NC State Football
NC State’s James Smith-Williams Ranked #3 “Freak” on The Athletic’s Preseason List
NC State Graduate Senior Defensive End James Smith-Williams becomes more and more of a FREAK as each year goes by. Prior to last season, Smith-Williams ranked 27th on The Athletic’s Preseason list of the top “Freaks” in college football. This year he enters his final season ranked 3rd on Bruce Feldman’s list.
3. James Smith-Williams, NC State, Defensive End
No player on this entire list has had the type of transformation that Smith-Williams has had. He arrived five years ago weighing a spindly 196 pounds. Now he’s a hulking 265. He benches 420, doing 27 reps at 225. He squats 620 and cleans 374. Smith-Williams vertical jumps 40 inches and has clocked a 4.43 in his pro agility time. Earlier this week, he ran an electronically timed 40 at 4.58. The hand time was 4.52.
Smith-Williams is one of the most respected players in the Wolfpack program. He’s already graduated, interned two years with IBM and has a job once football is over.
Dantonio Burnett, State’s strength coach, says of Smith-Williams, “He has learned how to translate the athletic development (weight training) over to the field. This was the same thing we saw with those other four D-linemen that got drafted. Once they figured it out and put it all together, they became really good players. He’s taken the blueprint that Bradley, BJ (Hill), Justin (Jones) and (Kentavius) Street put into place and has ran with it. He’s always getting the young guys together to do extra work. He’s taken on the leadership role and he’s definitely primed for a big year.”
The Athletic
Smith-Williams graduated in December with a degree in Business Supply Chain Management, a 3.0+ GPA, with All-ACC Academic honors. He was a paid intern with IBM last summer, and has already been offered a full-time job after he graduates.
Last season was his first year as a starter, playing behind the shadow of Bradley Chubb and Kentavius Street before that. As a Redshirt Junior, Smith-Williams he tallied 9.5 tackles for loss and 6 sacks.