Published: Wednesday, 10/7/2015 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Backup LB’s mind biggest asset to OSU BY DAVID BRIGGS BLADE SPORTS WRITER COLUMBUS — Inside the smartest room of players on the Ohio State football team, where an eclectic but closely bonded group of linebackers includes an aspiring biologist, politician, and CEO, the smartest guy would never say it. But the engineer will. “Nobody is as smart as Cam Williams,” said Joe Burger, a junior engineering major. Meet the Buckeyes’ beautiful football mind. Williams, the son of former Toledo defensive lineman Brent Williams, is an important reserve at middle linebacker. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound senior filled in for temporarily sidelined starter Raekwon McMillan during top-ranked Ohio State’s win at Indiana last weekend and has appeared in 44 career games on special teams. Perhaps Williams — a (game) film buff who first diagnosed a Cover-2 defense when he was 6 — is just as valuable for his doctorate-level understanding of the game. McMillan said he and his teammates often go straight to the coaching staff’s veritable TA. Coach Urban Meyer trusts Williams so much that he has him run the Buckeyes’ punt team, and may soon be recommending him to run something much bigger. While Williams planned to attend law school and interned at a Columbus firm this summer, he realized he wanted to stay closer to football. Williams intends to become an NFL scout, following the path of his godfather, Marvin Allen, the director of college scouting for the Kansas City Chiefs. (Brent played alongside Allen on the New England Patriots.) “His goal is to be the youngest general manager in the history of football,” Brent Williams said in a phone interview. Said Meyer: “I think there is no doubt that he — general manager is a high, high-level position — but I would not bet against him.” Brent Williams, who starred for the Rockets — including the 1984 Mid-American Conference champions — and played 11 seasons in the NFL, said he knew early that his son’s mind worked a little differently. “We would sit and watch games and he’d understand the concepts,” Brent said. “‘Why are they playing off man on that guy? They can’t stop him that way. Why are they playing Cover 2?’ And he was 6 or 7.” In college, where many players struggle to adjust to the reality that Division I football is a full-time job, Williams instead embraced putting in overtime. Scrutinizing film of upcoming opponents is both a job and a hobby. When he once told older brother, Brennan, how much he enjoyed the Buckeyes’ defensive meetings, the former NFL offensive tackle playfully tried to shake some sense in to him. “Nobody likes that, Cam,” he told him. “No one likes meetings. No one.” Sometimes, on Sunday afternoons or Monday nights, Williams will while away his little free time talking shop on the phone with his father as both watch the same NFL game. “We sound like nerds,” said Brent, who still lives in suburban Boston after playing eight years for the Patriots. “But we also have the NFL package where you can go online and watch games. That’s where we kind of study different linebackers.” “He was talking to his godfather about what his lifestyle was like with scouting and traveling and watching players and breaking down film and writing reports,” Brent said. “He said, ‘I don’t see that as work.’” So far, his best scouting prediction was on a teammate. Linebacker Darron Lee came to Columbus weighing less than 200 pounds after a standout career as a dual-threat quarterback at nearby New Albany. …
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