Riders linebacker Rey Williams practices at the Credit Union EventPlex on Wednesday. Coming off a knee injury, Williams is wondering why he’s riding the bench rather than bashing running backs.
Photograph by: Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders are slowly integrating linebacker Rey Williams back into their defence.
The process is too slow as far as Williams is concerned.
“This whole integrated thing, to be honest with you, I don’t understand it,” Williams said Wednesday after the CFL team practised inside the Credit Union Eventplex.
“I’ve been up here for three seasons and I’ve never seen it done to any other player. I’ve never seen this. I don’t know why they chose me, I don’t know what I did to somebody. Maybe I upset them, I don’t know. I don’t know what I did.
“Me and (offensive tackle Gene Makowsky) had the same situation (with a knee injury) and he went right in when he was ready, so I don’t understand why they singled me out to not go back and take my spot. Mike (McCullough, who replaced Williams) is playing well, nothing against Mike. For whatever reason, it is what it is and I just have to deal with it.”
Williams was leading the Roughriders with 36 tackles — good for third in the league — when he suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee in a game Aug. 7 against the B.C. Lions.
The 6-foot-0, 228-pounder returned to practice about four weeks after the injury, eager to show the coaches that he was ready and that he should be removed early from the team’s nine-game injured list.
Williams got his wish and was activated for Saskatchewan’s contest Sept. 26 against the Edmonton Eskimos after sitting out five games. But he has been a bit player defensively in the two games since, recording three tackles.
He made quite an impact in Friday’s 19-16 loss to the Lions by stopping B.C. running back Martell Mallett dead on a third-down plunge from the one-yard line, but that did little to change Williams’ mindset.
“I’m frustrated with the whole situation,” he said. “I’m not going to hold my tongue about it. You hope you make a play like that and they see that, y’know, ‘Why isn’t this guy in the game?’
“I’m still trying to figure out how I went from, I thought when I got injured, being if not the top linebacker in the CFL or at least in the top two … But I have to come back and I’ve got to wait for somebody to get injured or get in on goal-line and stuff like that.
“It’s frustrating as a player. Every time I get in there, I have to try to make a play or try to make my point that I should be out there.”
Head coach Ken Miller said the Roughriders are happy to have Williams back in the lineup “even though it isn’t at full-time Mac.” Miller pointed to McCullough’s play as a reason for that.
“Mike has done a tremendous job,” Miller said, “and he’s making it tough to take him out of the lineup and just sit him down in favour of putting anyone else in there.”
Miller said Williams may get more playing time at inside linebacker Saturday against the Toronto Argonauts, which should give him more chances for hits like the one he put on Mallett.
That would be fine by Williams.
That would be fine by Williams.
“It’s like winning the lottery,” he said with a smile when asked how a defensive player reacts to that kind of hit. “It’s exciting. It’s a big play, one on one, you and the running back — you’ve got to win those battles.
“It’s an adrenalin rush. It’s something I’ll always remember.”
Williams used leverage and angles to stop Mallett dead in his tracks, getting lower than the rookie running back and blunting his momentum even though Mallett had a full head of steam. Williams also relied on years of toil and sweat.
Williams used leverage and angles to stop Mallett dead in his tracks, getting lower than the rookie running back and blunting his momentum even though Mallett had a full head of steam. Williams also relied on years of toil and sweat.
“That’s why I lift weights,” he said. “I’m up every morning at 6, 6:15 and I go work out with (defensive tackle) Keith Shologan. That’s why I work out, that’s why I train — to be able to stop somebody running at me at full speed. Dig down, get low and stop him.”
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