“The most important ability is availability.”
The famous quote often attributed to legendary football coach Bill Parcells hangs over the two-sport career of Texas Longhorns sophomore Jonah Williams, who is yet to make his debut on the diamond this season after battling injuries through the entirety of his young career on the Forty Acres.
Williams arrived at Texas 13 months ago ranked within the top 500 baseball prospects nationally in the Perfect Game rankings and as a consensus five-star safety prospect ranked as the No.
1 safety and the No. 10 player overall in the 247Sports Composite rankings still recovering from the collarbone injury that ended his high school football career.
As an outfielder and a left-handed pitcher with a fastball that can reach the mid-90s, Williams wasn’t able to explore his upside on the mound and lost crucial repetitions as a hitter because of the injury, which kept him from making his debut at Texas until the 24th game of the season when he received an at bat against Sam Houston.
Despite other injuries in the outfield, it was almost a month later before Williams recorded his first hit during a breakout performance against Auburn with two hits and three RBI before recording three hits in the next game against the Tigers. During the subsequent midweek game against Texas State, however, Williams suffered a hamstring injury that ultimately contributed to the 6’3, 210-pounder to 55 at bats during his debut baseball season.
Williams flashed his potential in hitting .327 with 10 RBI and three stolen bases, but the combination of his collarbone injury, hamstring injury, and focus on baseball set back the start of his football career — head coach Steve Sarkisian was forced to take a patient approach with the Galveston Ball product, who didn’t make his gridiron debut until playing 11 snaps on defense and eight snaps on special teams in the final non-conference game against Sam Houston.
It was another month until Williams earned a spot on special teams in a conference game, seeing the field for four snaps against Kentucky and 14 snaps against Mississippi State before injuries at the safety position forced him onto the field for seven snaps in the win over Vanderbilt.
After redshirt senior safety Michael Taaffe opted out of the Citrus Bowl against Michigan, Williams played a season-high 25 snaps on defense in addition to 18 snaps across three special teams units.
But the hamstring wasn’t fully healed for Williams, who added a shoulder injury during football season that has also impacted his ability to prepare for the baseball season, keeping him from appearing in the first four games and setting him further behind his peers in practice reps.
On Thursday, head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle provided an update on when Williams could make his season debut.
“He kind of did some different directional running yesterday, like you would run on the bases. Some of his issues have been running hard, slowing up to hit a base, and then starting again for a double. So he did that yesterday. Felt good. He’s going to do that again at a higher rate today, and then we’ll see how he feels after that and tomorrow. I would imagine the first time anybody sees him would be kind of as a DH. I’d like to do it slowly,” Schlossnagle said.
“It’s a challenge. Because on one hand, you want to get him at bats. I want to get him at bats so he’s ready in conference play, but at the same time, you don’t want to do anything too soon. We have a long season, but we have two and a half weeks or so before conference play begins. So I’d like to get him at bats and then eventually get him in the field, but we have to kind of take it slow so it’s day to day, but we’re hoping he can play in some role this weekend.”
Not pushing Williams too hard to return from injury is quickly becoming a familiar refrain for the Texas coaches, but hasn’t kept the immensely talented athlete from constantly fighting an uphill battle with his health.
So although Sarkisian has been commendably patient with Williams as a former two-sport standout himself, a crossroads may be rapidly approaching with the potential for more playing time in football this season and the potential for new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to take a harder line with the increasingly apparent need for Williams to receive some rest and more football reps.
The other refrain from the Texas coaches is that if anyone can manage playing two sports, Williams can, but that’s felt like an assessment of his talent and maturity more than an assessment of his more questionable physical maturity.
While the lack of power shown so far by Williams is putting a cap on his upside in baseball, his ceiling in football remains high enough that he could still be an early entrant into the 2028 NFL Draft.
The problem is that the injuries are pilling up and at some point his talent will no longer outweigh his lack of availability across sports.
