Ryan Coleman-Williams' Alabama roller coaster is already back in motion in Week 1

By all accounts, Ryan Coleman-Williams had a tremendous offseason for Alabama. All the chatter out of Tuscaloosa was about a renewed focus. He emerged as a leader, earning one of Alabama's three captain slots ahead of the season.

His sophomore season was littered with drops, lowering his profile from one of the top receivers in the country to a guy who needed a big junior year to get back on early-round NFL Draft radars.

He ditched his gloves this season, going with a bare-hands approach to try and remedy the drop issues that have plagued him.

In the season-opener against East Carolina, the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Coleman-Williams was on full display right away.

Two early pass attempts from Keelon Russell were dropped:

The second one won't count in the stat sheet because of an ECU offside, but you could hear the audible groan all over the state.

But it wasn't all bad. He had a big punt return for 23 yards. And then his first offensive touch after the two drops was a 58-yard catch-and-run on a pass from Russell:

Ryan Coleman-Williams shook off his two early drops to make an impact for Alabama

In the first half, Coleman-Williams put up 100 receiving yards on four receptions. The highs were high, but the lows will be the story of the game for the junior WR. Social media exploded at the first, and then the second, drop.

It was his biggest Achilles heel last season. It caused the coaching staff and Ty Simpson to lose faith in him. Credit to Kalen DeBoer and Russell for going right back to him after the drops. They got him the football again, and he delivered.

But the consistency piece is going to be key going forward. The two early drops were because of bad habits creeping back in that he worked so hard to fix over the offseason. He tried to catch them both with his body, not his hands. Predictably, they bounced off and hit the turf.

On the other receptions, he used his hands.

It's still a process for Coleman-Williams. He has a lot of pressure on him this season. It's Week 1, and everyone is still settling in. The two early drops are certainly worrisome, but he's already shown the mental fortitude to shake them off and move forward.

Hopefully that will continue into next week and the rest of the season. Alabama is going to need him at his best to reach its ceiling this year. He's one of the team's most important players.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow