Hugh Frozen knows what good SEC receivers look like. Auburn football had trouble with a receiver last week at Texas A&M, Noah Thomas, who had 125 yards and two touchdowns.

At Alabama, Freeze sees a locker room full of “really, really legitimate SEC receivers.” And there was one he wanted to be a Tiger: Ryan Williams.

“Ryan is a kid that we recruited very hard and we know how talented he is,” Freeze said.

Williams’ father, Ryan Williams Sr., played cornerback for Auburn.

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Ryan Williams chose the Crimson Tide over Auburn and Texas A&M in the state. And in his first season at Alabama, he had eight touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns and 804 receiving yards.

Freeze’s approach to a receiver like Williams remains the same.

“We have to do our duty in every play and forget the last one,” Freeze said. “Have a short memory when you’re a DB. You can’t get hung up on it. You have to play it next. And you’re on an island out there most of the time. With an athletic quarterback and athletic receivers, they’re going to make some games and we just have to hope that we can do our part as well.

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Kalen DeBoer also has a talented freshman receiver to worry about.

Former five-star Cam Coleman has put together back-to-back 100-yard performances, throwing for five touchdowns in his last two games against Louisiana Monroe and Texas A&M.

DeBoer said Auburn has “multiple threats” that he would consider challenging, and Coleman is certainly one of them.

“He’s extremely impressive,” DeBoer said. “He made a lot of plays for them this year. And yeah, I mean, you don’t just have to focus on him, you have to focus on the other guys that made big plays. And that’s not just the passing game but it’s also the running game Their quarterback, Thorne, did a good job of adding a lot of threats as well. they have that.

Alabama will face Auburn at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium on ABC.

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at [email protected] or follow it @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article was originally published on The Tuscaloosa News: What Hugh Freeze thinks of Alabama football player Ryan Williams