CoShik Williams didn’t know when it was going to happen. He didn’t know in 2009 when he showed up on campus as a walk-on.
He certainly didn’t know it was going to happen when he woke up Saturday morning before Kentucky’s game against Jacksonville State.
But it finally happened.
Williams ended up as Kentucky’s featured tailback Saturday and finally had the breakthrough game he’s been waiting for. He finished with 148 yards in the Cats’ 38-14 win.
Williams practiced as hard and as well as any other UK player in the Cats’ two-week stretch of bye-week practicing, head coach Joker Phillips said. And Williams credited his hard work on the practice field for his performance Saturday, but that’s not the reason he was on the field to begin.
Even with freshman Josh Clemons out for the rest of the year with a torn meniscus, Saturday was supposed to be Raymond Sanders’ game. The sophomore only got two carries early in the first quarter, though, before leaving the game with an ankle injury. He didn’t play again.
That left the running to Williams.
“It felt good to finally run against someone else for a change,” Williams said, referring to two weeks of practice. “The yardage kind of shot up on me. I didn’t know I had that many. It was fun out there for me.”
He really picked up steam in the second quarter. The first three plays from scrimmage of the second quarter were all designed for Williams, and he abused the Gamecocks on a nine-yard gain, a 15-yard pickup and another nine-yarder. Those three runs set up a 29-yard touchdown pass from Morgan Newton to La’Rod King.
On the next drive, Williams split a hole on the left side and took the run 37 yards—the longest gain from scrimmage for either team Saturday—taking UK from its own 18-yard line to the other side of the 50. That drive ended in a Newton touchdown run.
If Martavius Neloms’ sack, fumble and touchdown all-in-one in the first quarter was the spark Kentucky needed, Williams’ consistency kept it going until the rest of the team caught up.
“It was really important, and I mentioned earlier in the week that CoShik (Williams) had had a really good week—really good two weeks—and it showed up,” Phillips said. “It was good to see him get some results out of his hard work because he had done a really good job all week. So it's very important. And it was even more important once Raymond (Sanders) went down. Jon Jon (Jonathan George) got a chance to get some carries. And it was unfortunate that he put the ball on the ground, but he got another couple of opportunities and got the ball in the end zone for us. It was very important for Shik (CoShik Williams) to have a good showing.”
