Great read on Trent WIlliams

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'The freakiest athlete I've ever dealt with': TU's Kevin Wilson recalls coaching Trent Williams at OU

Kevin Wilson’s memory flashed back this week to an early 2000s spring in Norman and an OU football mini combine organized by Jerry Schmidt that pitted Trent Williams against Gerald McCoy in the 40-yard dash.

As Oklahoma’s gifted offensive tackle lined up to race “the top defensive lineman in the country,” the Sooners’ strength and conditioning coach turned to their offensive coordinator and asked how fast he thought Williams would sprint.

Wilson, OU’s play caller then and Tulsa’s head coach now, told “Schmidty” that 4.9 seconds seemed like a solid estimate for Williams. Schmidt confidently replied: “He’s gonna run whatever the heck he wants to run.

“Watch this.”

Four clocks recorded Williams between 4.3 and 4.7 seconds and he beat McCoy by a yard and a half, Wilson recalled. “Typically, the defensive guy is more athletic than the offensive guy,” he said.

But Trent Williams is not your average O-lineman. The 35-year-old tackle standing 6-foot-5 and 320-pounds continues to bear that out 14 years into an NFL career in which his elite combination of size, strength and speed remains unmatched. His nickname — “Silverback,” like the male gorilla — is appropriate for his physique and physicality.

“I still say Trent’s the best athlete I've ever (coached),” Wilson said. “You're comparing it to Adrian Peterson, or you name it. All those guys we had at OU, all those guys we had at Ohio State are ridiculous athletes. And I'm like, 'You know, Trent's still the freakiest athlete I've ever dealt with.’"

The Longview, Texas, native who starred at OU from 2006-09 and went on to be drafted No. 4 overall by Washington will almost certainly be a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame selection whenever his illustrious run in the league comes to an end. A Super Bowl ring would only add to an already solid case.

Already an 11-time Pro Bowl-er and three-time All-Pro, Williams has a chance to add a championship to his impeccable resume on Sunday as he and the San Francisco 49ers face Kansas City in Super Bowl LVIII.

With all his current hardware and more to potentially gain, Williams has arguably produced the greatest NFL career of any former Sooner, right up there with hall of famer members Lee Roy Selmon, Tommy McDonald and Troy Aikman.

Pretty remarkable, considering Rivals.com rated Williams a three-star prospect and OU didn’t even offer him a scholarship until his senior year at Longview High.

He came to Norman unheralded amid a loaded 2006 recruiting class that included DeMarco Murray, Jermaine Gresham and McCoy. Yet, his professional accomplishments have eclipsed even theirs as he has become a dominant force in the NFL trenches.

“We had all of those great, great players at Oklahoma — I would put his talent, his skill, his athleticism, as high as anyone, especially the talent that you need to do the position,” Wilson said. “He probably was as skilled and talented as anyone I ever came across.”

On a Friday in late October 2005, Wilson flew down to east Texas with Sooners receivers coach Darrell Wyatt to visit a few schools.

They returned from the trip to OU practice slightly tardy and caught a little flack, but the successful venture would be worth the momentary ire in the long run.

“Bob (Stoops) was kind of mad, like, ‘Hey, where you guys been? Come on, let's go.’ I said, ‘Well, coach, we got a little tied up,’” Wilson said. “I thought we found a couple of good players. Of course, one of those guys ended up being Trent.”

After Wilson and Wyatt stopped in at Longview, Williams visited OU in December and committed two days later. In four years, Wilson would be calling him the best offensive lineman he’d ever coached at Oklahoma — even better than first round picks Jammal Brown and Davin Joseph before him.

As a freshman, Williams was thrust into the starting lineup for the second half of the 2006 season due to Branndon Braxton’s broken leg. Williams and Braxton split time in 2007, then Williams took over as the full-time starter in 2008.

The OU O-line, headlined by Williams, Duke Robinson and Phil Loadholt, allowed just 11 sacks on the season — the third fewest in the country behind triple option schools Air Force and Navy. The Sooners’ offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford — another under recruited 2006 signee — put up the most points in the modern era (702) en route to a BCS Championship game appearance against Florida.

The day after OU throttled Missouri 62-21 in the Big 12 Championship game, Wilson went to Longview and visited Williams’ parents. As the family pondered whether Williams should declare for the NFL draft a year early, the coach offered his honest assessment.

“I think he's so talented he's gonna for sure probably be a second round pick right now,” Wilson said. “I don't know if he's played well enough or been consistent enough or dominated enough to be a first round pick. But I think we can get him into the top 15 if he comes back.”

Williams accepted the advice and returned for his senior season, although 2009 did not go entirely according to the Sooners’ plans. Injuries limited Bradford to three games and OU finished the regular season 7-5, landing a Sun Bowl bout against No. 19 Stanford.

