Get to know Marquise Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels

The North Carolina Tar Heels are dancing on the line of being one of the Top 25 teams in the country according to the Associated Press and Coaches College Football polls. The Tar Heels currently sit just outside the AP Top-25 poll and 25th in the Coaches Poll. A school more well known for its basketball, the Tar Heels aren’t necessarily a team on the average college football fan’s radar. But the Tar Heels are 2-0 and could emerge as a dark horse College Football Playoff  candidate with wins in their next couple games against ECU, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

In order to get you more familiar with the Tar Heels and to heighten your knowledge of one of the better teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference, let’s learn some about UNC’s starting quarterback Marquise Williams. The format of the post is modeled after Grantland’s Who’s That Guy series.

Who is he?

Marquise Williams, the Tar Heel’s junior starting quarterback. He is 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds from Charlotte, North Carolina. He was ranked the ninth best dual-threat QB coming out of high school by Rivals.com.

Highlights?

This highlight reel is of the BYOM family. That is, bring your own music because otherwise its just boring stadium sounds.

How good is he?

Williams is a dual-threat quarterback who is at his best when he gets the ball out quickly to his playmakers and when he uses his legs as a threat in the confines of the North Carolina offense. First, looking at his running ability, Williams is talented and physical runner, rushing for 536 yards and six touchdowns last season. He is also off to a fast start on the ground this year, having averaged 6.4 yards per rush and having gained 115 yards in two games this season. Williams opens up the UNC offense by allowing for the threat of the read-option. That helps keep linebackers honest and opens up the vertical and play action passing games. Also, Williams has shown a good sense of when to scramble for yards when his receivers aren’t open downfield.

Williams is still improving as a passer. His numbers from this season are not all that bad. Williams is completing 67.2% of his passes while throwing for 424 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions against Liberty and San Diego State. His completion percentage is around nine points higher than it was last season, albeit the improvement has come in two games of play this season.

That increased completion percentage is more due to the offense scheme than better play from Williams. North Carolina’s offense this season has emphasized getting the ball to the playmakers on screen passes. The case for Williams getting better — UNC’s most explosive play against San Diego State last weekend came on a 91 TD pass to Mack Hollins. Williams set his feet well and delivered a perfect throw to the striding Hollins. It was one of the better throws Williams has made as a Tar Heel.

Williams can succeed in an offense that calls upon him to make the easy throw and feed the ball to his playmakers. Where he struggles is when he is asked to throw the ball deep or attack the defense over the middle of the field.

Check out this passing chart from Williams’s first game against Liberty. As you can see, he was very efficient on screen passes, but when called upon to throw the ball deep, he struggled.

I just looked up Marquise Williams on Google, and all these articles are coming up about a quarterback competition? What’s the deal with that?

To start out the season, Larry Fedora kept who would be the starting quarterback a secret before the Liberty game. In that game, Marquise Williams started and backup Mitch Trubisky started. Both played about the same, but after the game, Williams was named the firm starter. He will get a majority of the snaps as long as Trubisky does things like this.

Can Marquise Williams carry North Carolina to a 10 win season and beyond?

North Carolina will be facing some really good defenses over the course of the season. Clemson, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame are three examples of tough defenses that will challenge Williams to beat them with his arm, not his legs. Nobody around the North Carolina program is sure of how he will play in big games against good teams because he hasn’t played in any. This is his first full-time season as a starter, and last season many of his starts and stats came against inferior competition. The toughest teams he played against were Duke and Virginia Tech last season. His stats in those two games? 40 of 71 passing (56%) for three touchdowns and four interceptions.

He didn’t prove any doubters wrong with his performances in the first two games. Therefore, how he plays over the next four games, @ECU, @Clemson, Virginia Tech, @ND, will give everyone a much clearer picture of how good he is. Williams has shown he can rise to a challenge, as he took last year’s Tar Heels to 7-1 record in the team’s last eight games. But this year presents a new challenge to him and all Tar Heel fans are all college football fans are waiting to see what he does and how he plays in response.