Coaching connection leads to big things for Stanley ‘Boom’ Williams at Kentucky

When Stanley “Boom” Williams decommitted from Georgia, he wasn’t sure where to turn. After getting offers from almost every school in the ACC and SEC, he learned that Mark Stoops had landed at Kentucky. That was all he needed to sign with the Wildcats.

“I’ve always been familiar with Coach Stoops,” Williams said. “I took a visit to Florida State (where Stoops was an assistant) and went to a camp there. They reached out, and I visited and fell in love with the place. I ended up here, and it turned out well.”

It has turned out well for Williams and Kentucky. A native of Monroe (he graduated from George Walton), Williams has rushed for 1,135 yards during his junior season and has placed himself in a position to jump to the NFL. He won’t make that decision until after Saturday’s TaxSlayer Bowl contest against Georgia Tech.

Williams got his nickname when he was in high school and rated a four-star recruit and the state’s No. 8 prospect by ESPN. He was sitting around with some buddies, and they were trying to come up with a sporty nickname for him. One of them suggested “Boom,” and it wasn’t long before the idea had taken hold.

“One of them said, ‘Boom’ and I said I’d go along with it,” Williams said. “It’s pretty much been a part of me since then.”

Williams (5-foot-9, 196 pounds) has lived up to the moniker.

As a freshman, he ran for 98 yards and a 56-yard touchdown against Georgia, one of three 50-yard scoring runs that season. Boom.

As a sophomore, he scored on a 75-yard run against Louisiana-Lafayette on the first play of the season. Boom.

This year, Williams has had four games of 100-plus yards rushing, including 181 against Miami and 114 yards and two touchdowns against Georgia. Boom.

This season, he has had 30 runs of 20-plus yards, fifth best in the country, and has seven 50-plus yard touchdown runs for his career. Boom.

Going into the TaxSlayer Bowl, Williams has 2,479 career rushing yards, leaving him only 139 short of becoming Kentucky’s No. 6 all-time rusher. He will be one of the main weapons that the Georgia Tech defense will need to stop.

It’s typical of the big yards he has been accumulating since he started playing high school football.

“My freshman year, I had the opportunity to play varsity,” he said. “I think everybody started to notice when I had over 500 all-purpose yards in a game. That’s when I started putting myself out there and making a name for myself.”

Williams has many fond memories from his days at Kentucky, but probably none more than his freshman season against Florida. He caught 17 passes for 162 yards against the Gators, including a 25-yarder in overtime that can still be seen on the video board at Commonwealth Stadium.

“In a hostile environment against a team that’s hard to beat,” he said. “It was a good way to get my career started.”

The TaxSlayer Bowl will be a nice reward for Williams and his Kentucky teammates, who haven’t been to the postseason since the 2011 Compass Bowl.

“We wanted to make sure it was something we accomplished,” he said. “We worked hard as a team, and when we were 0-2 nobody gave us a shot. It shows a lot that we kept working and gave ourselves a chance to win and go to a bowl game and bring a trophy back. That’s something that hasn’t happened in a long time.”

This story was originally published December 25, 2016 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Coaching connection leads to big things for Stanley ‘Boom’ Williams at Kentucky."