Williams and Bryant seize on their opportunities

Kobe Williams and Joey Bryant both longed for a shot. There are parallels in their stories, as well as differences, but both cornerbacks are now taking advantage of their respective opportunities.

Neither was heavily recruited out of high school because coaches questioned their size. Williams attended high school at Long Beach Poly in Southern California. Bryant went to Saint Louis School in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was teammates with former Heisman trophy winner and current Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Williams’ only offers out of high school were from Dixie State and Western New Mexico, so he chose to go the junior college route. Bryant played point guard for the basketball team but was only a garbage-time football play.

“(I was) very upset,” Williams said of not being heavily recruited. “I felt I had everything settled out, but it was people looked at me for my size. Being a 5-9 corner, I just wanted to prove them wrong.”

After high school, Bryant spent two years as a busboy at Roy’s, a restaurant with Hawaiian-influenced cuisine.

“I was just trying to play football again, that’s pretty much it,” he said.

Williams, now a sophomore, spent a year at Long Beach City College and Bryant eventually spent two years at Mt. San Antonio College in California. Williams added to his film, Bryant started and developed his.

Williams was part of a Long Beach City package deal. The Sun Devils received commitments from him and teammate Demonte King on the same day last spring.

Williams said the coaches called King first. When King called Williams to tell him the program was offering them both, Williams admittedly didn’t believe him.

“We never knew we’d end up at the same college, so when we got the call, we were both excited,” Williams said.

King and Williams visited ASU together. They now live together. First-year defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said King will miss the season opener and perhaps the next game with an injury.

But once he returns, he and Williams will have a shot to once again be a dynamic duo in the defensive backfield. Williams has been a first-team corner for most of the fall, so it would be on King to join him.

Williams described King as a smart football player. He said the two friends are “football heads.”

“He’s just helping me like a big brother,” Williams said of King.

Bryant, a redshirt junior, is 25 years old. He comes to ASU as more mature than the average student-athlete.

“Just mentally, I got all of the distractions out,” he said. “I have a girlfriend now, stay at home and hang out. I’m not really worried about going to all the (parties) and all that.

“My young days are over.”

Bryant has worked on primarily the second team but took first-team reps all this week. Whether he will stay on the first team remains to be seen, as redshirt freshman Chase Lucas was a preseason favorite to earn a starting cornerback position.

Bryant described himself as “all over the place” when Fall Camp started, but he’s settled in nicely since then. He said he’s seen the largest improvement in his patience.

“I wasn’t reading receivers’ routes, I wasn’t reading how they came off the ball, or I wasn’t looking at their eyes,” he said. “Now, I’m starting to develop all of those feelings. I’m starting to feel the routes. I’m a lot calmer and now the game’s coming to me. Now I play a lot faster than I was before.”

Both Bryant and Williams were thrown in the fire upon entering the program. In their first exposure to Division I football, they’ve covered a versatile receiving corps.

There’s 6-foot-4 N’Keal Harry, who looks like an NFL receiver. When covering Harry, Williams must compensate for the height difference somehow.

“I use my feet at corner a lot,” Williams said. “I know I’m not about to go jam him because he got that (height) on me. So I use my feet and my technique.”

Then, there are John Humphrey, Ryan Newsome and Kyle Williams, all speedy receivers.

“They got moves,” Bryant said.

Both Williams and Bryant agreed that receiving a dose of nearly every type of receiver they’ll see during the season is beneficial. They’ve also been positively impacted by Bennett, their defensive coordinator.

Williams said Bennett has told him his technique can perhaps make him money someday. Bryant said he is trying to learn all he can from the now 40-year coaching veteran.

“You can’t question what he says,” Bryant said.

It looks as if both will play a role in helping an ASU defense that was ranked dead last in total pass defense a year ago.

“We think about that every day,” Williams said. “We say it to ourselves. We keep it in our heads.”

One practice at a time, both corners are making the most out of the opportunities that perhaps seemed far-fetched to everyone else when they graduated high school.

“They said I was too small,” Williams said. “I just kept striving and didn’t let it come to me, trying to prove them wrong.”

Added Bryant: “I just came up here to chase a dream.”