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Newcomer Profile: Kristian Williams

The Missouri football roster in 2022 will look drastically different than a season ago. Eli Drinkwitz and his staff have added a whopping 34 scholarship newcomers to the team since last season ended, thus turning over more than one-third of the roster. Nineteen of those newcomers arrived on campus in June to begin summer conditioning.

As we continue to count down the days to fall camp, PowerMizzou is going to profile each of those 20 newcomers who have arrived since the end of spring practices in order to help fans get to know all the new faces on the roster. Today, we take a look at Oregon transfer defensive tackle Kristian Williams.

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Kristian Williams

Position: DT

Height: 6-2

Weight: 312

Year: Redshirt junior

Last School: Oregon

The final newcomer added to Missouri’s 2022 signing class seemed to come out of nowhere. Williams, a transfer from Oregon, had kept his recruitment virtually silent until he announced last month that he would transfer to Missouri after taking an official visit to campus.

It marked the second time the Tigers have recruited Williams. As a three-star prospect in the 2019 class, Williams visited Missouri but ultimately signed with Oregon. He spent three seasons in Eugene, redshirting 2019 and playing a backup role in 2020 and 2021. Across those two seasons, he logged 19 tackles.

At a minimum, Williams should provide depth at a position of uncertainty for Missouri — assuming he is eligible for this season. Williams is already in Columbia, but there were some rumblings of concern about his academic standing. However, he told PowerMizzou at the time of his commitment that he believes he’ll be able to take the field come fall.

Williams joins a crowded defensive line room. Yet despite the number of bodies, the opportunity should be there for him to earn playing time. Darius Robinson is back at defensive tackle after starting eight games across the past two seasons, and Oklahoma State transfer Jayden Jernigan appears to be the favorite to start alongside him. But of all the players behind those two, Williams has logged the most college tackles.

Staying true to his under-the-radar recruitment, Williams didn’t make any proclamations about his playing time this season or beyond.

"I’d rather just let my game talk to be honest," he said. "Just know going into it I’m somebody that’s going to work and give it my all every day."

Previous Profiles

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DJ Coleman

Valen Erickson

Carmycah Glass

Marquis Gracial

LJ Hewitt

Sam Horn

Demariyon Houston

Josh Landry

Ma'Kyi Lee

Jalen Marshall

Ian Matthews

Curtis Peagler

Xavier Simmons

Isaac Thompson

Ja'Marion Wayne

DJ Wesolak


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