No one has ever won Alabama’s Mr. Football Award twice in a career.

Alabama wide receiver commit Ryan Williams has two years to change that … or maybe even threepeat.

“That is a goal, of course,” said Williams, whose sensational sophomore season helped Saraland win the Class 6A state title in 2022. “But the main goal is to win that state championship again and go 15-0. I would love to be Mr. Football again. I would love to be the Gatorade Player of the Year again. But the main thing is – whatever it takes to win games – I’m here for it.”

The Spartans went 14-1 a year ago and averaged 43 points a game. Williams caught 88 passes for 1,641 yards and 24 touchdowns and finished with a total of 42 scores. He scored four times in Saraland’s state championship win over Mountain Brook.

Fellow junior KJ Lacey was the first team 6A quarterback, completing 64 percent of his passes for 3,177 yards and 40 touchdowns. He was intercepted just five times. Those two along with senior linebacker/defensive end Chris Thompson and senior linebacker Jamison Curtis represented the Spartans at Mobile County Media Day on Wednesday.

“This is the most talented team I’ve ever been a part of,” coach Jeff Kelly said. “They are more talented than last year, and I really don’t know how close it is. Does that mean we are going to have a season to reflect that? Not at all. We still have to do what it takes to win. We have a target on our backs. We know we will get everyone’s best game, so they better get our best game, too.”

That will start in Game 1 on Aug. 25 when Saraland host two-time Tennessee champ Lipscomb Academy in a game that will be nationally televised by ESPN. Kelly said his team won’t be deterred by a national spotlight.

“These guys have played in front of a bunch of bright lights,” he said. “They don’t care. We’ve got a challenge coming in, and it’s one we asked for. We have a talented, nationally respected program coming into our place. We are going to push all our chips to the middle of the field that night and see what happens, then we are going to put that same mindset into the next game in Week 2.”

The talent is spread throughout the field for Saraland on both sides of the ball, but the spotlight could be brightest on Lacey (a Texas commit) and Williams. Kelly said what his quarterback accomplished a year ago in his first year as the Saraland starter was still hard to describe.

“That guy made me right a lot of times,” he said. “I called a bunch of good plays not because I was smart but because we had a bunch of good guys out there running and catching the ball.”

Like Williams, Lacey said his main goal is for the team to go undefeated this year after losing a regular-season game at Region 1 rival Theodore a year ago. Personally, he said he wanted to make quicker decisions and avoid taking big hits whenever possible.

Williams, who missed time this spring and summer with a leg injury suffered during the 6A state track meet, said Tuesday he is back to 100 percent and ready to go.

“Last year was great, but the main thing I was trying to do was just whatever I could to help us win,” he said. “I have that same mindset this year. No matter what the numbers are I want to do what I can do to help us win 15 games.”

Williams and Lacey said they both get asked a lot if they could convince the other to flip to their college choice, though neither seems to be wavering on their commitment.

“I’ve been trying,” Lacey said of convincing Williams to come to Texas. “But he’s real loyal to Alabama.”

They both plan to be in attendance when Texas travels to Alabama this fall. Williams spent last weekend at the Crimson Tide’s annual cookout and said he did a lot of recruiting of his own in Tuscaloosa.

“I think we will get a lot of those guys,” he said. “It (the cookout) was a lot of fun. We spent some time on the water, had the cookout and then had a little scavenger hunt. It was all fun.”

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