In the early 80’s James Williams was a promising young college player who was about to transfer to SMU. When he heard his girlfriend was going to have a baby, he dropped everything to go home and be a father. His son Jimmy is not only fulfilling his own dreams, but his father’s dreams as well. Jimmy began playing football at a young age and his father had him watching game film back in pee wee football. In high school Jimmy played his first three seasons at Hampton, where he won a state championship before transferring to his father’s old school, Bethel, as a senior. He finished his high school career with over 200 tackles and 13 interceptions as a safety and linebacker on defense and over 1,000 total yards as a quarterback on offense. He was all-district his junior and senior seasons in both basketball and football. He was recognized as one of the top 20 safeties coming out of high school and was offered a scholarship by Virginia Tech. He made an instant contribution to the team as a true freshman, playing special teams and serving as the primary backup to current Dallas Cowboy safety Willie Pile. When Pile went to the NFL, Williams was asked to fill his shoes and he did not disappoint, finishing second on the team in tackles with 114 stops on the year. When DeAngelo Hall was selected in the first round by the Atlanta Falcons, Williams was counted on to move to cornerback and fill the void. Once again he rose to the occasion, leading the team with five interceptions and making a name for himself as one of the better defensive backs in college football. Williams had a chance to enter the draft after his junior year (as he had originally planned), but he decided to return to the Hokies defense for one final season.

Jimmy Williams has a great deal of experience and is one of the most versatile players in college football, having started at both free safety and cornerback during his time at Virginia Tech. He has excellent size and is an extremely hard hitter. His experience as a safety really helped him become a very good run defender—he rarely misses a tackle. He has very good range, allowing him to make plays all over the field. His combination of size and leaping ability allow him to match up against any receiver, however there are some questions about his catch up ability due to his lack of elite speed. Having only played the corner position for two seasons, Williams is still a little raw and needs to refine his technique. He needs some work on his backpedal and he will bite on the play action pass at times, however he has some of the best hips in college football and he plays the ball extremely well when its in the air. He was named team captain as a senior and has developed into an excellent leader who is constantly helping the younger players on his team. As I said Williams is still a little raw, but he has all the tools to become a shutdown corner at the professional level. He has an excellent chance to be a high first round pick and the first corner off the board in the 2006 NFL draft.