2021 Mountain West Football Top 50 Players: #13, UNLV RB Charles Williams
The Rebels running back had a challenging 2020 but is still plenty good enough to again make our list of Mountain West football’s best.
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A proven veteran rides one more time.
2020 brought trials for just about every college football team in the country, but few had a more challenging path than the rebuilding UNLV Rebels. Marcus Arroyo wasn’t shy about leaning on his established talents, however, which brings us to the next entry on our annual countdown of the Mountain West’s top football athletes.
Charles Williams is the highest-ranked UNLV player on this year’s list after shouldering a career-high workload, averaging 19.3 carries per game while rushing for 495 yards and four touchdowns. Though the stat sheet wasn’t quite on par with his past production, Arroyo has made it clear that he valued Williams’ leadership and work ethic throughout last season’s hardships, enough so to say of UNLV’s first ever Academic All-American that they are “culture things which are going to resonate” in the Rebels locker room.
Heading into 2021, Williams is just 793 rushing yards away from breaking Tim Cornett’s program record and has a chance to help UNLV emphatically turn the page on 2020’s winless campaign. The man they call the “Chuck Wagon” is perhaps more motivated to go out on a high note than anyone else in the Mountain West.
.@ChuckW_8 cleared for takeoff!@unlvfootball keeping things close on FS2#AtThePeak | #BEaREBEL pic.twitter.com/LZYdst1e4g
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) November 15, 2020
Had the chance to catch up with UNLV running back @ChuckW_8 (@BullardFootball grad) on the upcoming season, playing against Fresno State and taking the field inside Allegiant Stadium where "Jon Gruden may be at the top going 'I like that kid there he's fast!" @ABC30 pic.twitter.com/sIp25OunaG
— Stephen Hicks (@StephenABC30) July 25, 2021
