Illini Coach Bret Bielema Confirms Isaiah Williams Moving From QB to WR
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Isaiah Williams is no longer a quarterback at Illinois.
Illini head coach Bret Bielema confirmed Tuesday in a Zoom media conference that the highly recruited quarterback prospect from St. Louis is permanently moving to wide receiver for the upcoming 2021 season.
Bielema seemed more than hesitant to speak about Williams’ positional move as he’d seconds before making the announcement previously read off a list of positional changes that included 10 players either staying at their spring move or moving to a new position this fall.
“I’ve had a couple conversations with Isaiah and he’s going to announce it on his terms but Isaiah is going to be at wide receiver,” Bielema said Tuesday.
Not long after Bielema’s media conference, Williams, who was the program’s highest ranked quarterback recruit since Isiah “Juice” Williams in 2006, posted on social media a Bible quote along with the line “I wouldn’t change the journey for nothing! Thank you God! New beginnings..”
Williams started and played a significant amount of snaps of three road games at quarterback last season (at Rutgers, at Northwestern and at Penn State) and got credit for starting the game at Nebraska from behind center because the first wildcat run play in that game was a trick play with Brandon Peters lined up at wide receiver.
Williams finished the 2020 campaign with 393 passing yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions but also contributed 389 rushing yards on 63 carries and one touchdown on the ground.
Williams set the Illinois single-game rushing record by a quarterback with 192 yards in his first career start at Rutgers in a win on Nov. 14. Williams also rushed for 102 yards on 15 carries in the season finale loss at Penn State.
Williams and Marquez Beason, who Bielema announced Tuesday are both moving to wide receiver, are Illinois’ two highest ranked recruits since Terry Hawthorne in 2009 and the highest combo since Arrelious Benn and Martez Wilson in 2007. Beason, who has struggled to find playing time at cornerback during his injury-plagued season, moved to wide receiver early in spring practices and will be sticking at that position heading into fall camp.
When he was asked on April 13 about making a move to a different position in order to have more of an impact on the Illinois offense, Williams said he hadn’t been approached with that idea and his only focus was improving at quarterback.
“I’m a football player so that’s what I love to do - make plays and play football,” Williams said.
Michigan linebacker Jordan Glasgow (29) tackles Illinois quarterback Isaiah Williams (1) during the first half of Michigan's 42-25 win at Memorial Stadium in 2019.
Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports
Williams has experience playing wide receiver before in his college career. Due to several injury issues inside the Illinois depth chart near the end of his true freshman season, Williams practiced for nearly two weeks and played the slot receiver position in Illinois’ 35-20 loss to California in the 2019 Redbox Bowl. Williams had three catches for nine yards in the Illini’s first bowl game in five years.
"The things I think Isaiah brings, regardless of what position he’s playing (is) he’s a leader, great magnetic energy (and) does it with a lot of intensity and attitude,” Bielema said. “I can’t stress the value of what he brings as a person. He has extremely high football IQ, and at wide receiver, the advantage he brings there is he’s literally been playing quarterback for a large portion of his career."
Brandon Peters, the Illini incumbent starter for the last two seasons, clearly won the job of starting quarterback during Bielema’s first spring practice session at Illinois and barring any injury, is all but assured of opening the 2021 campaign as the starter behind center against Nebraska on Aug. 28.
“It was something he and I discussed," Bielema said. "When (Williams) got done with the (spring) game, he wanted to take a couple days to look at it. He was very impressive in those three practices after the spring game, and he decided to make that move.”
Bielema has completed his individual player meetings with each member of the Illinois spring roster and wouldn’t specifically address how the move with Williams occurred but said the St. Louis native was receptive to strategic idea.
“I wouldn't say it was me coming to him or him coming to me, I could just see where his mind was,” Bielema said. “I just laid out what was in front of him and he's the one who said, 'Coach I want to do this.'”
Williams, a former four-star recruit in the 2019 signing class out of Trinity Catholic in St. Louis, turned down scholarship offers from noteworthy Power Five Conference schools such as Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Texas Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin among others but Illinois was one of the few schools to offer him the chance to play quarterback.