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Texas A&M Football: Trayveon Williams has All-American potential in 2018

By Andrew Miller

GAINESVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 14: Trayveon Williams #5 of the Texas A&M Aggies rushes for yardage during the game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 14: Trayveon Williams #5 of the Texas A&M Aggies rushes for yardage during the game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Getting at least 1,200 rushing yards for the first time in his career this year would catapult Trayveon Williams to stardom on a national level.

Texas A&M football has a nice setup in place for an early turnaround with some nice progress made under new head coach Jimbo Fisher. A spike in the yearly results for the Aggies were expected following Fisher getting lured away from the Florida State Seminoles to College Station, TX. Yet, these type of results weren’t expected for this early on.

One of the players that could see an immediate benefit from the progression made by Fisher is rising junior running back Trayveon Williams. We might forget about how good Williams was during his freshman campaign because of the decline in his production last year under Kevin Sumlin.

In 2016, Williams posted 1,057 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. His rushing touchdown number stayed the same last season, but his overall number of rushing yards decreased. A deep decline in yards per carry could have contributed to Williams’ drop in rushing yards to 798 last year.

The positives to takeaway from last season’s efforts for Williams are that he became a bigger threat in the passing game and he finished off the year nicely. He capped things off with more than 70 rushing yards and one touchdown in the heartbreaking Belk Bowl defeat against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

The overall highlights of the 2017 campaign for Williams included a 203 rushing yard performance with two touchdowns against the UCLA Bruins and going over 100 yards against the Auburn Tigers. Altogether, a letdown through the bulk of conference play for the Aggies contributed to the inconsistent production coming from Williams too.

Yet, Fisher showed in his time with Florida State that he knows how to develop running backs and make them successfully. Most recently, he both recruited star sophomore Cam Akers to join the Noles and sent current Minnesota Vikings rusher Dalvin Cook to the NFL one year back.

Much like both Nick Starkel and Kellen Mond will see a positive impact in their performance at quarterback because of Fisher, Williams could see a spike in his production out of the backfield. That’s partly because Williams is one of the most experienced and talented running backs coming back to his team in the SEC in 2018.

Next: 5 reasons Texas A&M can win a national title in 2018

The combination of all the exposure Williams is bound to get with Texas A&M this year with the upward trajectory of the entire offense, this looks like a potential All-American type year for him. Williams is in a great situation now and should reap the rewards with a huge effort in 2018.