Texas A&M football portal profiles: Scooby Williams could prove his prowess with A&M

Texas A&M football portal profiles: Scooby Williams was misused with Florida. Can Mike Elko maximize his talent?

If you ask Florida Gator fans about Scooby Williams, a recent LB transfer to Texas A&M football, chances are you will get one of two answers, depending on their attitude at the moment. One sentiment Aggie fans heard often after he committed to Mike Elko was something akin to “thanks for taking him off our hands!” The other, though, was closer to “that guy will be a monster if he’s used correctly.”

Scooby had a rough 2023. After an offseason where many anticipated the linebacker duo of he and Shemar James to feast for the Gator defense, the unit had trouble under the defensive scheme of Austin Armstrong. Many of the UF faithful will point to the LSU game as a low point: when Williams was asked to man the middle against Jayden Daniels, he was unable to rise to the task.

Much like those same Bayou Bengals seem poised to do to Harold Perkins once more, however, it seems that Williams was being played out of position by the Gator staff. Coming out of high school, he was listed as an EDGE player, not a middle linebacker. It is there that his talent is best shown.

Imagine, for a moment, if the Aggies decided to spy Jalen Milroe with Shemar Stewart or Fadil Diggs. That’s essentially what the gameplan was with Scooby down in Gainesville—now, granted, he’s not quite as big as either of those guys, but the point remains that his skill set is best used when you play him as a pass rusher.

So, will the Aggies use him correctly? With all due respect to Austin Armstrong, I’m a bit more confident in Mike Elko’s schematic abilities than those that were displayed down in Gainesville this past year. 

This is not even to mention that his position coach, Jay Bateman, is now the DC in Aggieland, and is well-acquainted with his skillset. Instead of being beholden to the decision of a up-and-coming DC, Bateman now has the elite defensive mind of Elko as his running mate when it comes to scheming up the defense.

Williams brings an impressive physical skill set to the team. It’s just a matter of implementing that skill set in the right way. Just like with anything with this new staff, it remains to be seen how exactly that will go; but there’s a lot of good reason to have faith that they will figure it out.