What Yahoo Sports liked about Notre Dame RB Aneyas Williams, and why Notre Dame fans are watching the running back room

Notre Dame’s running back position remains one of the most scrutinized groups heading into each new college football year, not only because it touches the game’s most fundamental moments, but also because it often reveals how a team’s offense wants to be built. On June 15, Yahoo Sports published a piece identifying Notre Dame RB Aneyas Williams as one of the top players on the roster for the upcoming season, framing the selection as part of a broader “best 20 players” style countdown.

The article’s framing matters as much as the ranking. Rather than approaching Williams as a purely statistical prospect, the author presents the case as “three things I like” about his game, aiming to explain why a player can be valuable even when the public conversation has already moved past spring practice. That perspective is common in early-season college football coverage because it tries to translate practice habits and role expectations into on-field impact.

Williams is positioned in the Yahoo Sports piece specifically as Notre Dame’s running back, meaning the evaluation is tied to how the program wants to run and how it wants to manage tempo, spacing, and physicality. With college offenses increasingly built around multiple looks, a running back’s value can hinge on more than one skill set, including how they operate in different run concepts and how reliably they fit into passing-game responsibilities.

From a Notre Dame perspective, the central question is whether the offense can sustain drives through consistency at the position. In the college game, a strong back can reduce third-down pressure, keep defenses from stacking the box, and create manageable third downs that give a team a chance to control field position. Even without going into end-of-season production, the emphasis on Williams suggests the author views him as a foundational piece for the offense’s day-to-day rhythm.

The public evaluation also comes with the typical caveats that apply to preseason or summer list writing. A ranking column does not equal a depth chart, and “what to like” can describe traits and promise without confirming usage patterns or role certainty once fall camp begins. Still, it provides a useful snapshot of which players are catching evaluators’ attention before games start.

What to watch next, if you want to connect this kind of offseason analysis to real outcomes, is how Notre Dame’s running game looks when it matters most: opening drives, third downs, and early-game response to the first defensive adjustments. If Williams is truly viewed as a key piece, his influence should show up in the structure of the offense, not just in isolated highlight plays.

For Notre Dame supporters, the Williams spotlight also fits a broader title-picture reality: teams typically need an offense that can stay functional under pressure. Whether Williams becomes the centerpiece or an important complement, the running back room will be one of the easiest places to measure that functionality as the season progresses.