Wild cross-country trip tells several stories for SMU-bound DT

Stanford was good to Fort Worth native Michael Williams. He started the last 25 games as a defensive tackle for the Cardinal, and he made his presence known competing in the trenches in the Pac-12.

He'll also own a degree from Stanford in a matter of weeks. After entering the NCAA transfer portal in December, Williams then announced last month his plans to return to the Metroplex. He has verbally committed to play his final year of eligibility at SMU as a graduate transfer.

Williams now is back home with family. And much like many other football players nationwide, at any level, he's sitting and waiting for the green light for life to return to some kind of normalcy.

"I just wish the gyms were open," Williams said. "But it's good to be around family. I just want to get some work in now."

Williams' return to the Metroplex comes with a few stories to tell. And the stories help paint a picture of the athlete SMU will get in the 6-2, 290-pound defensive lineman.

Picture it: California's Interstate 40. Williams, his mother and his stepfather all are in his 2011 GMC Terrain ready for a cross-country trek to move Williams back to the Lone Star State.

Stanford, California is roughly 1,700 miles from Fort Worth. The family already expected the trip to be a day-plus drive. Add a little more time to that, courtesy of a gridlock that completely stopped traffic. "The trip ended up taking about 27 hours," Williams said.

Only two hours into the actual trip, with traffic at a standstill for over an hour, Williams decided to make the most of the already-longer-than-expected drive. And his actions gave SMU fans an idea of what to expect for the upcoming season.

Williams got a workout in.

"I started pulling stuff out the trunk and the back seat," Williams said. "I had cones. I had the arm. I had a jump rope. I just said, 'Let's do it.'"

Williams took time to break down his trip in depth with The HillTopics.

He commented on the drive as a whole: "It was long ... long, but it wasn't bad at all," he said. "I had my mom and my stepdad with me. I had the night shift, so I drove through the night. It wasn't bad. I enjoyed myself."

He spoke on waking up from a nap only to realize he was in a traffic jam: "I knew I'd be driving through the night, so I'm in the back seat sleeping," he said. "I wake up, and we're stopped. I'm like, 'How long have we've been stopped? What's going on?' Turns out, we'd only been stopped for 30 minutes or so."

Williams spoke of the feeling of deception of driving on Interstate 40: "You get on the road, [GPS] first says, 'In 3 miles, turns here.' Then it says, 'In 462 miles, stay straight,'" he said. "You're like, what? You can't say stuff like that to me. It doesn't even feel right."

Williams also talked about what made him to break out the training gear in the middle of the interstate: "After about another 15 [minutes], I decided to just get out of the car," he said. "If we're stuck here, I'm not going to be sitting in the car all day. I might as well stretch my legs when I can."

He even spoke on making that drive again if he had to: "I could say I thought it'd be way worse than it was," he said, "but I have no interest in doing it ever again."

Eventually, Williams and his family were driving again. And after many, many miles, four or five gas stops, quick visits in multiple states and a couple of driving shift changes, the family crossed Texas state lines. Once he made it to Amarillo, Williams said the level of excitement rose.

"We've done the El Paso ride and the New Orleans ride," he said. "We got to Amarillo, and I was thinking, 'We're going to be home soon.' Every time we got to about a half a tank [of gas], we'd stop to fill it back up. But once we got to Amarillo, there was no more filling that car up. There was no stopping us.

"We got back home, and I probably had a little less than an eighth of a tank."

He's now home -- in Fort Worth. The next stop for Williams will be home -- at SMU. Williams said he's yet to sign any official documentation binding him to SMU, but he has been accepted into SMU's graduate program, and he plans on signing all necessary paperwork once the worldly affairs become less of an issue.

Look for him to help shoulder the load of a defensive line unit looking to replace a handful of contributors from the 2019 season. Gone from SMU's roster are Zach Abercrumbia, Demerick Gary, Pono Davis and Tyeson Neals, among others.

Williams may have received some peculiar looks from drivers during his Interstate 40 workout, but this is the guy SMU needs to see -- and a player SMU can use. A target of multiple doubleteams against Pac-12 opponents, Williams recorded 24 tackles (six for loss), a sack and two quarterback hurries during the 2019 season.

He is a potential leader for the Mustangs, particularly with spring football canceled because of the current global circumstances. SMU will get a former Power 5 defensive starter who can offer tutelage and help push SMU's younger defensive linemen to new levels.

As for the drive from California to Texas, Williams said it will be a Tuesday and Wednesday he won't soon forget. And as for his viral videos, Williams wants them to be considered more than just that.

They were statements of what's to come. And something of a testament to exactly how excited he is to get to SMU and compete.

"I'm home, and I feel good," he said. "I'm just ready to go."