Gundy Says Freshman Kanion Williams Will Redshirt Remainder of 2018

Mike Gundy addressed a number of topics on Monday at his weekly press conference, from Tyron’s leadership to Ammendola’s kicking to snowflakes and liberalism. It was a lot.

Lost in the precipitation and politics talk was a nugget he dropped regarding the status of true freshman safety Kanion Williams, who has played in four games to this point this season. Gundy said the plan is to withhold him from the rest of the season to retain his year of eligibility.

Williams played against Oklahoma, and it was his fourth game this season, meaning if he plays in another, he would lose his redshirt.

“We are going to redshirt him,” Gundy said. “The total number of plays that he would be involved in, for his career, it’s a better option. Selfishly for us, it’d probably be better to play him. You put all the formulas together, the percentages of the plays that he would play with the number of players on the field — it’s not enough to say it’s worth burning a year over, in our opinion. If he were to come in and put his foot down and say, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s my career. I want to play,’ then we will play him.”

Williams has only two tackles in his four games, but it’ll be interesting to see how this side of the new redshirt rule plays out.