After a quiet debut, Amaris Williams is getting his act together
The former 5-star was quite honest about why he didn't play much as a freshman. Now he's got coaches believing in a breakout.
AUBURN — Let’s go back to eight months ago.
Auburn football was in the middle of preseason camp, and one of the hottest names on the roster was 5-star freshman defensive end Amaris Williams.
His head coach said people weren’t talking about him enough. Veterans in his position group couldn’t stop raving about him in interviews. His defensive coordinator said he expected him to play. His position coach said he would play “for sure.”
Then, 12 games came and went for Williams and Auburn. His season stats: six tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks and five quarterback pressures.
Williams only played 119 snaps on defense, with nearly half of them coming in paycheck wins over Alabama A&M and Louisiana-Monroe. During SEC play, he had as many games with zero snaps as he did ones with double-digit snaps — just two.
In mid-December, Williams entered the transfer portal. No one would have been surprised if that was the end of his brief time at Auburn: An elite recruit who didn’t get the role that many expected in Year 1, then decided to go elsewhere.
But, two days later, Williams decided to stay on the Plains. Despite a disappointing freshman campaign, he had heard enough to remain a Tiger.
It was a surprising twist to the tale. Yet nothing involving Williams was nearly as eye-opening as what he told reporters at the end of spring practices.
Auburn had just wrapped up its open A-Day practice at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and Williams was one of more than a dozen players to rotate into the media room.
He sat at the main podium and spent the next several minutes conducting one of the most open, honest and transparent interviews in recent memory.
“The past few weeks have been great, for real,” Williams said. “Just doing everything right off the field. A lot of that translates to on-the-field things. So I feel like, last year, my freshman year, I wasn't doing right off the field like I was supposed to.
“That translated.”
A few minutes later, fellow Class of 2024 defensive lineman Malik Blocton — a freshman who actually carved out a large role early — decided to stop at Williams’ interview on his way out of the media room.
As some players like to do in these situations with their teammates, Blocton stood in the back and waited to fire off a question of his own. Blocton did his best impression of a postgame interviewer, asking Williams where he thought he had improved the most during spring practices.
“My biggest improvement?” Williams said. “I'd probably say my attitude, for real. I ain't gonna lie. I had a bad attitude my freshman year. I didn't like to listen. But you've gotta listen. It comes with it. You know how it goes.”
Because of that, there might not be a player on Auburn’s 2025 roster who has gone through a bigger transformation this offseason than Williams.