BYU Cougars

BYU's Jamaal Williams withdraws 'for personal reasons,' will miss season

Published Aug. 6, 2015 1:43 p.m. ET

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Bruce Feldman

BYU's remote Playoff hopes took a big hit Thursday. The school announced that standout RB Jamaal Williams has withdrawn from school and will redshirt this season.

"Jamaal has withdrawn from school for personal reasons and will redshirt the 2015 season," coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "We plan on Jamaal returning for the 2016 season."

The 6-0, 205-pound Californian, who missed some of 2014 because of a knee injury, has run for nearly 2,600 yards in his career. He's also a good receiver out of the backfield (53 career catches). The Cougars should still be potent on offense with the return of star QB Taysom Hill. Last season, the Cougars were 4-0 and rolling till Hill suffered a season-ending broken leg, but he's back at 100 percent. They also return 6-6 go-to wideout Mitch Mathews and the bulk of their O-line. However, without Williams to take some pressure off Hill, a team I saw as perhaps the most dangerous outside of the Power 5 conferences, figures to be severely hampered, especially with a brutal opening month facing them on the schedule.

They open at Nebraska, return home to face Boise State and then have road trips to UCLA and Michigan. Later in the season, BYU also travels to Arrowhead Stadium to face two-time defending SEC East champs Mizzou.

Without Williams in the backfield, expect BYU to rely a lot more on 230-pound Algernon Brown, who had a good game against Memphis in the Miami Beach Bowl, as well as Adam Hine and Nate Carter. 

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