T.V. Williams with a lot on his plate

By HAL MORRIS, Advocate-Messenger



T.V. Williams has literally had a lot on his plate since he’s been at Kentucky as one of the football team’s early enrollees.

The 5-10 receiver has put on 23 pounds since enrolling at UK in January, and was up to 160 pounds as spring practice got started.

Williams relied on a steady diet of eating, eating and more eating as well getting in his workouts to put on what he knew was the weight he needed to compete in the Southeastern Conference.

“Just living in the weight room, eating every two hours. Just making sure I do everything right, drinking a lot of shakes, making sure I’m eating right, eating healthy,” Williams said. “The nutrition guys, Miss Monica (Fowler), does a great job with me. She helps me pick what’s on my plate when we got to the training table.”

Williams said he never worried about losing his speed — he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.31 seconds — by gaining weight so quickly.

“I actually felt faster, I just felt stronger and faster,” he said.

Williams said he has had to eat every two hours, and basically does it from the time he gets up until he goes to bed.

“I wake in morning drink a protein shake, come over here, eat breakfast and work out, got to lunch, two hours later a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, two hours later eat something else, two hours later eat dinner, go home and another two hours later eat something else,” he said. “Right before I go to sleep, drink a protein shake and then the next day do it all over again.”

So is Williams sick of eating by this point?

“The first week was kind of difficult, but the my stomach grew so I’m actually eating more,” he said. “I just keep getting hungry, keep getting hungry, keep putting on weight.”

And it’s the added weight as well as getting in early that Williams hopes can help get him in the receiver rotation this season.

“It was really important. A lot of times, people have a lot of struggles coming in with school and everything, so to be able to come in a semester early and get the plays down and everything it felt like it benefited me a lot,” he said. “Especially with my size and everything being able to put on a lot of weight and put on a lot of muscle it just really helped me.”

Williams rooms with fellow receiver Thaddeus Snodgrass, another early enrollee, and the two have worked together to get the Xs and Os of their position down.

“Me and Thaddeus, we come up after workouts and after classes and we sit down with (graduate assistants) and get more acclimated to the Xs and Os and the signals and everything,” Williams said. “Because a lot of these guys, they’ve already been here and they know the plays, so we want to come in the very first day of spring practice and mess it all up.

“So I felt that me and Thaddeus and all the guys that came in early did a pretty good job with the signals.”

Now Williams is ready to put all that knowledge to work and get his shot to play.

“It’s up to coach. I’m just trying to put myself in the best situation possible and if coach feels that I’m able to play than I will play and give the best effort possible,” he said. “And if coach thinks I should wait a year and redshirt that I will listen to coach.”

But Williams, who reportedly got a score of 1,550 on his SAT, also wanted to get in early to get a jump-start in his academics.

“Maybe be able to graduate early and maybe work on a master’s degree is just as important as coming in early and being able to play,” said Williams, who is majoring in computer engineering and ultimately wants to get his Master’s degree in business administration.

“Me and my dad had a long discussion about it when I was a sophomore and that’s when we decided (to graduate early), so I started taking online classes in high school and summer school so I would be able to graduate early.”