{"id":2689,"date":"2025-09-12T10:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/michigans-tre-williams-leaves-an-impact-wherever-he-goes\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:49:07","slug":"michigans-tre-williams-leaves-an-impact-wherever-he-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/michigans-tre-williams-leaves-an-impact-wherever-he-goes\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan&#8217;s Tr\u00e9 Williams leaves an impact wherever he goes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Joe Casamento, called \u2018Coach Caz\u2019 by just about everyone, has seen a lot over his years coaching high school football in New York and the DMV. For more than 50 years, he led undefeated seasons, coached over a hundred Division I athletes and won state championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And yet, reflecting on his years as head coach at St. John\u2019s College High School in Washington, D.C., Tr\u00e9 Williams still stands out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Casamento remembers a practice when, as he often arranged, St. John\u2019s first-string offense lined up against the second-string defense. Naturally, things were lopsided, with one side full of 17 and 18 year olds already fielding high-major offers and the other full of guys pushing themselves to get to that next level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Williams didn\u2019t see it like that. There he stood, as a senior defensive lineman, cheering \u201clike a madman\u201d for his teammates from the sidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThat guy might not be playing on Friday night or Saturday, but it\u2019s important to him that somebody\u2019s recognizing that he\u2019s doing well,\u201d Casamento told The Michigan Daily. \u201cBecause that feeds to his confidence, and he gets better, then he makes the guy who\u2019s in front of him better, because he\u2019s pushing them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams didn\u2019t care if the guy he was celebrating was on the first- or second-team defense. It just mattered that he was on defense, and that he was making a play. As one of St. John\u2019s captains, Williams understood the importance of lifting up his younger, newer teammates. Because just a year prior, he was in their shoes.<\/p>\n<p>When Williams was a junior in high school, he moved from Connecticut to D.C., leaving his tiny private school in the lush Connecticut suburbs to join an elite football program in the DMV. Already a physically gifted athlete, Williams could\u2019ve gone to a number of high schools and been the star. Instead, he wanted to be surrounded by players of and above his caliber.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt required him to do things differently and to pay attention to technique and stuff,\u201d Casamento said. \u201cHe just couldn\u2019t overpower people and be dominant without really working at his craft. \u2026 He was looking to come someplace where he would have to compete and get better. And he did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon enough, Williams excelled. In coaches meetings, Casamento and his staff brought him up frequently. On the field, Williams was making play after play. Transferring schools became just another step on his path, and he had few challenges learning St. John\u2019s playbook and acclimating to a new defense. Some aspects of his playstyle weren\u2019t fully fleshed out, having spent the past few years steamrolling lesser competition, but his consistency and technique quickly improved.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It was off the field, though, where Williams was tasked with a different challenge. Elected as a team captain, Williams was asked to lead. Mike Ward, the defensive line coach at St. John\u2019s when Williams played, thinks of it like a piggy bank.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you start a piggy bank, you put money in it,\u201d Ward told The Daily. \u201cEventually you\u2019re going to do what \u2014 break it open, right? And then when you see how much money is in it, you\u2019re like \u2026 \u2018Shit, man, I wish I would have started this earlier.\u2019 When you finally crack it open, you\u2019re like, \u2018If I would have started sooner and put more money in, I would have more money.\u2019 So to me, that\u2019s the same way leadership works. The sooner you start it, the better you\u2019re gonna be off in the long run. Any coach who you\u2019re going to play for, once they see that you can do it for yourself, they\u2019re going to ask you to do it for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Williams arrived at St. John\u2019s, Ward saw a socially intelligent guy with a knack for bringing people together through his energy alone. Already in the weight room and on the field, Williams led by example. Organically, Ward remembers, that type of leadership translated into a more vocal, personal style.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s after a loss, I\u2019m sure he was going up to young guys, grabbing them and, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s a long season, I\u2019ve been through this,\u2019 \u201d Ward said. \u201c\u2026 If there\u2019s guys who are a little more lax about a loss, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll get after those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams was impactful as a leader and a player with the Cadets, earning a four-star rating and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/football\/recruiting\/rankings\/scnext300boys\/_\/class\/2020\/order\/true\">ranking<\/a> of the No. 44 player in the country by ESPN.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>When it was time for college, Williams, once again, could\u2019ve went anywhere. He chose Clemson, and after working up the depth chart, broke out in the College Football Playoffs last year against Texas.<\/p>\n<p>In the first round matchup, he muscled through a stacked Longhorns offensive line for two sacks. Although the Tigers eventually lost that game, Williams\u2019 impact was indelible. And when Michigan was looking to reload its defensive line after losing first-round draft picks Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant to the NFL, Williams was an easy target.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou watch him on film, he was extremely stout and explosive,\u201d Wolverines defensive line coach Lou Esposito said Aug. 6. \u201cAnd those are the guys that we want. He\u2019s not a gap in attack guy, just run up the field and create horizontal lanes. He fit what we wanted on the field. Then obviously, after you sit down with him and meet him, his personality is electric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Williams transferred to Michigan in January, he was determined to do what he did when he arrived at St. John\u2019s. Put his head down and go to work. Quietly hone his technique. Live in the weight room.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But sometime around spring ball, Esposito wanted more, just as Ward did all those years ago. He called Williams into his office, prompting him to be a more vocal leader. As one of the older players on the Wolverines\u2019 defense and in their locker room, he knew Williams had more to offer.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-4{min-height: 250px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI kind of was a guy who didn\u2019t really speak out as much, because I had a lot of guys that were there (at Clemson) that was doing that,\u201d Williams said Tuesday. \u201cWhen it was brought to me that we needed another vocal leader on the defense, in the defensive line room specifically, me and Rayshaun (Benny) and Trey (Pierce) hold that role together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the back of his mind, Williams knew that he\u2019d be seen as a veteran at any school he\u2019d transfer to. Nonetheless, stepping into a leadership role wasn\u2019t immediate. For Williams, leading a defense doesn\u2019t just mean one thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally just speaking what\u2019s on my mind, but also, saying what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI can\u2019t tell somebody to do something if I\u2019m not doing it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Against Oklahoma last week, Williams had three total tackles, including two for loss. He\u2019s not a starter, but he\u2019s firmly in the rotation. Perhaps more important for the graduate tackle, he\u2019s someone that the entire defense leans on and listens to, as a leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u200b\u200bThere\u2019s guys that\u2019s still gonna have to play for this defense after I leave,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the vet in the room that didn\u2019t give back.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-5    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-5{min-height: 250px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Williams will graduate at the end of the season, while the majority of Michigan\u2019s defense will not. But despite his year-long stint with the Wolverines, through leadership on and off the field, Williams has already made his mark.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Casamento, called \u2018Coach Caz\u2019 by just about everyone, has seen a lot over his years coaching high school football in New York and the DMV. For more than 50 years, he led undefeated seasons, coached over a hundred Division I athletes and won state championships.\u00a0 And yet, reflecting on his years as head coach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2395,824,726,228,2871],"class_list":{"0":"post-2689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-impact","9":"tag-leaves","10":"tag-michigans","11":"tag-tre","12":"tag-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2691,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions\/2691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}