He hails from the same high school as a number of past Badger greats, but Brandon Williams’ speed, talent and versatility has transformed him into a potent weapon on all sides of the ball.

After an impressive high-school career at Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, many teams in the Big Ten had their eyes on Williams. He recalled that basically all the Big Ten teams made their pitch. In the end, UW was the school of choice for Williams for a number of reasons, one being that he liked the kind of team and program that Barry Alvarez had assembled.

“I like the atmosphere, I like the values that the team has; this is a family-orientated team. I have some friends that went here as well.”

Knowing that alumni from his high school had attended UW was also a major consideration for Williams when deciding which school to attend.

“That was a big influence too, Terrell (Fletcher) and Jamar (Fletcher) came from my high school. Scott Starks came here too, and he’s one of my real good friends, so I always like to play with my friends on the team.”

Starks is not the only current Hazelwood East graduate on the team. Freshman defensive end Jamal Cooper and sophomore defensive back Tony Moss are as well. Having past high-school teammates in Madison helped Williams get acclimated to Madison when he first arrived as a freshman.

“[Getting used to Madison] wasn’t really hard, because, like I said, I already knew some people that were already up here, and they helped me out, so I pretty much adjusted.”

After an outstanding freshman year, Williams continues to contribute on the field returning kicks and lining up at wide receiver for UW. He also played a snap at cornerback against Northwestern, but the receiver spot is where he wants to be.

“I think [I like] lining up as a wide receiver, because when you’re at wide receiver it’s just probably you and one other guy that you’ve got to beat.” He said. “On the kickoff, it’s 11 guys running down there hard, and you don’t know if everybody’s gonna make that block, so there might be a couple more guys you [have] to elude.”

Besides his duties as receiver and kickoff return man, Badger fans must now watch for Williams to take the field when the Badgers do not have the ball.

“Actually we’ve used the days that we practiced last week to let Brandon (Williams) work on defense. Now we feel as though we could get some mileage out of him, primarily in nickel defense and that type of thing,” UW head coach Barry Alvarez said during Monday’s press conference.

Williams spent some significant time on defense in high school, recording six interceptions in his career.

So far this season, Williams has racked up 508 yards on 37 catches and one touchdown. He’s averaging 23.2 yards per kickoff, with a long of 55 yards. Last year, Williams became a standout wide out for UW, as he has led the team with 52 receptions. That mark set the freshman school record and tied for fourth on UW’s all-time single-season list for receptions in a season. His 663 receiving yards were second most ever for a Badger freshman, and his 125-yard performance against West Virginia was one of only six 100-yard receiving efforts by a freshman in school history. He also scored three touchdowns in his freshman campaign.

In two years of collegiate football, Williams has developed a reputation for being somewhat of a talker on the field, but that is not an accurate depiction of his demeanor off it.

“I just go with the flow, say whatever comes to mind, really. I don’t really have any set thing that I’m going to say. I just go out there and, you know, just do what I do,” he said. “I think that’s just how I play the game, because really off the field I’m not even that talkative. I’m pretty quiet, laidback, but once I get on the field that’s just my game.”

Although one-liners are not, film study is a big part of Williams’ game-day preparation.

“I just watch as much film as I possibly can. Just get focused, try to focus in on certain guys instead of the whole defense. Like the cornerback, who’s going to line up against me most the time, and what he does, watch some film on some guys that have been successful against him, and then just go out there and execute.”

In the midst of training for multiple positions and being a student-athlete, Williams is always looking for time to relax. As it turns out, students, athlete and non-athlete alike, tend to spend their free time in much the same way.

“I like to play Madden, NBA Live, hang out with the guys, play Halo too. Pretty much play video games and go out to eat, stuff like that.”