With more injuries on the offensive line entering the postseason, Wilson asked Williams to slide inside and play center in the bowl game.

“I go, ‘If you’ll move in here, you’ll show the pro scouts that you're a great teammate, you’ll show that you can play multiple positions and you’ll actually show that you have the intelligence to come in and not only be a tackle, but you can run the whole show at center,” Wilson said. “And so in his very last game, here's a guy that’s going to be one of the greatest players, he goes from tackle to center. … It was out of necessity, but that was also something that I thought could help Trent and I think it did.”

With Williams snapping, the Landry Jones and Ryan Broyles-led Sooners defeated the Cardinal 31-27 in El Paso. Fast forward to April 2010, and Washington drafted Williams in the top five just behind Bradford (No. 1, St. Louis Rams) and McCoy (No. 3, Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

“I remember to this day, I walk in on that Sunday, I said, ‘Hey man, I sure want your kid to come back,’” Wilson said. “I thought I could get him picked in the teens. I didn’t know he was gonna be picked number four.”

Williams, whose wide and broad frame promotes balance and durability, has been the model of consistency in the NFL over the past decade plus.

He has averaged 907 snaps per season and in 6,990 career pass blocking snaps, he has allowed just 11 sacks. That’s according to Pro Football Focus, the analytics site which, earlier this week, announced a career grade of 96.7 for Williams — the highest mark they’ve ever given an offensive tackle. How has he played so well for so long?

“I think it started years ago with Coach Schmidt and Coach Stoops and the way we tried to practice, what we tried to do offensively where we were going to be this wide open, scoring-a-lot-of-points offense, but we’re gonna be physical, we’re gonna be tough,” Wilson said. “And I think as a young guy Trent was trained that way. The pro game’s different but his body was kind of made to match that where he's lasted and he performs and he does his job as good as anybody.”

Williams is also quite passionate on the field, counter to being pretty laid back away from football. He’s always there to defend his teammates and never one to shy away from a fight.

In 2013, he pushed Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman in the face after a wild card defeat. He was ejected for throwing Philadelphia Eagles safety K’Von Wallace to the ground near the end of the 2022 NFC Championship Game.

He was nearly disqualified again in a 2023 matchup against the New York Giants when he hit defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson in his visage. In all three instances, Williams was settling the score after smack talk or cheap shots by the opponent. At OU, he wasn't a regular brawler, but the sense of justice was there even then.

“If you messed with one of his brothers or crossed the line, he’d be the first guy right in someone's face ready to throw down,” Wilson said. “...When you talk about a guy that’s stood up for his teammates, I think you’ve seen some examples through the years where, in game situations and where there’s a little friction going on, you can see him come right to the frontline. ‘Sup kid? You guys wanna throw down? Let’s go now.’”

Given his service time and personal achievements, it’s hard to believe this Super Bowl trip is Williams’ first. His path to the championship game has been anything but straightforward.

Washington went 62-97 in the nine seasons Williams was with the franchise and lost in the wild card round all three times it made the playoffs. In 2019, Williams underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his head that he said was downplayed by Washington’s medical staff when first discovered in 2013. The misdiagnosis caused an irreparable rift between him and the team that led to him sitting out the season and seeking a trade.

Two months removed from losing the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, the 49ers dealt for Williams in April 2020 to anchor their offensive line. The shakeup reunited him with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who was Washington’s offensive coordinator Williams’ first four seasons in the pros, and former Washington offensive line coach Chris Foerster.

Wilson used to study the run concepts Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father, and his offensive line coach Alex Gibbs patented with the Denver Broncos in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He thinks Williams fits perfectly with that “come off the ball, athletic oriented” style that Kyle Shanahan and Foerster now run a version of.

“The style of football that they do is so aggressive — flat back, running off the ball with momentum and just trying to just fly off the ball as hard as you can,” Wilson said. “And Trent’s just such an athlete, it just kind of plays right in his wheelhouse to me. … I think he’s been a perfect commodity for their system and what they want to do.”

Williams signed contracts of $60 million and $66 million with Washington, then a six-year, $138.06 million deal with San Francisco in 2021 that made him the highest paid lineman in the league at the time.

Nearly five years after the trade and following two-straight frustrating NFC Championship game losses, the 49ers are finally back in the Super Bowl. Williams said this week “it would be like one of those fairytales” to finally win a championship after all it has taken to get to this point.

Williams has brough home the bread and received many an honor. All that’s left is the 60-minute dash to the Lombardi Trophy. Good luck to the defensive lineman opposite him on Sunday. Here he comes with sub-4.7 speed off the line of scrimmage.

Watch this.

[RussC]

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