TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– In case anyone needs reminding, Ryan Williams is 17 years old. The conventional expectation is not that individuals that age are responsible for co-authoring one of the greatest moments in recent SEC football history. Williams, however, is anything but a conventional 17-year-old.

Never was that fact, which is quickly becoming apparent across the college football landscape, more apparent than in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against No. 4 Georgia. Seconds after the Bulldogs (3-1) scored to go up 34-33 with 2:31 to play, sucking all the air out of Bryant-Denny Stadium and erasing a 28-0 deficit, No. 2 Alabama needed a big play.

They don’t get any bigger than the ensuing offensive play, a 75-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jalen Milroe to Williams that sent the stadium into a raucous celebration that could register on the Richter scale. Milroe, who was responsible for nearly 500 yards of overall offense, found the freshman wide on the Alabama sideline, and Williams broke free and did the rest.

He made a sensational back-shoulder catch, turning two Georgia defenders into each other as he raced into the end zone. After a successful two-point conversion, the Crimson Tide (4-0) was able to hold on and win 41-34. Everything about the play, even before the yards after contact, worked effectively to perfection: Milroe’s placement of the throw was exactly where it needed to be for Williams to catch it inbounds and have a chance to make a play. With 2:18 left on the game clock, the home team had taken back the lead for good in their SEC opener.

“There are reasons why he’s open,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Understanding timing and concepts… I think what I’m more impressed with is what he does after the catch. It’s not surprising, but it’s certainly impressive.”

Williams had six catches for 177 yards and a touchdown. That line also includes a play in the third quarter in which he tipped the ball to himself for a 54-yard completion. His 75-yard score, by far the most iconic play in the short time since the stadium’s playing field was renamed Saban Field, moved slowly in front of him.

“Every time the ball was in the air (on the game winner), I felt it go to my back shoulder, so I said, I have to open up, like now,” he said. “I opened my mouth, I caught it, and I started running, and I thought, ‘Oh, I can’t be tackled!’ So I did a spin, and it was in slow motion. It was a little faster on the (video board) screen.”

Milroe and Williams have had fun this season with the sum of their jersey numbers, four and two respectively. That bond has become so strong that the latter didn’t even have to directly tell the former that he planned to be open. “He knows four plus two equals six. I know four plus two equals six, so the ball just goes in the air and we have to let him do what he does,” Williams said.

The Crimson Tide signal caller noticed Williams’ approach during the week of practice leading up to the big game. Milroe knows Williams’ playmaking ability, but is also impressed by the freshman’s recognition that he is not a finished product and his willingness to do the things that are important to the team.

“It’s hard to say,” Milroe noted about which Williams play impressed him the most. “That man always plays with the ball,” he added, laughing.

“I just have so much confidence in him,” Milroe said. He’s going to do something special with the football, and it’s also after the catch what he can do with the football in his hands. He’s just an important resource for us going forward and I’m just super happy to have him as my teammate. One thing about Ryan is that he has an approach to continually grow… That’s something that was evident when he was here.”

Perhaps it’s a lot to ask of someone of Williams’ age to have the kind of moment Saturday’s game called for, but the in-state product was the picture of confidence after the game, and he was determined that if one play would get a result Otherwise he might as well play a role.

“On a play, it doesn’t matter who makes it, so I thought, why not me?” he said. “Everyone was calm. We were just talking to each other and keeping each other level-headed, because I mean, sometimes that’s how it happens. We were just trying to win the game, do what we have to do to win.” As for his turning motion, he could not explain the instinct involved in the maneuver. “I just had the ball and the end zone looked pretty close, so I had to get there.”

The roaring start to Williams’ college career is treading the kind of territory that will see it repeated again after just one season. It doesn’t feel quite real to him yet.

“I think most of the time it’s like that, it just feels like a dream. And I just keep going. The dream, I love the dream,” he said with a smile.