Purple rain, purple rain, purple rain
– Prince, musician (RIP)
Every year, the college football community speculates on the top incoming freshmen, yet most predictions about which players will make the biggest impact in their first year turn out to be wrong. Naturally, most gravitate towards the top of the recruiting rankings. Names like Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman are popular picks to be the most productive of the incoming WR class this year. However, when looking at the historical patterns of freshmen WRs, it’s usually not the five star guys at the top of recruiting services who dominate year one production.
That brings me to today’s player, Dylan ‘Purple Rain’ Williams, a former three star recruit from Roswell, Georgia. As is usually the case with players who emerge in their first years on campus, Williams is already drawing praise from his teammates. Here’s QB Dylan Morris on Williams:
This dude, he’s going to be someone special . . . Early enrollee and, you know, you wouldn’t think he was a freshman. That dude — he’s a freak athlete, got massive hands, catches everything near him and he works his tail off.
Here’s a note from a beat report out of JMU’s camp:
One of the most memorable plays from James Madison’s spring game came from a player not many had heard of. That changed by the end of Saturday.
If the spring season was any indication, there could be a Dylan-to-Dylan connection performing well for the Dukes in just a few short months.
In Saturday’s spring game, Williams’ ability was on display throughout. The freshman showed maturity with a one-handed grab in the end zone to extend the offense’s second-quarter lead.
It was one scrimmage, but Williams has shown he can compete early in his career.
That’s some good buzz early on, and naturally as this is a new staff in the FBS, I figured this would be a good player profile to feature. So let’s get into it.
Coaching & System
WR1 PPG AVERAGE: 20.35 (one-year sample, half PPR)
The new regime joining JMU comes over from the FCS school Holy Cross. Bob Chesney takes over as head coach after serving in the same role for six seasons with the Crusaders. His OC was Dean Kennedy, who joined him in 2022 as the quarterbacks coach before being promoted in 2023. Prior to JMU, he coached at Florida as the assistant quarterbacks coach and as an analyst (2018-2021).
In 2023, Jalen Coker led Holy Cross with 59 receptions for 1035 yards and 15 scores in 11 games. That was a great season; however, it was the only one under Chesney at Holy Cross where a WR went over 1000 yards. Coker also led the team in receiving in 2022 and 2021, with over 900 and 600 yards, respectively.
Last season, the Chesney/Kennedy Holy Cross team ran the ball approximately 65% of the time. However, their top two WRs accounted for over 55% of the passing volume, which is pretty remarkable. This is not always the case with their offense and shouldn’t be taken as ‘the rule’ for what to expect. I wrote a profile about Auburn’s Cam Coleman the other week, and the system there under Freeze was quite similar (heavy run tendency but a high target share for the WR1).
I can’t find the seconds per play data for FCS programs, so I don’t know what to expect from a team pace standpoint with Chesney’s Dukes in 2024. But they ran a total of 777 plays over 11 games, or an average of 70 per contest, which is equivalent to Utah in 2023, who were 114th in seconds per play in the FBS with 28.8. That would make sense given how heavy of a run team Holy Cross was.
According to CFBWinningEdge’s database, the Dukes return approximately 60% of snaps on the offensive line from a year ago.
Dylan Williams (6’1″, 193)
Perhaps not coincidentally, Williams received an offer from Holy Cross after graduating from high school. Marshall, Charlotte, and Liberty also recruited Williams.
As is always important, the rapport between the receiver and the QB is a good place to look for future standouts, and it would appear that the Morris/Williams affair is off to a good start:
When they’re in the locker room at Bridgeforth Stadium, Williams is just a few seats away from Morris.
“I always get to see him before we go out to practice,” Williams said. “The older guys, really all of them, if I don’t know something, they’re always there to help me. Dylan, if I make a mistake, he’s always just patting me on the back, telling me to keep going.”
“He’s always talking to me too. He’s got a [good] football IQ for such a young guy,” said Morris.
And here’s the new JMU head coach on Williams:
We talk a lot about at some point in time, that light shines on you. When it does, you either get revealed for all the work you’ve done or you get exposed for the work you didn’t do. That’s a guy that makes those catches routinely every single day. It was really great to see him be out there and put that on display.
It certainly sounds like the 6’1 playmaker has some strong hands on him. Williams himself mentioned his ability to win when the ball is in the air:
That’s what I was really working on . . . Just going out there and being confident and knowing that I can make the catch. When the ball is in the air, it’s mine.
Williams played high level ball in the state of Georgia for his high school career. As a senior, he caught 47 passes for 879 yards and 14 TDs, helping Roswell go 11-2 and make a run in Georgia’s AAAAAA playoffs.
Closing
According to Campus2Canton, Dylan Williams does not have ADP data across any format (CFF, C2C, DEVY). For those on the C2C/DEVY side, I’d suggest marking Williams’ name as a guy to acquire at a cheap price when possible.
On the CFF side, Williams is currently listed in the two-deep of JMU’s depth chart, so he should see significant snaps this year. However, it is more likely that his value will lie in the coming years.
I don’t typically like to draft freshmen in CFF, but this athletic SOB might force my hand to take at least one shot.
To see more content like this, follow this link: VolumePigs.
