Payton Williams’ star shining brightly on and off the field

Aledo senior offensive lineman Payton Williams has a towering frame of 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds. The dominant lineman, a UTSA-commit, isn’t afraid to “beat the rizz” out of his opponents on the field and to provide high-quality comical entertainment on TikTok after the game. Following a win against Birdville last year, Williams showcased his size, strength, and motor, but displayed his goofy sense of humor and amusing disposition with a video that went viral – to the tune of 4.4 million views.

“It was a funny thing because at the time, the big thing on TikTok was making, like, purposefully hard to watch videos, and they would go viral because it was hard to watch, but people find humor in that just like I did,” Williams said. “So, I would do that voice over and make really bad jokes on purpose and I purposefully go for the cringe factor and then it happened to be really funny. So the thing was, I knew in my mind, this can’t flop because it’s already such a bad video and a bad joke, people are going to think I’m serious. I had to have it go viral. I did it to my fullest effect, people thought it was funny and I just kind of ran with it.”

Williams’ account, under the moniker of “UTSA Pdub,” has nearly 160,000 followers and almost seven million likes across his posts, which will feature more than the laughter-inducing content dominating his page.

“I think that it should help what I want to do in the future,” Williams said. “I think my biggest deal is I always wanted to build a brand for myself, so that whenever it gets to NIL time or post-career, I have that following that can leverage just about anything. I think a big deal that’s a part of it is most of my following now that I know is that when stuff goes viral, everybody likes it, even women. The stuff my followers really follow me for are football kids, younger kids, and linemen that really want to know about football. They can still see that I am a great athlete apart from the videos, so the biggest deal is making sure I maintain those guys that really do care about what I post and who I am as a person. I think I’ll try to start shifting towards things like meal prep and what it takes to be an actual Division I athlete, and I kind of like food a lot.”

As a lineman, Williams has a tough job up front in the trenches, but the big man makes it look easy to move people out of the way with the force he plays with.

“Payton brings all that size that you need on the offensive line. He’s been one of the more consistent offensive linemen that we’ve had over the last couple years,” Jones said. “He’s going to be here and show up consistently. He’s going to be here every day, he’s going to put in the work and he’s going to do what’s asked of him. Like his brother DJ, he moves people, and that’s what you need on the offensive line. You need those big bodies that are strong and can move people out of the way.”

In order to play and perform at the levels he does, Williams takes diligent care of his body through workout regimens and a proper diet, and Williams’ enthusiasm for meal prep could be coming next to help other young, aspiring lineman – a large bulk of his social media fanbase – take their skills to the next level.

“I was thinking about doing some food reviews in my offseason, and I tried to share what it took, like, what I was doing in the offseason and then giving some tips on stances, because I think a lot of things start with stance whenever it comes to the o-line,” Williams said. “I’m going to try and transition back into it because last year, I had my brother – who was home for a couple weeks – who filmed those videos and then after that, I couldn’t find anybody else to film them. And, I really had no time, so I feel like in college I should hopefully have some time and hopefully shed some light whenever I have that time off to build more of that following within the o-line community.”

Williams has been a consistent force up front for Aledo, routinely winning his matchups and helping pave the way for nearly 3,500 yards of offense and 353 total points through eight games. The key? Increased focus through diligent preparation.

“A huge deal that has gone into this year is our commitment in every aspect of what we do,” Williams said. “I feel like everyone has been showing up on time a lot better than it was last year, and everybody’s been present in the film room. You know what I mean? Sometimes, you kind of go to film, you kind of sit on your phone – you don’t really do anything. But, these guys are really – they’ve taken the time out of their day and really applied themselves to taking in the film they watch. Obviously, we have that revenge factor of not wanting to be the team that loses back-to-back years. You can never be the team that loses back-to-back years. So, we feel that and I think it’s really put an extra driving force in us, and it’s finally like a fire under us to make us the team that we really needed to be last year, but now we know that we can be champions this year.”

While Jones is not plugged into social media, he appreciates Williams’ endeavors and his ability to compartmentalize when it is time to go to work, and when it is time to kick back and have fun.

“Well, I don’t get on the TikTok and all that stuff, so I don’t see all the social media stuff,” Jones said. “Now, he tries to put all that aside when it’s time to go to work. When the game’s over, he’ll get his little TikTok video going and all that stuff, but when it’s game time, it’s all business.”