It hasn’t taken long for Damonic Williams to make his presence felt along TCU’s D-line
TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie joked that he sometimes has to remind himself that nose tackle Damonic Williams should be getting ready for his senior prom this spring, not taking on offensive linemen who have been in college for years.
But Williams is holding his own in his first college camp this spring. The 6-foot-2, 325-pound Williams doesn’t look out of place when taking reps against players such as Steve Avila, TCU’s All-Big 12 center who is going into his fifth season.
“Dom is going to be a very dominant player,” Gillespie said. “Obviously, we’ve got a long road ahead of us, but he’s also a guy that we’re going to have to count on. His number is going to get called, and it’s going to get called real quick and fast.
“I’ve got to remind myself, I’m talking about a guy that should be going to the prom right now and here he is playing at an elite level against some pretty darn good offensive lineman. He’s doing a really good job of holding his own right now. Now, it’s just all the adjustments, tempos going, he just needs to slow the game down a little bit.”
Williams, an early enrollee who joined TCU as a three-star prospect out of Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, California, has been working with the second-team defensive line.
Senior nose tackle Soni Misi has been taking first-team reps. Gillespie likes how Misi is starting to come along as well as other nose tackles including juco transfer Doug Blue-Eli and senior George Ellis III.
The defensive ends in the three-man front have been progressing, too, with seniors Terrell Cooper and Dylan Horton running with the first-team defense.
“The biggest thing that we have from a defensive line standpoint is just numbers,” Gillespie said. “Obviously in a defense like this you have to have numbers up front. My assessment so far with what we’re getting to work with, right now I think they’ve done a phenomenal job. We’re asking these guys to do a lot of things, and obviously it gets a lot harder because you’re going to demand a lot more double-teams now.
“We’re creating some depth. There’s some guys that are kind of surprising us a little bit that we weren’t real sure of. We’ve just got to continue to take those progressive steps forward. But we’re kind of building a little bit more there than even what I was hoping for.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
