Williams out 4-6 weeks with knee injury

Southside-Gadsden running back Alaric Williams’ senior season has been put on hold.

The Auburn commitment will undergo surgery Monday to repair a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, according to Mark O’Bryant, Williams’ guardian.

Williams sustained the injury Friday during Southside’s 44-29 win over Hokes Bluff.

“He hurt it in the second quarter and the doctor looked at it and thought it was a deep bruise,” O’Bryant said. “Alaric said he was going back out, and he went and played the rest of the game.”

Williams went on to rush for 140 yards on 14 carries, but something was missing. O’Bryant noticed it. Williams was lacking the top-end speed he displayed a week before when he rushed for 188 yards and four touchdowns.

“He didn’t have that fifth gear,” O’Bryant said. “He obviously ran well, but he couldn’t do what he did in the first game. I knew something was wrong.”

Williams had an MRI on Saturday, which confirmed O’Bryant’s concern.

It could have been worse.

“If you see the film, the lick that he took, it looked like it destroyed the ACL,” O’Bryant said. “His whole knee buckled. It was nasty looking. It should have killed the ACL, but it didn’t.”

That was good news to O’Bryant.

“That tells me he has a dang-good ACL,” O’Bryant said.

Dr. Butch Douthit will perform the surgery on Williams.

“It will slow (Williams) down for a bit, but only for 4-6 weeks,” O’Bryant said.

Williams rushed for 328 yards and four touchdowns on 30 carries in the first two games. He also had two receptions for 54 yards and a score, and returned a kick 56 yards.

“He’ll be back,” O’Bryant said. “As bad as it sounds, it could have been a lot worse.”