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NORMAN — To those who know him best, Gentry Williams is a competitor at heart.
Since he was a child, everything has always been a competition. A former two-sport athlete at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Williams played multiple football positions, leading the Hornets to the Class 6A-II playoffs and winning the Class 6A 400-meter championship as a freshman track star.
So enduring what OU’s junior cornerback did the past year challenged him more physically and mentally than ever before.
“He would just power through any pain that he was experiencing,” Gentry’s mother Eureka Williams told The Oklahoman. “He always wanted to be there for the guys. He never wanted to let any of them down, any of the coaches down, Tulsa down, Oklahoma, everybody.”
In the spring of 2023, Williams passed out during a Sooners workout and was hospitalized. He worked his way back last offseason and started 10 games for OU, but struggled to finish most of them, suffering frequent shoulder injuries which led to labrum surgery this offseason.
Despite appearing in 22 games in two seasons and showcasing his unique athleticism by recording four interceptions, Williams doesn’t have many snaps to his name. If his mission in 2023 was to work his way back to playing the game he loves, his goal is now to become an even better player than he was before.
More: How is OU football starting QB Jackson Arnold faring so far in Sooners’ 2024 fall camp?
Oklahoma’s Gentry Williams (9) warms up before the college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Central Florida Knights at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct., 21, 2023.
Williams is finally at full strength and hasn’t been limited to start OU’s preseason camp ahead of the program’s inaugural season in the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-ou-football-cb-gentry-110204910.html
Author : The Oklahoman
Publish date : 2024-08-11 11:02:04
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