How Alabama WR Ryan Williams is Fixing His Drop Issues

Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams was treated like the king of college football throughout last season.

He was named the co-cover athlete for EA Sports College Football 26, was featured on numerous annual award watch lists, All-SEC teams and even has a spot on the Preseason AP All-American First Team this summer.

But Williams had a rough start to this season as he logged just 30 yards in the loss to Florida State before suffering a concussion that forced him to miss the ULM game. He came back and shined during the Wisconsin win, but he dropped what would've been his third touchdown of the day. This has been common theme for him this season as he also dropped the ball a couple of times against FSU and also couldn't squeeze a would-be deep score against Georgia.

Williams has made plenty of great plays this season, but the drops are still on his mind. So, how is he working fix this issue as the second half of the season is coming up?

"Really just continuing to stay on the jugs machine," Williams said on Tuesday. "Continuing to do the extra stuff—catching rugby balls, tennis balls. Just focusing on the ball and not the next move. Trying to be the receiver that I want to be, I have to catch the ball before I could do all of the extra stuff."

Alabama wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard has given Williams some pointers as well.

"Really just catching the fat of the ball," Williams said. "Focusing in on the ball because I can't do anything without it, so just catching it first."

Williams explained that the drops are "1,000 percent" a mental issue and not a physical one.

"It's a child's game, so it's really simple," Williams said. "Literally just look in the ball all the way to the tuck. That's pretty much all I can do. ... I'm just trying to focus on myself and really just eliminate the problem."

As previously stated, despite the drops, the 18-year-old is still having a very solid sophomore campaign. His 84 receiving yards per game ranks third in the SEC and he's 12th in the conference in total receiving yards with one less game than the rest of the players ahead of him.

Williams is one of a couple Alabama receivers making noise in the SEC, as Germie Bernard has the fifth-most receiving yards and has five touchdowns to go along with it. Offseason transfer addition Isaiah Horton ranks 31st in the conference in this category and true freshman Lotzeir Brooks is inside of the top 50.

"We might have more than two receiver ones if I'm being honest," Williams said. "We're really just feeding off each other. One's down, the other one's up, and when we're both hot, you've seen what that could be this past week. It's awesome to have a guy that I can depend on week in and week out."

As Williams continues to eliminate the drops, it's clear that he has the supporting cast to back him up.