Is Tennessee transfer Preston Williams the next Michael Gallup?

You can’t miss Preston Williams on the practice field.

At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, the CSU receiver towers above many of his teammates and is one of the most talkative players during drills, often exchanging friendly barbs with his fellow receivers, defenders and coaches.

Still, what observers, including a Power 5 conference program assistant coach who visited a recent practice, notice most is Williams’ speed, quickness, fluid movement while shifting directions, leaping ability and soft hands that allow him to catch just about any football thrown his way. He was clearly the best athlete on the field that day, the Power 5 assistant coach said.

“Preston Williams is one of the most special talents I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” senior running back Izzy Matthews said after a recent practice. “He’s a freak athlete.”

Colorado State University coach Mike Bobo hopes Williams, who sat out last season after transferring from Tennessee, will stand out like that in games. He’s got two seasons of eligibility remaining, provided he is cleared to play through the university’s student-conduct review process.

Williams, now 21, was arrested twice last fall on misdemeanor charges stemming from an argument with a girlfriend who was trying to move out of an off-campus apartment the two shared, according to Fort Collins police reports. Four weeks later, he was arrested by CSU Police for allegedly violating a protection order that was issued following the first arrest.

Williams pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and received a suspended sentence Jan. 23 from Larimer County Court Judge Mary Joan Berenato. The other charges against him were dismissed.

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Williams, who was already sitting out under NCAA transfer rules, was suspended by Bobo and not allowed to practice, work out with the football team or use its facilities following the arrests. He was re-instated in January but still has an additional hurdle to clear before he can play for the Rams, Bobo said.

A university spokeswoman said federal educational privacy rules prohibited her from discussing where a student stands in the student-conduct process or the outcome of his or her case.

“Preston is in the university system right now with conflict resolution, and that’s something that I can’t talk about,” Bobo said. “It’s confidential between the student and the conflict resolution (office).”

What Bobo can talk about is the kind of impact Williams could have on CSU’s football team this fall. He could put up the kind of numbers Rashard Higgins and Michael Gallup did in recent years for the Rams while becoming finalists for the Biletnikoff Award presented to the nation’s most outstanding receiver.

“Preston is a guy that has a lot of talent, a lot of raw talent,” said Bobo, who declined to make Williams available for an interview. “… He has a skill set to be an explosive player in this league.”

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Williams was a consensus five-star prospect coming out of Lovejoy (Georgia) High School and rated the top receiver in the country by Scout.com. He caught 99 passes for 2,318 yards and 27 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Lovejoy, helping the Wildcats win a Class 6A regional championship his senior year.

As a junior, he also returned three punts and two interceptions for touchdowns. His sophomore year, he was Georgia’s Class 6A state champion in the long jump and runner-up in the triple jump.

In his two seasons at Tennessee, Williams played in 12 games, starting three, and caught 16 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns.

He’s a little rusty, Bobo said, and still has a lot to learn. But he’s working with CSU receivers coach Alvis Whitted, who Gallup and Higgins praised for much of their success, in practice every day to refine his route-running and sharpen his skills.

He has a lot of fun on the practice field but also is one of the hardest-working athletes out there.

“The sky’s the limit for this guy; it’s crazy,” Matthews said. “As far as athleticism goes, he’s something special that not a lot of people have really seen before, and he really has an opportunity this year to do something outlandish.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310) and 10:45 a.m. Saturdays on Denver’s ESPN radio (AM 1600).

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