South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer paid a big compliment to Tennessee return man Dee Williams during his Tuesday afternoon press conference in Columbia.
Beamer spent the first few minutes of his press conference giving a position-by-position breakdown of the Tennessee starting unit before spending a good moment on Tennessee’s special teams group.
“They play really, really hard on special teams,” Beamer said on Tuesday. “We pride ourselves on being disruptive and so do they. Their effort is tremendous on special teams. They block kicks, they return kicks, they block field goals, they are well coached, they know what they’re doing.”
While talking about Tennessee’s group, Beamer acknowledged what Williams has been able to do with the ball in his hands from a return perspective.
“Punt returner averages 21 yards per return,” Beamer said about Williams. “Not a long of 21, he averages 21 yards per return this season. He can make people look silly really, really quick. So we’ve got to do a great job covering punts this week when we punt.”
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Williams, a senior from Forsyth, GA, burst onto the scene as one of the top punt returns in the nation during the 2022 season. Williams finished that year with 281 yards on 15 punt returns for an SEC-best average of 18.7 yards per return.
The senior defensive back has been even more dynamic in 2023.
Williams has logged the third-most punt return yards from the SEC with 127 on six returns. Williams’ average of 21.17 yards per return is also the third-most in the conference.
In addition to fielding punts, though, Williams has also been one of Tennessee’s two kick return specialists this season. The Tennessee senior has the fifth-longest kickoff return in the conference this season at 34 yards.
“He is confident,” Tennessee special teams coach Mike Ekeler said about Williams during training camp. “He understands his role. He is going to have the opportunity to be the best return guy in the country. He has earned that, and he has the instincts, he has the ability, and it’s like an offense. When you have a great running back, your offensive line blocks a little bit harder. They know all they have to do is just give you a crease, and that’s what those guys understand on our return units. All they have to do is just get it started and he will do the rest.”
No. 21 Tennessee will host South Carolina at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday night in Knoxville.
