It was just over two years ago.
Levi Williams, Utah State quarterback and aspiring Navy SEAL, hadn’t yet begun attending school in Logan.
He was instead a player on the University of Wyoming football team, directed by soon-to-be retired coach Craig Bohl, and was playing in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Kent State, headed then by new San Diego State coach Sean Lewis.
Williams wasn’t just playing in the game, though. He was dominating it.
Williams had a performance for the ages in Boise that day.
The dual-threat QB was unstoppable in the Cowboys’ runaway win, accounting for five touchdowns and 327 yards of offense. Whether running or passing, Williams could not be stopped, though his legs proved far more deadly than his arm.
Williams rushed for 200 yards and four scores, torching the Golden Flashes’ defense again and again to the tune of 12.5 yard per run. When he did throw, which wasn’t often, he rarely missed, completing 9 of 11 passes for 127 yards and another score.
In the end, Williams tied the record for the most total touchdowns and most rushing touchdowns in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and his 80-yard touchdown run was the longest rush in the bowl’s history.
“He’s very gifted and can run like the wind,” Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said after the game. “And obviously, it’s great to see him make those plays he’s very capable of making.”
It was a memorable bowl performance, but it wasn’t the first for Williams.
In 2019, in the Arizona Bowl against Georgia State, Williams was only slightly less impressive in another bowl victory for Wyoming.
On that occasion, Williams’ arm did most of the work as he threw for 234 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, while also chipping in 53 rushing yards and a score.
In two bowl game starts for Wyoming, the Williams-led Cowboys outscored their competition 90-55.
Fast forward to the present day and Williams is once again set to lead a team into a bowl game, only this time it is the Aggies.
The bowl and the opposition are familiar, though, namely the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and the Georgia State Panthers.
“Bring me back to the Potato Bowl, I guess,” Williams told The Casper Star Tribune. “But I’m super blessed and super humbled. I love this team and we’re going to try to go up there and get a nice win to end the season.”
Utah State wouldn’t be in Boise playing the Panthers if not for Williams.
He, now famously, filled in for injured teammates Cooper Legas and McCae Hillstead in the Aggies’ regular-season finale against New Mexico. USU needed a win to become bowl eligible and Williams delivered it, scoring five touchdowns (two passing and three rushing), including the game-winner in double overtime.
Williams demurred when credited for his performance, though.
“I’m so proud of our team,” he said. “Without them, those numbers (in reference to his career outing) don’t mean anything. I play for them. I’d run through a wall for those guys.”
Can Williams channel his play from both the win over the Lobos and his previous bowl games? Will he lead Utah State to a much hoped for seventh win? Will the Aggies even need him to?
Utah State coach Blake Anderson believes the Aggies are set up well to be less reliant on Williams. Well, maybe.
“Levi did a great job at New Mexico,” Anderson said. “I thought he did a phenomenal job coming in that last week, preparing the right way and going out playing with some poise and leadership. ... I don’t really want to have to just lean on him to run the ball all day (against Georgia State). Now, clearly, he’s a great runner, and he does add a component to the game that other guys (Legas and Hillstead) don’t. But we want to be balanced.
“We had every intention of being balanced in that particular game (against New Mexico), but as the game changed, as the weather changed, it dictated a lot of what we could and could not do. I feel like that our O-line should be healthier (for this game). We should have a better look up front than we had over the last few games of the season.
“And with the exception of missing (wide receiver) Micah Davis, we’re healthy outside and other guys have stepped in and done a really good job, too. So I would like to think that we can be very balanced, still play fast, and make them defend the whole field and not be one-dimensional in any phase of what we’re trying to do offensively.”
If things don’t go as planned, though, Williams is clearly more than capable of coming through when the lights shine brightest, particularly in the postseason. He’s done it before. Multiple times now. What is one more time?
