COLUMBUS, Ohio — Before Ohio State football’s Miyan Williams ran angry, he lived angry.
His mother, Millie Ray, remembers a child with a hair-trigger temper. Cross words from other children in their Cincinnati neighborhood easily provoked her son to start fights.
Williams remains a man of few words, even for his mother. He couldn’t explain where all of that aggression came from and why it erupted so easily. He needed an outlet, and someone suggested to Ray that she put him in football.
Four days after her son tied an OSU record with five rushing touchdowns against Rutgers, Ray told cleveland.com that decision changed her family forever.
“I would even say probably football saved my son’s life,” Ray said.
“In high school he didn’t get involved with certain things. He stayed out of trouble. Even if some of his friends were doing something, he wouldn’t go with them certain places. It kept him focused.”
Williams spoke about that anger intervention back in preseason camp. At the time, he appeared set for another season as a pure backup to lead back TreVeyon Henderson. Yet the backfield arrangement had morphed into a timeshare of sorts, with Williams playing key snaps late in games and making arguably the biggest catch of the season so far to help beat Notre Dame.
Then came his shining moment last Saturday when Henderson was deemed unavailable due to an injury that popped up in pregame warmups. Williams thrived as the feature back for one night, rushing for a career-high 189 yards and breaking off a 70-yard touchdown run alongside four goal-line scores.
Even before that performance, Williams’ fireplug physique and rugged running style had made him a fan favorite. That traced back to the first snaps of his true freshman season, when he showed some wiggle and a taste for contact when thrust into some postseason snaps.
Yet just as he swatted away attempts to brand him as a “meatball” for a culinary nickname he prefers – Chop (as in pork) – Williams asks not to be described as bring propelled by rage on the field.
“I’ve got to make the defense feel me, but it’s not like I’m angry,” Williams said in August. “Because if I’m angry, then my head would just be off everywhere. I just try to have fun with it.”
The backup plan
Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford used to think Williams was angry, too. Not at the world, though. Mostly at him.
Williams was always on the Buckeyes’ radar — though mostly on the edge. Bijan Robinson, Jaylen Knighton and Kendall Milton topped the OSU wish list. As that trio committed to Texas, Miami and Georgia, respectively, OSU had to start circling back.
Williams kept running with a purpose, eventually rushing for over 5,000 yards for Winton Woods High School. He committed to Iowa State, which was beginning to build momentum under coach Matt Campbell.
Ray said she continued to receive text updates from someone in the OSU recruiting office. She eventually texted back a pointed question: “Why haven’t you guys offered the greatest running back in Ohio right now?”
The thumbs on the other end said they would put her in touch with Alford. He had previously read Williams’ reticence as a possible lack of interest. So he eventually went to Winton Woods in person to repair the relationship.
“I think he might have felt that I had slighted him a little bit,” Alford said. “… I remember sitting him down in the weight room, and I said, ‘I have to apologize to you. Whether you come to Ohio State or not, I have to clear my chest here. I have to apologize to you because I had the wrong impression of you. And I was wrong.’
“That was probably a big moment in our relationship. ‘Hey, I was wrong.’ And as I got to know him more, I saw, no, this kid’s got something about him. And he may not talk a lot on the onset, but he’s listening and hearing everything. And he’s about as respectful as young man as you can get.”
Williams’ commitment flip solved OSU’s hole in the 2020 class. Yet everyone knew Alford would keep pushing for a big return in 2021, which he achieved with Henderson – the nation’s top-ranked running back and a five-star prospect – and top-100 prospect Evan Pryor.
That did not bother Ray. Williams would have faced a similar early hurdle at Iowa State, where Breece Hall starred before heading to the NFL. Besides, she had watched that childhood fury convert into a sense of purpose and a commitment to his identity.
“My son’s a competitor,” Ray said. “I never worry about anybody coming in and outcompeting him. That’s going to be very hard to do. His work ethic is crazy.”
The spark
Williams played the past few weeks with another emotion: Grief. His grandmother, Tryphena Williams, died in early September. He attended her funeral on the Thursday prior to OSU’s Big Ten Conference opener against Wisconsin, then rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries.
“To see him play like the way he’s playing right now, going through everything he went through – that’s not something he typically puts out there, but he has been through a lot,” OSU coach Ryan Day said. “It’s not easy for these guys when they go through different things, and I give him credit for that. And I know the guys around him and his friends have pulled for him and helped him through.”
Playing football unleashes a palpable joy in Williams. Alford said the third-year back’s energy and attitude lift up the position group on a daily basis.
That influence is spreading. Williams is one of only eight players at Power 5 programs with 17 runs of 10 or more yards this season. As he gashes away at other defenses, he invigorates his teammates.
“Anytime you’re blocking somebody downfield and you see someone just blow past your face and you see those little legs going, you’re gonna be hype,” OSU left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. said. “… When there’s runs like that, you definitely enjoy it. It definitely sparks things up.”
Ray cannot say for sure what that angry child might have grown up to become had football not intervened. Williams, though, is grateful his mom made that decision.
He noticed a change only a few years after he first put on the pads and started on the long path to Ohio State’s record books.
“People were asking like, ‘Are you mad?’ " Williams said of his little league days. “I’m like, ‘Nah, I’m just running the ball.’ "
What started with a child running away from anger has turned into a man running towards his potential.
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