‘Gave us a real shot’: How Ke’Shawn Williams stepped up for IU football when it needed him — and how he wasn’t letting a big moment ‘slip away again’

IU football needed a momentum shifting play from someone. It needed something — it needed anything. After struggling for the first 25 minutes of the second half, it was a play not from the offense, not from the defense, but from IU’s special teams that would lift the Hoosiers to a win.

Indiana had -13 yards in its first two drives of the fourth quarter. After a critical defensive stop and just a two-point game, Indiana needed to do two things; take time off the clock and get points. It was Ke’Shawn Williams who lifted Indiana to a win — thanks to the only returned punt of the night.

With 5:33 remaining in Saturday’s game, Ke’Shawn Williams waited patiently on Indiana’s 29-yard line as Michigan lined up for a punt. What he did next gave Indiana ‘a real shot’ at remaining unbeaten and moving to 10-0.

Williams watched the ball as it hung in the air, starting to fall around IU’s 40.

“That was a hard punt really to judge and catch because the nose was spiraling down and to the left,” IU football head coach Curt Cignetti said following the 20-15 win. “It was dying.”

As the ball began to drop, Williams sprinted up the field and caught the ball in stride at the 39 yard line. Without missing a beat, he made one subtle, yet elusive, move seven yards up the field to split two Michigan defenders. He then made a third defender miss as he went from outside of the right hash to the far left hash.

After making two more defenders miss, he was finally taken down at the Michigan 39 yard line — a 22-yard return.

“He was full throttle, man. To catch that punt, and he made it happen, was a tremendous effort, and really was very uplifting for everybody in the stadium,” Cignetti said. “About the first great thing that had happened offensively counting the punt return as an offensive play. Gave us a real shot.”

Two plays later — on second and long — Kurtis Rourke found Williams for an 11-yard gain that would eventually set up a 41-yard made field goal for the Hoosiers, making it the eventual final score of 20-15.

“It was definitely a momentum shifter,” Williams said of the punt return. “We flipped the field and got good field position.”

While it was Williams who made the big play on special teams, he was also a critical member of the passing game throughout the afternoon. He finished with a game-high 70 yards on six receptions. He caught every target he saw.

“I wasn’t too worried or too curious because we had times where we started slow and picked it up,” Williams said of the offensive struggles. “When you perform how we have performed all year there’s never any doubt. We’re never on the sideline like ‘dang, this might be it’. We know when we get out there and do our thing, we going to make some stuff happen.”

Williams — who had returned just two punts in his previous four years combined — hadn’t seen action on the punt team this year for Indiana. When Myles Price went down in the second quarter with an injury, it was Williams stepping in.

After some hesitation on the first punt return of the night, Williams knew his second — and final return — needed to bring energy to the field. It was not only a critical moment, it could end up being the key moment of the season for IU football after keeping its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

“I wasn’t going let the opportunity slip away again,” Williams said. “I peeked down a little when the ball was short and saw I had space. The rest is just catch the ball and make something happen.”

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