FAYETTEVILLE — David Williams is opting to let his play do the talking for his return to South Carolina.
The former Gamecock running back, a senior graduate transfer, was given a choice by coach Bret Bielema about whether or not he would do interviews leading up to Arkansas’ matchup at Williams-Brice Stadium, where he played for 3 years.
“You can do every interview that comes across your desk, we can limit it to just one day this week or we can do none,” Bielema said, recounting a conversation with Williams. “We kind of opted together that we’re going to not have him available to the media ’till Saturday.”
Williams has been a big part of the offense in his first and only season in Fayetteville. Through four games, he is on pace to run for 609 yards and 12 touchdowns on 4.7 yards per carry in the regular season after totaling 794 yards and 5 scores on 4.2 yards per attempt in 3 seasons at South Carolina.
His presence could help the Razorbacks in game prep this week.
“I think there’s insight that a player can always provide physically about kids, but as far as a system or what they’re trying to accomplish, no,” defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said. “But you can get an idea on guys, what their strengths are and weaknesses are, potentially.”
Williams been part of a 3-headed running back attack along with sophomore Devwah Whaley and freshman Chase Hayden. Each has different strengths. Williams, for example, leans on his experience and physicality to be good in pass protection while getting north and south to maximize his runs.
When Whaley missed some practice time in the week leading up to the Texas A&M, Williams stepped up, started and ran for 68 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.
He set up the Razorbacks’ first score with a 21-yard gain and also operated as the feature back during the latter stages of the game, including a go-ahead, 4-yard touchdown run with less than 4 minutes remaining.
Williams (43 carries), Whaley (48) and Hayden (41) have received roughly the same workloads, with running backs coach Reggie Mitchell deploying them in different situations that cater to their skills.
“Those three together I think are pretty formidable,” Bielema said.
Williams didn’t arrive in Fayetteville until the middle of the summer, but quickly got up to speed despite having to pick up a new playbook in a different scheme than what he’d played in at South Carolina.
“No, it’s not surprising. I think when a guy’s played football, been in college and obviously he graduated, so he’s bright,” offensive coordinator Dan Enos said. “When we investigated bringing him here, we heard great things about his character.”
He also quickly fit in with his teammates. He became close with his competition, Whaley, while showing his maturity and humility in a new setting. It’s inevitably part of the reason he’s been able to help as much as he has.
“I mentioned something to Austin Allen the other day at practice,” Enos said. “I said, ‘Boy, that was a nice free agent acquisition there wasn’t it? … (Allen) said, ‘Yeah, coach, he’s a great guy too. He fits real well. That’s probably the biggest credit to David.”