Jacquian Williams (born July 20, 1988) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

. He was drafted by the Giants in the sixth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at South Florida.

College career

Fort Scott

Williams began his collegiate career at

Fort Scott Community College Fort Scott Community College is a community college in Fort Scott, Kansas, United States. It has satellite buildings in other cities in Crawford County, including Pittsburg and Frontenac, along with sites in Paola and at the Hillsdale Learning ...

in Fort Scott, Kansas, where he spent his freshman and sophomore seasons. In 2007, as a freshman, he recorded 11 tackles for a loss and 60

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking u ...

in total. The following season, he recorded a total of 72 tackles, 12 for a loss, one

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

and a forced fumble. After the season, he was named a

National Junior College Athletic Association The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

First–team All-American. He was named an All– Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference selection in both of his seasons at Fort Scott.

Recruitment

Following his junior college career, ''

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'' considered Williams to be a four-star recruit. During his recruitment process, he received scholarship offers from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Univers ...

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

, and Kansas State University, as well as receiving interest from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. However, on January 21, 2009, Williams committed to South Florida. Jason Pierre-Paul, Williams's teammate in 2008 in Fort Scott, also signed with South Florida.

South Florida

In his first season for South Florida, Williams spent time at both linebacker and on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

, appearing in all 13 games. He recorded 28 tackles and one tackle for a loss. He made one start for the Bulls, against the Connecticut Huskies, tallying five tackles and a tackle for a loss. During the 2010 International Bowl against

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

, Williams made four tackles, helping South Florida win 27–3 in the final edition of the game. The following year, his senior season, Williams was named a team captain for the Bulls as well as a starter at outside linebacker, starting every game for the team. He led the team with 71 tackles and also recorded 11 tackles for a loss, one interception, and 2.5 sacks. Against

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...

, he recorded a career-high 11 tackles and also recorded seven tackles against both

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and Connecticut. Williams finished his career at South Florida with three tackles in the

2010 Meineke Car Care Bowl The 2010 Meineke Car Care Bowl was the ninth edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game started at 12:00 PM US EST on Friday, December 31, 2010, and featured the ...

, which South Florida won 31–26 over the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) s ...

. He was named second–team All–

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

after the season. Williams finished his career at South Florida with 231 tackles, eight sacks, 35 tackles for a loss, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and three interceptions.

Professional career

Pre-draft

New York Giants

Williams appeared in the ESPN documentary "The Dotted Line", filmed in the months leading up to the 2011 NFL draft. The program depicted the relationship between Williams and his first agent, Eugene Lee of ETL Associates, as well as Williams's decision to dump ETL after the draft. Williams was selected in the sixth round with the 202nd overall pick by the New York Giants in the 2011 NFL Draft, once again re-uniting him with Jason Pierre-Paul, his teammate at Fort Scott Community College and the University of South Florida. According to Ohm Youngmisuk of ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

'', "Williams caught the Giants' attention with his athleticism, speed and untapped potential." On July 29, Williams signed his rookie contract with the Giants. During

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

, Williams has mainly seen time with third–team defense. In his rookie season, Williams had 78 tackles. He played in all 16 games and made 2 starts. During the NFC Championship game on January 22, 2012 between the Giants and the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

, Williams stripped 49ers punt returner Kyle Williams during a punt return and the Giants recovered it in field goal range, which led to the game-winning field goal by

Lawrence Tynes Lawrence James Henry Tynes (born May 3, 1978) is a Scottish-born former American football placekicker. After playing soccer for Milton High School a coach suggested he try out for the football team as a kicker. He played college football at Troy ...

and put the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, their second Super Bowl in four years.

References

External links

New York Giants bioSouth Florida Bulls football bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jacquian 1988 births Living people Players of American football from Tampa, Florida American football linebackers South Florida Bulls football players New York Giants players Fort Scott Greyhounds football players Riverview High School (Riverview, Florida)