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Alabama wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams — Ryan Williams at the time — put together a freshman season that made college football fans believe he had the goods to be the next great Crimson Tide pass-catcher.
Coleman-Williams kicked off his college career with a bang, hauling in two catches for 139 yards — both of which went for touchdowns — in Alabama’s 2024 season-opening win over Western Kentucky. At just 17 years old, one of the youngest players in FBS football, he appeared to be heading for superstardom.
The 6-foot, 184-pound wideout put together massive outings against the likes of Vanderbilt, Georgia and Tennessee, concluding his true freshman season with 48 catches for 865 yards and 10 total touchdowns. He earned first-team All-SEC and second-team All-American honors while also being named a freshman All-American.
Last year, though, was another story. Coleman-Williams failed to take the next step many expected him to take, despite playing with an elite-level quarterback in Ty Simpson, who went on to be selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams.
Now, with sophomore Keelon Russell under center and another offseason under his belt, this is supposed to be the year Coleman-Williams takes his game to another level.
But early indications show Coleman-Williams still has a few things to work out before he’s ready to reach that superstar level.
In Alabama’s Week 1 opener, Coleman-Williams had a pair of inexplicable drops, leaving fans to wonder: Is the junior wideout dealing with a case of the “yips?”
The first drop came midway through the opening quarter when Russell found Coleman-Williams wide open down the seam. The junior leaped for the catch, but the ball fell right through his hands.
“That’s the bugaboo from last season,” the broadcast crew said following the unexplainable drop.
Later in the half, as Alabama was driving down the field, Coleman-Williams ran a fade-stop route and Russell found him open in the end zone. Yet again, though, the ball went right through his hands.
Coleman-Williams did make up for it, finishing the opening half with four catches for 100 yards.
For Coleman-Williams, the drops were impossible to ignore, particularly given the expectations surrounding him entering his junior season, but his four catches for 100 yards in the first half also offered a reminder of the playmaking ability that made him such a highly touted prospect when he arrived in Tuscaloosa.
One game isn’t everything, but if the Crimson Tide are going to make a run at a national title this season, they’ll need their star wideout to turn those flashes of brilliance into consistency.
