Big year for big fellas: Sought-after offensive linemen abound in Minnesota high schools

Football, Jerome Williams says, "kind of saved my life."

Until just a few years ago, school never meant much to Williams, a senior offensive guard for Osseo who stands 6-4 and a smidge and is up to 305 pounds.

He messed around a little with basketball — after all, he was bigger that most of the kids growing up — and he had developed his lower-body dexterity through youth soccer, but motivation was lacking.

"I wasn't doing too good in school," Williams admitted.

He'd always harbored a dream of being a scholarship-level athlete, but until his freshman year those hopes remained just a dream. Reality was setting in.

"I always wanted to be a scholarship player, but I realized I wasn't going to get that with basketball," he said.

Little did he know, some had other ideas. Such as Osseo coach Ryan Stockhaus.

"When you see a kid walking in the halls who's that size, you think, 'Wait a second. Who are you?' " Stockhaus said. "Our head sophomore coach, Chris Anderson, who at the time was working on freshman staff, was really eager to get him out and sit him down in front of us."

At the time, Osseo was building up its numbers and actively seeking offensive linemen.

"We knew we needed him to play. And we could see with his length and how raw he was that he had the potential to be pretty good. We wanted to get our hands on him and start coaching him up," Stockhaus said.

Williams had some initial doubts when he finally stepped on a football field. That was midway through his freshman year.

"I didn't really care for football," he said. "It was really physical. There's always the old joke that soft football players end up being basketball players. It was a whole another level of physicality. This was a grown man's sport."

It didn't take long for Williams to show what coaches hoped they would see. He took to playing offensive line like a wheel takes to rolling. He was in the starting lineup as a sophomore and was turning recruiters' heads midway through his junior season, his quickness, agility and raw power impossible to ignore.

His schoolwork improved, along with his everyday attitude. "A lot more teachers are willing to work with me because they know I have big stuff going on," he said. "There are high expectations: Never be late to class, always sit in the front of the class, get my work in in time."

Williams is a team captain now. "He influences not only the offensive line, but guys follow him," Stockhaus said. "We volunteer at youth camps and at carnivals. We had a golf tournament this weekend. He's not too big of a player to show up and do that. You've got big No. 77 walking around and kids are looking up to him."

In February, Williams, now considered the No. 1 offensive lineman in the state by recruiting services, gave a verbal commitment to the University of Minnesota.

"That was huge for him," Stockhaus said. "He's still pretty raw. His best football is in front of him."

But his dream has arrived.

A class with heft

Williams has the highest profile, but he's not the only highly regarded offensive lineman in the metro. Or in the state.

A bumper crop of Minnesota big boys have college football in their sights.

There's Prior Lake's Greg Johnson, a 6-5, 285-pound senior tackle who's fleet of foot and full of nasty. "I was undersized when I was in youth football, so I've always played with a chip in my shoulder," Johnson said, then emphasized that with a mild expletive. Let's just say he indicated he's angry when he plays.

Johnson, who beat Williams in a foot race at a Gophers camp earlier this year, will join Williams at Minnesota next year. As will Kasson-Mantorville's mammoth Reese Tripp, a 6-7, 320-pound goliath who committed to the Gophers just three days before Williams.

"I met him at Gophers practice," Williams said of Tripp. "I was looking up at him and he was pretty far out. I thought I was tall, but I think I'm the shortest offensive lineman in our group."

Building to it

It's a special class of Minnesota offensive linemen when three are committed to the U. The special stuff doesn't stop there.

Anoka's Grant Chapman looks just as imposing as the others, at 6-5 and 280 pounds. He didn't catch the Gophers' interest, but all that's done is drive him to improve. He was an All-Metro selection in 2021, yet he spent the offseason looking to better himself in the toughest way he knew how.

For the first time in his life, he joined a wrestling team.

"It's you versus the guy in front of you," Chapman reasoned. "You need to work your tail off to get the outcome you want."

It made him a more accomplished football player. "It taught me a lot about leverage, about keeping your feet and using another guy's weight against him," Chapman said.

The Gophers aren't interested, but other Division I programs certainly are. Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State are among the teams in the running for Chapman's services.

Minnetonka's Jack Liwienski knows he's the smallest of Minnesota's top senior offensive linemen. "I've met them and they're all like 6-5, 6-6," he said.

Liwienski is 6-3 and 270 pounds, but he feels he has an advantage the others do not. His father is former Vikings lineman Chris Liwienski. Jack has had the knowledge and experience of his father at the dinner table and in the back yard.

"We put in the work in the basement and on the treadmill," Jack Liwienski said. "It was nice to have him as a father. He never pushed me to play football."

Liwienski, committed to North Dakota State, said he feels his background helps him "think" the game as well as he plays it. So, naturally, he has gravitated toward playing center.

"I like playing center," he said. "You're kind of the quarterback of the offensive line. And you have more responsibility. You still get to maul people, but you have a lot more to think about."