Alabama fall camp kicked off with Kalen DeBoer talking 'upward trajectory' of five star freshman wide receiver

The 2024 Alabama Crimson Tide are going to look quite a bit different than last year's team. Besides the obvious fact that Nick Saban is now gone, their secondary and wide receiver groups have a fresh set of faces at several spots. However, the one new player who has generated perhaps more buzz than any other is five star true freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams.

Williams was not there to participate in spring practice, but finally made his debut as Alabama's fall camp kicked off on Wednesday this week. After reclassifying from the 2025 recruiting class to instead become a true freshman this year the hype has been building with Williams. Could he be the next big thing at wide receiver for the Crimson Tide?

Kalen DeBoer on Ryan Williams' trajectory

There weren't many huge "highlight" plays from Williams in his first practice with the Crimson Tide, but he did make a one-handed catch against air (as you can see in the featured image of this article). Despite a slow introductory practice day to Ryan Williams for the most part, he was still a significant focal point in Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer's presser today.

When asked about the key for Williams right now, DeBoer seemed less concerned about his "wow" factor and much more interested in seeing consistency from the still 17-year-old stud wide receiver:

"[To be] consistently on this trajectory (points upward with his arm) on up. I don't need him day one--I mean you want every play to be amazing, explosive. But you just want him lining up right, doing the fundamental things, making the easy plays, and then because of his ability the big ones will come...When your route's on air, run a good route, catch the ball, accelerate out with good ball security. You find those consistent fundamentals, you stack days, and those plays that we know he'll be capable of will happen."

It sounds rather rudimentary to be simply asking Ryan Williams, a five star recruit, to simply focus on running good routes, catching the ball, and accelerating with good ball security, but right now the foundational things have to be the focus. As Crimson Tide camp progresses we'll likely get to see a whole lot more from Williams, but fans and media both need to remember that even five star talents have to execute the small things before they can make the "wow" plays in games.

Williams is going to be the youngest player on the team this season thanks to his reclassification (he should be entering his senior year of high school), so it makes sense not to rush him into anything too quickly. However, when he does get up to speed it will likely be hard to keep him off the field. Williams can do it all, from receiving, to rushing, to throwing touchdowns, to returning kicks for scores, Alabama is definitely going to find a role for him at some point this fall.

It's unclear which wide receivers he's in direct competition with this season so far, but given the relatively low volume of experience and production of the few wide receivers technically "ahead" of him on the depth chart right now, Williams might break through quickly.

Alabama's presumed starters at wide receiver are Germie Bernard, Kobe Prentice, and Kendrick Law. Ryan Williams and fellow true freshman Caleb Odom both have extremely high upside with five star traits, so we'll be keeping a close eye on them as they start making impressive plays in fall camp soon.

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And if you want to see what kind of upside Ryan Williams could bring to Alabama just check out some of his highlights from last season in the video below!