OSU's Williams just the latest freshman to find playing time with Buckeyes.
by Doug Lesmerises Wednesday October 08, 2008, 10:17 PM
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Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerOSU freshman defensive end Nathan Williams has four tackles (including three solo stops) in three games of action.
COLUMBUS -- Moriah Williams made her contribution to Ohio State's season, as she morphed into something of a personal trainer this summer for her older brother, Buckeyes reserve defensive end Nathan Williams. "It was kind of hard for me because I couldn't do all that stuff, and he'd get real frustrated with me," said Moriah, a 17-year-old senior at Miami Trace High School in Washington Court House, Ohio. "But he was OK with it. And I helped him a lot. He was in the best shape of his life when he went up there."
Up there was to Columbus, where Williams arrived for the start of preseason practice in early August as a candidate for the OSU freshman least likely to play. His need to finish up a high school English class prevented him from arriving for summer training with the rest of the freshmen and kept him lifting at the YMCA and running three miles a day at a local reservoir with his younger sister instead.
"Everyone was dogging me when I didn't go early," Nathan Williams said, "but I didn't listen to anyone else and I just tried to do my thing. They were just working out and running, and I did what they were doing."
He did it so well that Williams worked his way onto the field for 22 snaps against Minnesota two games ago, looking like part of the solution at defensive end against spread offenses. The eighth OSU freshman to play this year, he's one of the best examples of two Jim Tressel tenets that showed up after the loss to USC -- to play fast and to play anyone who can help, regardless of experience.
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