{"id":86705,"date":"2026-04-13T16:48:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=86705"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:48:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:48:46","slug":"leadership-forged-through-adversity-for-rashid-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/04\/13\/leadership-forged-through-adversity-for-rashid-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Forged Through Adversity for Rashid Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rashid Williams<\/a> is regarded as a veteran in the Washington wide receiver room. But after three seasons on the roster, he\u2019s been targeted just 22 times on Saturdays. On the practice field, Williams is as reliable as they come. He’s sure-handed, smooth in his route running, and guides the receiver room through example. The redshirt sophomore takes first team reps, leads the receiver room in drills, and helps coach the younger players with his advanced knowledge of the offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leadership Forged for Rashid Williams<\/h2>\n

Battle With Injuries<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But injuries in 2025 kept him from having the breakout season that was expected. After redshirting the 2023 season, Williams played in all 13 games as a reserve in 2024. He was primed to be wide-receiver-two opposite Denzel Boston<\/a> a year ago. But an early-season injury against UC Davis changed that trajectory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult,\u201d Williams said this spring, recalling his collarbone injury last September. \u201c[I] just stayed in the training room, talked to family. My girlfriend was a big help.\u201d Williams was sidelined for six games in the middle of the 2025 season as he recovered from his collarbone. By early November, he was on track to be available for the game at Wisconsin. But injury struck again. During practice leading up to the team\u2019s November 8th trip to Madison, Williams suffered a hand injury in practice. He described it as the lowest point of his season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the lowest point was getting injured again after my collarbone,\u201d Williams said this spring. \u201cIt was pretty hard for me just trying to work back and get my collarbone strong and stuff, and then at practice, something bad happened.\u201d Williams said that he got his left hand stuck in a teammate\u2019s face mask during practice while making a catch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Cummings’ Perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cYeah, it was frustrating for him,\u201d receivers coach Kevin Cummings said of Williams. \u201cWhat makes Rashid so great is how much of a competitor he is. And so for him not to be able to be on that field, I know ate at him. So he did a great job with his mental toughness.\u201d Cummings said that the program\u2019s sports psychology team has done a great job of making sure that players with injuries stay mentally strong. They also help players keep the right perspective during their tough situations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRashid was going into [last] season as a starter, and then it doesn’t go the way that he wants it to go,\u201d Cummings continued. \u201cAnd so he did a great job mentally of understanding that, you know, everything happens for a reason, come back stronger. And if you see him out there on the field, he’s a lot stronger, bigger, and faster.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In total, Williams was on the field for just 46 offensive plays in 2025. Only being able to watch from the sidelines during a season that began with high expectations for him, Williams described, was very difficult. But support from the people around him and the resources in the facility kept him mentally focused and ready to return this offseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe wide receiver room, they always kept my head up and tried to get me to stay positive,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMy family also, I also would be on FaceTime with my parents, my brother, and sister, and stuff like that. My friends, too.\u201d The rising fourth-year junior said that he does now have a medical redshirt should he need to use it going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 Leadership at Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Though his playing time has been limited in-season, Williams\u2019 leadership on the practice field continues to stand out. Last spring, when Boston was unavailable at spring practice, Williams stepped into that offseason leadership role for the first time. Now, throughout the first two weeks of spring practice, Williams is taking that a step further.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s time,\u201d Williams began. \u201cI’ve been here for a while, and with the younger guys, you know, it’s easy to just coach them up if they mess up or anything like that.\u201d There was a play during the second week of practice<\/a> where he pulled freshman receiver Asa Thompson aside to explain the fundamentals of a drill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo on that specific play, it was like a scout rout,e and I’m supposed to go at an angle like this.\u201d Williams described the route with his hands. \u201cHe was kind of vertical. So I just told him that you gotta go at like an angle.\u201d Williams\u2019 attention to the small details of practice reps is what stands out when watching him play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings\u2019 Point of Emphasis<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Receivers coach Cummings made this kind of leadership a point of emphasis for Williams, as well as some of the other young but experienced players in the room. \u201cEarly on [this spring] I talked to Rashid, I talked to Chris Lawson<\/a>, I talked to Dez Roebuck<\/a>,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cI was like, \u2018You guys have to be the guys for me that are giving these [young] guys the pointers on the side.\u2019 So to hear that Rashid is doing that is great.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just his reliable hands, smooth route running, and first-team reps with the offense that combine to make Williams a high-ceiling player. It\u2019s also in his ability to lead the younger players through experience. He continues to guide them through understanding the offense and describes in detail how practice reps should be run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams-to-Williams Connection<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And even though his game reps have been limited, the chemistry between Williams and quarterback Demond Williams<\/a> is strong. Williams said his quarterback has continued to evolve as a leader of the team, now going into his true junior season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust knowing we got a lot of chemistry and stuff now more than last year,\u201d Williams said, describing the relationship between him and his quarterback. \u201cJust hanging outside the building and stuff like that. And you know, he throws to us, so we got to make him look good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Nick Lemkau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rashid Williams is regarded as a veteran in the Washington wide receiver room. But after three seasons on the roster, he\u2019s been targeted just 22 times on Saturdays. On the practice field, Williams is as reliable as they come. He’s sure-handed, smooth in his route running, and guides the receiver room through example. The redshirt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":86721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35612],"tags":[1666,33153],"class_list":["post-86705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-washington-huskies","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-kevin-cummings"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86723,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86705\/revisions\/86723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}