Marquise Williams

I am one of those Tarheel fans that pour through the recruiting lists every signing day to see what kind of potential they have with North Carolina and to see how they might fit in. Quarterback Marquise Williams was on the "letter of intent list in 2011. I was living in Charlotte at that time and had heard of Marquise Williams at Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte and knew that he had put up some pretty gaudy numbers in high school. Most quarterbacks put up impressive numbers in high school so you really can't go by that.

I did notice that he ran the same type of system that new head coach Larry Fedora wanted to run but Williams was already behind Bryn Renner and Braden Hanson so I was thinking that Williams may see some playing time when he was a Junior or a Senior. Williams red-shirted one year and Hanson ended up transferring to North Dakota so it came down to Renner and Williams for playing time in Renner's Junior and Senior seasons. Williams had some academic and some injury issues and it always seemed like he was missing spring practice and the valuable reps that came with it for some reason or another.

Renner was the more natural passer of the two and Williams was the better runner so they put in special option packages for Williams in his red shirt Freshman year but by the middle of Renner's Senior season, he was losing about half of his reps to Williams and then Renner got hurt against North Carolina State. That game was when the changing of the guard at Quarterback occurred and it became Williams team.

The Tarheels appeared in a bowl game behind the leadership of Williams in 2013 but the 2014 became a completely different story. As a fan, I could tell from the outset that the 'Heels were not playing as a team and that all became public after their bowl game against Rutgers. Williams posted some solid numbers but the Tarheels staggered to a 6-7 record including a mauling by Rutgers that made most of the Tarheel fan base question whether Larry Fedora should still be the head coach.

An offseason meeting, Williams once again misses spring practice, and a three pick day by Williams against South Carolina, and the beginning of this season had the same feeling as last season's did to it.

That was when the Tarheel coaching staff went to work. The Tarheels turned more of the offensive load over to sophomore running back Elijah Hood, the running game features less of Williams, and backup QB Mitch Trubisky has not been rotating in for at least one series in every game. Coach Fedora has not been afraid to show Williams "tough love" as he did against Delaware when he benched him for the entire second half due to poor play.

Fast forward a couple of months, Williams has been named to the Davey O'Brien watch list, UNC has won eight in a row, and is in line for it's first Coastal Division title and it's first appearance in the ACC Championship game. This is due in large part to the maturity of Marquise Williams. He had a record setting game against Duke (494 passing yards and did not even play the fourth quarter) but the three best throws he made the entire game were the three passes that he threw out of bounds because the play was not there.