Syracuse Football: Orange secondary includes a pair of “freaks”

The Athletic has published its list of the biggest “freaks” in the sport, and Syracuse football stars Trill Williams and Andre Cisco are featured.

The Syracuse football secondary should prove exceptional in the 2020 campaign, led by junior defensive back Trill Williams and junior safety Andre Cisco.

Cisco, an All-American as a true freshman in 2018, is getting a ton of pre-season accolades and 2021 NFL Draft buzz. But Williams is a tremendous talent who flies a tad under the radar because he plays alongside Cisco.

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman has written about the biggest “freaks” in college football dating back to the early 2000s. His goal with this topic is to “spotlight the guys who generate buzz inside their programs by displaying the type of rare physical abilities that wow even those folks who are used to observing gifted athletes every day.”

In his 2020 “freaks” list of the top-50 players, Feldman puts Williams at No. 16 and Cisco at No. 25, as noted in an article by Nate Mink of Syracuse.com.

Without question, the Syracuse football secondary will boast an abundance of athleticism and skill-sets in the 2020 term. Cisco is on the pre-season watch lists for multiple national defensive honors, including the Lott IMPACT Trophy, the Bednarik Award, the Jim Thorpe Award and, most recently, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy, whose pre-season watch list includes 98 candidates from 66 teams, is presented each year to the country’s top defensive player by the Charlotte Touchdown Club and the Football Writers Association of America.

"According to Mink’s article, Feldman made the following write-up on Williams in his “freaks” story. “His teammate Andre Cisco is the guy who gets more of the headlines in their secondary, but Williams (38 tackles, three forced fumbles in 2019) has emerged as quite a talent too. Atrilleon (his given name) is a big, rangy dude at 6-2, 215 pounds. He vertical jumped 40 inches and has been clocked at a laser-timed 4.34 in the 40. Williams, up about 20 pounds since last year, also has benched pressed 225 pounds 17 times.”"

Assuming a 2020 stanza happens for Syracuse football, Orange fanatics including myself will definitely get a lot of enjoyment in watching Cisco and Williams line the ‘Cuse secondary.