South Carolina players talk familiar face coming back to Williams-Brice Stadium
Jamyest Williams will once again grace the grounds at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday, but things will be a little different this time around.
There’s the obvious change, Williams will be in blue and white and not garnet and black. Williams left South Carolina four games into the 2019 season and transferred to Georgia State a few months later.
Williams also won’t be playing on the defensive side of the ball, rather he’ll be in the backfield. After originally being recruited by Will Muschamp, and several other Power 5 programs, as a four star defensive back he settled in at running back once he arrived at Shawn Elliott’s program.
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South Carolina offensive linemen Eric Douglas was in that same 2017 recruiting class, one that landed in the top-25 in college football.
Douglas looks forward to seeing Williams and other friends he has on the Georgia State roster before kickoff on Saturday night.
“That’ll be cool…just to see them guys, going out there and competing,” Douglas said. “That’ll be pretty fun to just to see guys that you know and going out there and having fun.”
After playing in 11 games in 2017, Williams landed on the SEC All-Freshman Team and was set up for another successful sophomore campaign before being sidelined early in the season due to shoulder surgery.
Cam Smith got to play alongside Williams in the secondary briefly during 2019 but there’s still a bond between the two to this day. Smith said that the reunion on Saturday will be a fun one for the two.
“Just knowing Jam and how playful he is and stuff like that just going out there creating a bond that we already have,” Smith said. “I mean we’re still going against each other but at the same time that’s still my dog.”
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Early in his first season with Georgia State in 2020 Williams made the switch to running back and rushed for 265 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. Last year he carried that momentum and exploded onto the scene.
Williams compiled 859 rushing yards, making him the team’s second-leading rusher, fifth-best in the Sun Belt. He not only saw success on his team and in his conference, Williams was also among some of the best in the country.
His mark of 6.7 rushing yards per attempt was sixth-best among all rushers in college football last year.
Former Georgia State teammate, and now Gamecock starter, Jordan Strachan knows that Williams will be an integral part of the opposing rushing attack.
“Everyone knows he’s a great athlete. Coming out of my class I remember…he was like the No. 1 athlete in our class,” Strachan said. “When I played with him 2020 year, he’s a great athlete, we had to be on our toes to get a guy down like that. We’re gonna be ready and Jam, he’s bringing a lot to the table, but so are we.”
South Carolina will look to lock down Williams and the rest of the Georgia State run game in order to secure a win in its season opener.
