Debo Williams didn’t need any convincing.
Once he entered the portal and South Carolina began showing interest a few days later, it took less than a week to get him down to Columbia, moved onto campus and in team workouts.
The Delaware transfer was sold the minute the Gamecocks began recruiting him, and he took the leap of faith to come and play in the SEC.
“Say I dominate in the SEC versus the FCS. What’s the scale to that? First round to maybe undrafted. I had to do something for me. I wasn’t doing something for family or friends. I was in Delaware. They could easily come see me at my games,” Williams said.
“I had to make a decision for me and my future. He didn’t have to do any selling points. I was here. I was all in.”
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The Gamecocks picked up the commitment in early January, and his reputation of a hard-hitter has followed him down Interstate 95 to Columbia.
“Sheesh. That guy plays hard every single snap. He had some physical, physical hits today. That’s the way he approaches every day man. He’s all business, all the time,” Shane Beamer said.
Williams came out of high school in Delaware as a two-star recruit with no Power 5 offers and is coming to South Carolina feeling “disrespected” by other schools with the mindset that “it’s time to pay for that.”
The edge he plays with doesn’t go unnoticed by the Gamecock coaching staff and he wants to instill a level of fear in opponents.
“As a running back, I don’t want you to run the ball. Tell your coach to pass it cause you don’t want to run anymore cause you don’t want Debo hitting you,” he said. “It’s just the fear factor. Somebody like Mike Tyson, when he’s fighting you already won because you fear him.”
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His edge even whittles down to his nickname, Debo, derived from the famous Friday character and given to him early in his football career.
“On the football field I’m a bully and I’m going to let you know about it. If you ever watch my film or my highlights, I’m trying to kill you when I run through you,” Williams said. “I’m not trying to tackle you. I’m trying to hurt you. I don’t want you to come back no the field.”
His role in South Carolina’s defense is still to be decided at the moment, though. He spent the majority of the spring working with the second-team defense at linebacker and could factor into the rotation there.
Being such a hard hitter, a special teams role seems to fit him nicely as well.
“I love his mentality. He has to continue to get better, continue to understand what we’re coaching him to do and be able to execute,” Beamer said. It is important to him and he’s grateful to be here. He really flashed. He may not always know what to do but he is always around the ball. That’s a great quality to have.”
