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It felt too neat, too scripted. Kyle Whittingham calling over Marcus Williams by shouting his name three times, telling him, "Go try to track it down and get something," and then watching with his hands on his hips and muttering "Read it, Marcus, and steal it," as his sophomore safety picked off a tipped pass from Cal's Jared Goff.
Head coaches do not instruct specific players to intercept the ball and then watch it happen on the next series. Football is more complicated than that. Except that "The Drive" actually isn't scripted, and that actually is how it happened.
Last week's episode of Pac-12 Networks' in-season documentary gave viewers a glimpse of the faith Whittingham has in his sophomore free safety — seeing in him the second coming of 2008 playmaker Robert Johnson — and the impression that it's well-placed.
Utah is tied with West Virginia for the national lead in interceptions per game, at 2.16, after what cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah said has been a concerted effort to involve a ball in every practice activity. And Williams, with four, has made the average ballhawk look like a dove.
"His focus and his concentration is so sharp that when the opportunity is there, he capitalizes," Whittingham said. "He does it every day in practice. It's not unique to games. He makes some spectacular interceptions in practice."
Shah said this week that there's nothing passive about football, and the same can be said of Williams.
Senior safety Tevin Carter lovingly described him as "irritating. Very, very irritating."
"When he first got here, I didn't really like Marcus that much," Carter said, smiling wide and adding, "He talked a lot, for no reason."
Butted in a nearby Williams: "Who talks a lot?"
"You," another teammate told him. "You."
Williams may have furrowed his brow and shook his head in disbelief, but it's no lie, said his dad, Sylvester: Williams is going to compete, and he's going to yap.
Father and son are longtime partners during family spades games, mercilessly aggravating his mom, Franschell, and whichever of Williams' brothers she teams up with.
But that's not to say he's a bad sport. When he was an 8-year-old running back, scoring 35 touchdowns in Jr. All-American football, he'd cross the goal line and turn around to help up knocked-down opponents, Sylvester said.
Mostly, he just wants to win — at everything. After Brian, Eric and Jonathan brought home report cards with A's and B's, it motivated Williams to graduate high school with a 4.0, Sylvester said.
He's studying now to become a civil engineer. When he was a true freshman, his parents visited his dorm room to make sure he was all squared away and heard a knock at the door, and a roommate announce, "Marcus, he's here."
It wasn't the pizza guy; it was another student. Williams was his tutor. Explained his dad: "He knows math like the back of his hand."
And quarterbacks, apparently. But Williams may be least wowed by his ball skills, as a former two-way player at Eleanor Roosevelt High in Corona, Calif., who once snagged four interceptions in a single game.
"It's not really a big deal," he said. "Athletes catch the ball. When you're young, you learn how to catch it. It's just something that I've continued to do as I got older."
There are a few things in common between Williams and Johnson. Superficially, that both hail from the Los Angeles area, but more meaningfully that both are onetime basketball standouts and high jumpers — Williams led all Utes during summer conditioning workouts in vertical jump (39.5 inches) and broad jump (10 feet, 11 inches) — who are surer tacklers than their frames would suggest.
Thrust into duty as a true freshman, Williams was among the slightest safeties in the nation but finished fifth on the team with 59 tackles, adding an interception and two forced fumbles.
Teammates would pile food on his plate in the team cafeteria, drawing his ire. He doesn't feel undersized. "I feel like I play big," he said, now listed nearer to the norm at 190 pounds.
Carter said Williams probably wasn't physically ready for this level last season, but that even as a freshman, he was the safety group's best sideline-to-sideline roamer. Williams hinted at things to come when he ended the spring game by picking off sophomore Conner Manning at his own 1-yard line and returning it 99 yards for a touchdown. Said Carter: "One-handed catches, crazy catches — he did it all fall camp. This is what you expect from him."
Williams' family is tight-knit, camping together in a motor home by the bay or in the Sierras. He enjoys fishing with his dad, who took him out on the sea for the first time this year in search of tuna, yellowtail and sea bass. There is, apparently, one thing he doesn't always catch.
"He can fish," Sylvester said, laughing. "He can tell you how to fish. But he just isn't catching any fish yet."
About 120 of Williams' family and friends are expected to attend Saturday's game — where Utah will try to do to one of the nation's most highly regarded passers, USC's Cody Kessler, what they did to another such quarterback, in Goff. Many in attendance won't have seen Williams for years, Sylvester said, but they'll be drawn because "he's just a naturally good kid."
Even Carter said he's come around on his loquacious young teammate.
"He's cool," Carter allowed, sighing playfully. "Now, I can deal with him."
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
No. 3 Utah at USC
P Saturday, 5:30 p.m. MDT
TV • Ch. 13 —
About Marcus Williams
Vitals • 6 feet, 190 pounds, No. 20.
Family • Has three older brothers, who range in age from 23 to 33. His father, Sylvester, is an environmental health and safety general manager and his mother, Franschell, works in capital planning at Cal State Bernardino.
Before Utah • As a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High in Corona, Calif., Williams had 60 tackles and six interceptions while catching 41 passes for 925 yards and nine TDs.
At Utah • Played in all 13 games, starting six at free safety last season. This year has 29 tackles, four interceptions — tied for eighth in the FBS — and a fumble recovery.