What Alabama WR Ryan Williams learned from training with DeVonta Smith

Before starting summer workouts in Tuscaloosa, Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams trained with former Crimson Tide national champion and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith.

Smith was getting some offseason work in in Tampa, Florida, and Williams, as well as Alabama wideout Isaiah Horton, spent a week working out at 5 a.m. and running in the Florida sun.

Joining ESPN’s College GameDay podcast, Williams detailed his experience with Smith.

“Just learning from a guy that’s really defied a lot of odds,” Williams told Rece Davis. “He’s an amazing football player, but he’s an even better person, I would say. Just because he really embraces you. We were working out and he, I wouldn’t say he doesn’t like working out with other people, but he likes working out with certain people. 

“So just for him to accept me and us being able to bounce ideas off each other and really get after it those couple days, it was super fun. I learned a lot. I’ve been applying it since I’ve been from there. I’m just super excited for this season.”

Williams is entering his sophomore season at Alabama after a phenomenal freshman campaign that saw him catch 48 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns in 2024. Smith’s just wrapped up Year 4 in the NFL, where he helped the Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LIX.

Smith does everything with a purpose, Tampa-based trainer Yo Murphy told BOL last month, and Williams echoed that when he was asked what surprised him about Smith’s training.

“I would just say everything that he does is very deliberate,” Williams said. “You can see his body movements. If you just look at him, he’s not the biggest guy. So just the way he’s able to control his body is truly remarkable. I learned a lot about the little details on how I can do that for myself and just taking my game to the next level. 

“We’re already pretty good athletes and pretty good football players, but diving into that small percentage, like say we’re in the highest percentile, but you have that small percentage that you can work on, and when you really dive into that, that’s whenever the biggest gains are made. So just seeing him do that, it’s crazy.”

What did Williams learn from Smith from a technique standpoint that could help him this fall?

“Everything looks the same,” Williams said. “Every time he comes off the ball, it all looks the same. That’s what you want as a receiver anyway. You want to make everything look like a go ball, of course. So making everything look vertical, and I would say the way he sinks his hips. I learned a lot. We really talked about that. 

“You don’t want to come off the ball already low. That’s not how you play football. And you don’t want to come high just because when you sink your hips, the defender, a good defender, just being able to find that sweet spot and everything looks like just being able to misconstrue the defensive back is pretty much half of our job. The rest, we’re going to make a play. 

“Just being able to apply what you do every single day and always making it look the same. The consistency of everything he does, it looks the exact same every time.”

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