By Graham Watson
Of the Post-Dispatch
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Lorenzo Williams never thought high school wrestling would both help and hamper his collegiate football career.
When Missouri recruited Williams, now a first-team defensive tackle as a redshirt sophomore, to play linebacker, he weighed just 215 pounds. He was a wrestler his junior and senior seasons in high school in Midwest City, Okla., and it was important for him to maintain his low weight. He had a birdlike appetite, often eating Subway sandwiches and drinking Gatorade.
But when it came time to play college football, the eating habits he had learned as a wrestler hurt when it was time to put on weight. During his freshman year, Williams said, the coaching staff told him he would start if he were a little bigger.
He’s been trying to get bigger ever since.
“Someone told me that as you lose weight your stomach shrinks, so I would get full pretty fast, “Williams said. “I would eat a lot, but never really pig out. ”
On Saturday in Kansas City, Williams will get his first start when he opens the season against Arkansas State as the Tigers’ top defensive tackle. At 6 feet 2 inches and 285 pounds, Williams recognizes that he’s not one of the biggest defensive tackles in the Big 12, but he feels he might be one of the strongest. Williams squats more than 600 pounds and benches more than 300.
But Williams said the journey will define how he feels when he is announced as a starter. That journey has seen him gain 70 pounds in three years and move through three positions, including linebacker and defensive end.
“I think as a group a lot of people are trying to compare me and Earl (Stephens) to C.J. (Mosley) and Atiyyah (Ellison), but we’re part of this year’s line, we’re going to write our own history, “Williams said. “We’re not big, but we’re fast and we’re quick and we’re strong. We’re going to bring something lines aren’t used to seeing. ”
Williams was moved from linebacker to defensive end in 2003 after teammate Xzavie Jackson suffered a stress fracture in a foot after the team’s first scrimmage.
Williams played all 11 games as Jackson’s backup last season, finishing with 21 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack. He also upped his weight from 235 to 265 pounds in two seasons.
That was enough for coach Gary Pinkel to move Williams to defensive tackle to replace Mosely, who left at the end of last season to enter the NFL draft.
“We were going to move him whether C.J. left or not, “Pinkel said. “I think it’s a good fit for him. ”
Williams said the move to tackle has been the toughest position change because of the amount of new technique he has had to learn. He said a lot of it has to do with his hands; he has to get them onto the offensive lineman before the offensive lineman does it to him.
He said as he started to learn, he was reminded of his wrestling days. “It’s all about leverage, just like in wrestling, “Williams said. “If the offensive lineman gets his hands on me first, I’m not going anywhere. So it’s important to be quick and make sure that doesn’t happen. ”
Williams spent the summer learning and mastering his new position. He would stay at the athletic facility for nearly seven hours a day, five days a week, working on conditioning, weight lifting, watching film and spending two hours working strictly on his technique.
He said conditioning is going to make up for what he lacks in size, adding no offensive lineman is going to be able to keep up with him for an entire game.
Those words will be tested Saturday, but Williams is looking forward to testing them Oct. 1 in the Tigers’ first Big 12 Conference game against Texas, which has some of the best offensive linemen in the country.
“I’m more excited about it than anything, “Williams said. “I’m going to get to go against some of the best linemen in the country, and they’re all going to look at how short I am. That’s fine, because I’m going to surprise a lot of people.”
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