go back.
“What it comes down to is he was homesick,” Big Ron said.
But Young Ron remained in Ferriday, a small, struggling Mississippi River town in eastern Louisiana, best known for producing Jerry Lee Lewis seven decades ago.
According to recent census figures, 47 percent of Ferriday’s 3,723 citizens live below the poverty line, including 70 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 25.
As of 2010, Ferriday had the 15th-lowest median household income of all places in the United States with a population over 1,000.
Young Ron was fortunate to grow up in a supportive household with two strong, caring parents. Big Ron transports gasoline and diesel for Delta Fuel. Ronald’s mother works in the health care industry as a phlebotomist.
One delivers energy, the other draws blood. They poured their lives into Young Ron. They love him so much that they didn’t want him back home in Ferriday.
Supportive people around town wanted Young Ron to go back to Hutchinson and see where football and junior college would take him.
As a quarterback at Ferriday High, Williams threw for 1,868 yards with 21 TDs while rushing for 757 yards and nine more TDs. He was a local standout, but to Rivals.com, he was a zero-star recruit in the “athlete” category. Hutchinson Community College was his outlet - until the day he considered leaving it behind.
“I went home (from Hutchinson) and I stayed home for like a week and a half,” Williams said.
Hutchinson coaches called and tried to get him to return. Big Ron got in his ear, too.
“I got so upset I left home and went to stay with my sister for a little while,” Big Ron said.
People around town wanted Young Ron out of the nest, for his own good.
“A lot of people were saying to me, ‘Tell Ron this. Tell Ron that,’” Big Ron said.
Big Ron enlisted the help of one of his best friends, Jamel Green.
“I finally said, ‘You know Ron. You tell him,’” Big Ron said. “Maybe that will get through to him.”
It did.
“When my friend spoke to him, I wasn’t even there,” Big Ron said.
But Young Ron listened.
“My dad’s best friend was just telling me, ‘There’s nothing around here,’” Young Ron said.
Deep down, Young Ron knew they were right.
“There’s nothing in my home town,” he said.
Said Big Ron: “The main message was there isn’t a whole lot to do around here. You should go back to school and make the best out of it.”
Young Ron thought about his parents.
“My mom worked hard every day, my dad worked hard every day,” Young Ron said. “That’s what they dream of. That’s what they work hard for, for me to go do that and make something out of myself.
“The motivation behind sticking it out was seeing a lot of guys in my home town that have potential, that have talent, and let it go to waste. When I went home I saw a lot of dudes that I played high school ball with that have talent, that have it all but they don’t have the drive to just do it because they are stuck in that environment.
“It’s a hard environment. I grew up in it. It’s a hard environment. Just trying to get out of it, that’s what it was.
“So I felt like I don’t want to let my people down. Knowing my mom and dad are okay and everything is going to be okay there, I can go back to school. And I ended up going back and I never looked back since.”
Hutchinson played him at wide receiver for a year. Then they moved him to cornerback, due to depth issues on the team. Young Ron researched the position and realized that many NFL defensive backs had moved from offense. Young Ron bought in.
THE ROAD TO EAST LANSING
As a sophomore at Hutchinson Community College in 2019, his first year as a defensive player, he earned first-team NJCAA All-America honors. He had three interceptions, five pass break-ups and 31 tackles. He was fast, big and physical. Soon, Saban came knocking.
After an injury-shortened season at Alabama, Williams landed at Michigan State.
He was the last of 15 scholarship transfers to join the team for the 2021 season. He bet on himself and took a gamble in heading to Michigan State.
“I really knew nothing about Michigan State. Nothing,” Williams said. “(I talked) to Coach (Scottie) Hazelton, Coach Tillman and I talked to Coach Tucker a few times.
What did he like about their pitch?
“Just the opportunity,” he said, “the opportunity to compete against some good guys, play on another big stage.
“If you’re being recruited by a coach and they tell you you’re going to start from day one, that’s probably something you don’t want to hear because nine times out of 10 it’s not true.
“Their main thing was: compete. Best player is going to play.
“That’s what I wanted to hear. The coaching staff is known for developing guys that play my position. That’s kind of what drew me here.”
This time, his new college destination took him even further from home.
“My biggest thing in transferring was: Am I going to be able to trust the staff? Am I going to like the staff?” he said.
So far, so good.
“The whole staff made it feel like home from the first day,” he said. “I don’t have any complaints.”
His thoughts on Tillman and defensive backs coach Harlon Barnett?
“Good guys,” he said. “Everything they told me from day one when I first talked to them on the phone, it was true.”
In addition to be a defensive coordinator and interim head coach in the NFL, Tucker worked as an assistant coach under Saban at LSU and Alabama.
Williams sees the similarities between Tucker’s new program and Saban’s established, championship one.
“I don’t see nothing different to be honest because Coach Tucker, he’s going to coach you hard,” Williams said. “He wants you to go hard every day, he wants you to compete every day. He’s not going to let you lag. He’s very big on discipline. He’s very big on academics. Some of those were the same things. I don’t see a difference in it.”
It takes what it takes. That’s one of Saban’s favorite phrases; it’s also one of Tucker’s. Williams has experienced that mindset at Alabama, and it’s getting established at Michigan State.
“Alabama - that was the standard,” he said. “Everyone held everyone accountable. Being late, finishing through the line, special teams - everyone on that team held each other accountable. They were leaders. They held their own and they were on you to hold your own. That’s what led that team to a National Championship.
“Coming in every day, working hard, and things like special teams. Going hard on special teams, because that matters in games. That’s what got me to look at it like that’s the standard. You’re not going to want to practice hard every day. Your body is going to be beat up. You’re going to hurt. But at the end of the day, the results are going to show. In the game, it’s going to come easier. The game is going to slow down for you.”
Tucker preaches the same things.
“I know he (Tucker) has a lot of experience, especially at my position,” Williams said. “He has coached on the highest level. I know he knows what he talks about.
“He’s going to keep developing me. That’s the type of place you want to go to, a coach that’s going to develop you and has high coaching experience.”
Competition is fierce in the defensive backs room at Michigan State, but Williams says there’s a sense of togetherness as well.
“It’s been cool,” he said. “Everybody wants to see everybody win. Everybody is helping each other. Everybody is bonding in there. There’s no distance between everybody.
“All of us transfers, when we came in, we were welcomed. There was nothing between everybody that’s been here and all the transfers. Everybody bonded as soon as we came. It’s been love in there.”
And so far, he loves his decision to come to Michigan State.