After years of pulling up on Sam Darnold in practice, Leonard Williams is finally going to have his chance to hit a quarterback who was a teammate of his in college and then the NFL.

Traded from the New York Jets to the New York Giants a week ago, Williams showed well and registered three tackles in his debut with his new team this past Sunday night. Playing for the Giants is new for the defensive end, a former first round pick out of USC in 2015.

So to is the chance to put a hit on Darnold, a first round pick of the Giants who also went to USC and overlapped during his time there with Williams. Because of their value to the team, quarterbacks typically aren’t allowed to be hit in practice so Williams has never been able to put a hit on Darnold when they were both in college together or with the Jets.

Now on Sunday, with the Jets hosting the Giants, Williams might get that chance.

“That’s funny because I randomly thought in my head, ‘What if I beat somebody and go to tackle Sam and I let up because I can’t hit him?’ But no, that won’t happen, though,” Williams said. “I’ll finally get to tackle him, that’s going to be fun. It’s going to be great.”

Sunday’s game, against a Jets team that traded him just the week before, is likely to be a bit surreal. But Williams said he isn’t reading too much into it.

“I don’t think it’ll be strange. I’ve went to college with people, I’ve grown up and went to high school with people, I’ve played in All-America games with people all my life that I’ve lined up against that I’m friends with off the field,” Williams said.

“But on the field and in between those lines, we are still going against each other. I don’t think it will be totally strange. It might be a little strange just to think that we played together for so long. But at the same time, I’m seeing a different color than what I’m wearing. I think any football player has that mentality that after a while you see a different color and you go at it.”

The Giants defensive end is in a good spot, moving to a team where he can help a dour pass rush and perhaps fit in better schematically. While Williams can play any spot along the defensive line, he is built more as an end in a 4-3 alignment.

Since the Jets play a 3-4, that required Williams to shed double-teams in order to get into the backfield.

In the final year of his contract, Williams perhaps can be better utilized given his combination of length and burst off the edge. His initial showing in Sunday night’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys showed him in the backfield on several occasions and being very active.

There are going to be opportunities for him to go one-on-one in this defense which could lead to more opportunities than with the Jets.

“It shows me that they’re excited about me and they value what I bring to the table and they want to set me up with as many good opportunities and matchups for me,” Williams said.

“That speaks volumes on the staff and me as well. I have to prove to them why they should keep doing that.”