Published: July 07, 2008 10:47 pm      

Former Hornet getting a taste of Rice football

Though fall practice is still a few weeks away, former Hornet football standout and Rice freshman defensive end Jared Williams has already gotten a taste of what it’s like playing for a Division I program.

“It’s been really busy,” Williams said. “I thought I would have more free time, but so far, I haven’t really had a lot.”

Williams arrived on the Rice campus two weeks ago and almost immediately began with classes and conditioning workouts.

“The first week they were babying us a little, teaching us their different types of stretches and work on our footwork. But the second week, they really worked us hard,” Williams said. “We would go into the weight room with the vets for a period of two and a half hours or so and they also took us out to the field and made us run a lot.

“We run five 300-yard shuttles every day where we sprint 25 yards and have to run back and touch the goal line. We also get little punishments if we don’t do certain things right,” he added. “Those can range from air raids, Lt. Dans, pushing the sleds. Basically, it’s just a lot of running and skill development.”

While Williams admits the work so far as been hard, he says he didn’t really have to make any big adjustments to his new routine.

“I’ve kept in pretty good shape, so all the running didn’t affect me too much,” Williams said. “At the same time, I haven’t worked out in pads, so we’ll see how that goes when we do put them on. Now working out in the weight room, that was different. I never had to work with weights as long.”

The classwork has also helped to keep Williams busy.

“The classes are a lot different than I thought they would be,” Williams said. “I guess part of it is because the classes I’m taking are during the summer so they’re more condensed, but there’s a lot of reading. I would say I get about 26 to 30 pages to read a night. It’s not that hard necessarily, but just that there is a lot of it.”

Williams also added how the veterans have helped to make it a smooth transition into his new role as a college football player.

“The vets like me,” Williams said. “They’ve helped me out quite a bit. They try to help you out as far as correcting little things. Guys like Scott Solomon have been really good and made it easier.”

Solomon started as defensive end for the Owls as a freshman in 2007. He led the team in tackles for loss (11) and sacks (4.5). He also led all freshmen in tackles with 49.

The fact that Solomon made such an impact in his freshman year has given Williams optimism about playing time this upcoming season.

“I think I’ll be getting a decent amount of action,” Williams said. “I’ll probably get rotated into the game every so often. I’m just really looking forward to our first game on Aug. 29 against SMU. That will be a big game because not only is it an in-state game, but it’s also a conference game. Hopefully, we can win and start off this season on the right foot.”