Who was the last running back that anyone can remember that had the breakaway speed of Joe Williams? We have had some great backs at Utah who racked up some major rushing yards, but it was generally in smaller chunks. I love seeing Joe outrun DBs in a footrace once he gets into the secondary. When’s the last time we saw that at Utah? I remember Eddie Johnson in the early 80s, but surely we’ve had another since him.
You’ve seen it with the small backs like DAT and even Troy Mccormick. But Joe has much better size and, I’d argue, vision/feel. Excellent at knowing when to be patient and when to explode. His vision is also fantastic. All that combined with his speed is just big plays over and over
“Fast”Eddie Johnson, Del “Popcorn” Rodgers, and the late Carl Monroe all had breakaway speed and were capable of scoring from anywhere on the field. They all played in the 80’s, in the WAC though. I don’t think any of them were as fast as Joe. We have had a lot of great backs since then, but both Andersons, Ma’Afala, Mack, etc. all were power backs who broke 10-20 yard runs before getting caught.