With the transfer portal set to open next week, there's bound to be several former Nebraska football stars looking for greener pastures yet again. Among them is James Williams, someone who was a fan favorite when he was in Lincoln and quickly became a Twitterverse villain once he landed at Florida State.
Williams brought some of the anger on himself, not choosing his words all that carefully once he talked to the media about his Seminoles teammates. He also sparred a bit with Husker fans on Twitter.
However, he also kept quiet after a few back and forths early in the season and yet, continued to be someone that Nebraska fans loved to pile on as Florida State racked up the losses. That's hardly unique to football. When a player leaves for a new team, fans are likely to hope he doesn't all of a sudden perform better.
How a former Nebraska football sack leader became a villain — and why he’s moving on
Williams performed better in some aspects and didn't in others. For the Seminoles, he logged a career high of 19 tackles. He also had 1.5 sacks and had a half sack in each of the last two games he appeared in.
However, after a promising 2024 in a rotational role at Nebraska, totaling five sacks, he was expected to take on a bigger role and be FSU's primary pass rusher on defense in 2025. That didn't really materialize.
Now, after one season playing following Tony White and Terrance Knighton in Tallahassee, he's looking to forge his own path. While there's very little chance he'd come back to Nebraska, here's hoping Husker fans just let him be on his way and move on as well.