Alabama was living a dream after beating their biggest rivals, the Georgia Bulldogs. A win that changed the story for Alabama. Kalen DeBoer finally got his much-awaited success in his debut year as Alabama’s head coach, following Saban. But just a week later, they did the unimaginable. A 35-40 loss to Vanderbilt! Damn, that was the scariest dream no Alabama fan would ever want to have again. But the consequences—they have to deal with it.

Look at their AP poll rankings fall after that game. From enjoying the top position in college football to falling down to 7, even that team they beat last week, the Georgia Bulldogs rank higher than them. No wonder many analysts say that “College football is unpredictable.” That is the case with Alabama, but what about their young prodigy, Ryan Williams? Is the college football world still hyping him up after a disastrous loss?

In three alphabets and one worse, yes! A recruiter named Billy Tucker shared ESPN’s 15 top-ranked freshmen in college football. Have a seat, Bama fans. Your guy is not going anywhere. Ryan Williams is relevant to that list, even though Alabama faced a blunder. “New for ESPN, we ranked the top 15 freshmen in college football ahead of week 7. A number of true freshman have had major impacts at programs across the country, check out our list here.‘ The analyst then shared the list of these young guys who got featured among the top 15 ranks.

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Enough is being said about Williams and his potential to be the next best thing in college football. The same goes for Jeremiah Smith. Ohio’s freshman is equally talented as Williams. No wonder why they are getting ranked as no. 1 and no. 2 in their positions for the 2024 class. The ESPN list is also similar to it.

First rank is given to, of course, the 17-year-old Alabama guy, Ryan Williams. Followed by Ohio State’s wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who is also making waves in college football just like Williams. After these predictable rankings, we got Dylan Raiola, the Nebraska quarterback, for the third position. Dyan Stewart of South Carolina receives the fourth position, and Texas Longhorns’s Colin Simmons secures the fifth place. These were the top five ranked players from ESPN’s ranks. Now, let’s learn why Ryan Williams is receiving so much popularity despite being so young.

Ryan Williams is an emerging star of college football

The young guy, Ryan Williams, caught the attention of everyone after finishing 544 yards in total this season on top of his extraordinary record of 28.6 yards per catch. And no one is going to forget his 75-yard catch-and-run from Jalen Milroe in the game against Georgia, which contributed to Alabama’s 41-34 victory.

And even when considering Bama’s loss against the Commodores, we shall not forget that the two players who deserve the least criticism were probably Jalen Milroe and Ryan Williams. They made plays throughout the game, and Milroe led the offense to 35 points despite having only 18 minutes of possession. At the end of the 4th quarter, they combined to make it a one-score game, but the defense just couldn’t stop Diego Pavia and his offense. Every Bama fan knew in their heart that they would have won the game had the duo gotten another chance as they did against the Bulldogs. What happened? One play, poof! Lead restored. These are generational talents, and Williams is doing what seniors struggled to do in college football.

Along with Williams, Jeremiah Smith also received equal love from his fans. Recently, an analyst named Memory Hunt from the Tucker podcast talked about these guys. After looking at the ESPN rankings, it’s clear that no one is dethroning Williams but, as per Hunt, Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith, have the potential to dethrone Deion Sanders’ star boy, Travis Hunter.

While praising Williams and Smith, Hunt said, “Man, if we weren’t getting great play from Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith, Travis Hunter could easily be in play for both Jim Thorpe and Valenikoff.” Those are some big words coming from analysts. Well, it’s not new because every other day, we hear things like that. But here, Hunt indirectly hinted at Rayn Williams and Smith’s chance to give Hunter a hard time and take away these prestigious awards.