North Carolina junior running back Javonte Williams met with the media Tuesday afternoon via Zoom to field questions about the team returning to Chapel Hill and working out, how he’s improved his game, his personal goals, working to be a better receiving back, confidence and much more.
Last season, Williams ran for 933 yards, a 5.6 average per carry, and scored five touchdowns. He also caught 17 passes for 176 yards and a TD.
Here are some nuggets from what Williams had to say:
*It’s all about the grind for Williams. Working hard and seeing results, and that’s where his growth in confidence came in.
“I think I exceled just being confident in myself,” he said. “I feel like at the beginning of he year, I was lacking confidence not knowing if I was going to play a lot. As the season went on, I feel like I had a pretty good role on the offense and my confidence grew.”
*A signature moment for Williams last season was in the opener versus South Carolina when he ran over a Gamecocks’ defender and got a first down on one of UNC’s fourth-quarter touchdown drives. UNC RB Coach Robert Gillespie said that’s when he realized Williams had taken the next step, Williams agrees.
“I don’t really get excited too much when I play, I try to just stay even. I don’t know, something just happened and I got excited and that helped us propel and win the game in the end. It gave us another jolt of energy. Yeah, I can agree with that – that was a moment I really felt like I belonged at the ACC level.”
*Among the things Williams said he needs to work on include pass protection, receiving, and “the small things that people don’t really see.” He also said, “The main thing I’ve been working on is agility and catching the ball. Just running routes with (QB) Sam (Howell) in the POPs (player organized practices) and trying to catch as many passes as I can. That’s going to be an even bigger part of the offense this year.”
As for personal goals, Williams hadn’t entertained any, though he does have a goal: “I haven’t really thought about it, I’m just trying to win a national championship, for real.”
*At 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds, Williams is a large and powerful back. As noted above, he’s quite capable of running over defenders and dragging them for additional gains. And as one might expect, he likes the physical part of running and imposing his will on would-be tacklers.
“Yeah, I can agree with (that). It does help you a little bit when you can make the contact before they can. If you keep doing than and then bring someone like Mike (UNC RB Michael Carter) in and shift, I feel like sooner or later (they’re) going to get tired and not know how to adjust.”
*The entire team has been back on campus for more than a week now and have been phasing back since mid-June, so with respect to flare ups of positive tests for COVID-19 on other teams around the nation, how are the players approaching it right now and is Williams concerned there will even be a season this fall?
“It’s not really 100 percent what’s going to happen, but with coronavirus, I’d rather it happen now than later. Hopefully, everything can happen now and later by the time the season gets closer we see less cases.
“But the main thing I’m worried about is the fans. Is the stadium going to be full? I feel like we’ll still play but the fans will be the biggest problem.”
How would not having fans in the stands affect them?
“It wouldn’t be a good thing not having fans. I feel like it would be definitely a negative. Fans help us, especially a home team advantage. But without having fans, I feel like that would be a bad thing.”
