Bustin' loose: safety, linebacker or cornerback? Oklahoma's Roy Williams can't be defined by position. That versatility makes him, and players like him, perfectly suited to break the increasingly popular spread offense

Sporting News, The, Nov 19, 2001 by Tom Dienhart

Meet Oklahoma's Roy Williams--6-1 and 215 pounds of freak.

Williams runs a 4.5 40 and benches 400 pounds. That's sprinter speed and linebacker lumber in an explosively athletic package. He seemingly has no position, yet can play many. Williams simply defies labeling.

Oklahoma tries. Its sports information office lists him as a strong safety, but that's just so he'll fit nicely into the compartmentalized world of depth charts. But in reality, Williams is part outside linebacker, part strong safety, part free safety and part cornerback, not to mention a total pain in the neck to offenses. He's a deadly concoction whose versatile skills allow him to play in any down-and-distance situation.

"He's an athletic linebacker," Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops says. "His athleticism makes him unique. To play at that speed and to play with his violence is very difficult for kids. You just don't see that. He's just a very unique player."

Williams and players of his ilk are becoming more and more important in this era of spread offenses. Defenses need to have someone who is versatile enough to play the pass and run with equal aplomb. Otherwise, they may get caught in mismatches, which is what the increasingly popular spread offense is all about. The thought of a linebacker trying to cover a receiver makes a spread tactician smile. But Williams is the antidote.

"I have a job to do;' Williams says, "and I do it."

Williams had a silver bullet moment earlier this year against Texas, the play illustrating the athletic ability that makes him perhaps the nation's best defender. With a little more than two minutes left in the game, the Longhorns were trailing, 7-3, with the ball at their 3-yard line. On first down, quarterback Chris Simms dropped to pass. That's when Williams came crashing in from the right side, leaped over a blocker and slammed into Simms. The ball popped in the air, and linebacker Teddy Lehman caught it and ran 2 yards for a touchdown to seal the game, a 14-3 Oklahoma win.

In that game, Texas used multiple-receiver sets in hopes of moving Williams away from the line. The Longhorns also tried other things to take him out of the play. If he was lined up low on the tight end side, Texas would go away from him. The Longhorns tried bringing a man in motion to block him. They tried releasing the tight end and chipping Williams. Little worked.

"What he and players like him have done is force offenses to work on trying to handle the eighth guy (in the box)," Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis says. "From an offensive standpoint, you think, `Well, I've got a nickel back playing linebacker, I should be able to run the ball.' But Williams isn't normal. Those are the guys making offenses scratch their heads because they can play the run from a linebacker spot and are fast enough to go outside and take on the receivers."

Oklahoma almost always has Williams lined up on the field side, or wide side, where he can use his speed to cover lots of ground. Offenses can run away from him, but they'll be doing so into the boundary side--the short side of the field--and guess who will be waiting? All-American linebacker Rocky Calmus.

"(Williams is) a special player," says Davis, whose offense runs many one- and no-back formations that feature multiple receivers. "It would be my wish that he comes out early. He's a football player. And I mean that in the ultimate compliment. He finds the ball. He's a great tackler. He not only has the physical attributes, but he loves to play the game. I think he's as dominant a defensive back as there is in the country."

There they go again--trying to put a label on Williams. If you must tag him, call him a "spread buster."

Defenders with his skills are at a premium these days, as the spread works its way into more and more offenses. Most think the scheme started to gain popularity in the early 1980s, when Dennis Erickson was head coach at Idaho. The offense really took off when coaches such as Joe Tiller at Purdue and Hal Mumme at Kentucky installed--and succeeded with--spreads in programs in high-profile conferences. Now, most schools have some variation of the spread in their playbooks. Even a renowned power team such as Wisconsin uses it on occasion.

Though it's a fun offense that racks up big numbers, many people thought teams couldn't win big with it. Oklahoma--which installed the spread when Bob Stoops hired Mumme's offensive coordinator, Mike Leach--proved them wrong by winning the national championship last year.

"(The spread) tries to utilize all the skill players and attack the zone of the field," says Leach, now head coach at Texas Tech. "To do that, there's a lot of ways to skin a cat."

To defend skill, a defense must use skill. Enter hybrid defenders such as Williams.

Many schools use Williams-type defenders in five-defensive-back schemes, alignments that have gained popularity as coaches look for ways to mute the spread. It's all about replacing Big Bubbas with athletes who can make plays in the spaces and gaps that the spread creates. Defenses with those types of athletes already on the field can adjust more effectively to offensive variations.