WVU’s Williams no longer able to shoulder burden

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, October 23, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Reed Williams' season ended not with a bang, but with a whimper -- although the whimper didn't come from him.

For while the senior West Virginia linebacker might have preferred to have been carried off on his shield (or, in this day and age, a cart), the 2008 season actually concluded for him on the sidelines. Despite strong games against Colorado (six tackles, an interception) and Marshall (11 tackles, two for loss), the defensive MVP of the last Fiesta Bowl sat down with coach Bill Stewart and emerged with the decision to shut himself down.

Williams played the latter part of 2007 with torn labrum muscles in both shoulders. Surgery was performed soon after the Fiesta Bowl rout of Oklahoma, but the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder simply wasn't ready by the beginning of this season. After sitting out the first two games, Williams gave it a try, but it proved too painful.

"When I get older, I want to be able to pick up my kids," Williams told the Charleston Gazette.

"The kid (Williams) was miserable after games," said Mountaineer placekicker Pat McAfee. "Just miserable."

Williams has applied for a medical redshirt, and Stewart said he doesn't regret his decision to shelve his defensive star for the year.

"If I wouldn't play my son," Stewart told a Pittsburgh writer, "I wouldn't play Reed Wiliams."

Williams' departure and the insertion of Anthony Leonard in the middle means that the WVU defense now starts seven freshmen and sophomores.

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