Taking off the cape: Marquise Williams plans on playing within himself this season

Marquise Williams doesn’t have to be the hero anymore.

In the past two seasons, the North Carolina quarterback was in many situations where he had to carry his team when he set 18 school records.

But as the fifth-year senior looks forward to what the upcoming season has in store for him, Williams knows this is what his whole career has been leading up to.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound quarterback says he is the healthiest he has been since his sophomore year of high school, and his coaches believe he has finally reached the maturity level expected of him.

“Just watching Marquise mature as a quarterback — and that’s in every aspect of what’s going on — it doesn’t mean he still doesn’t make mistakes,” Coach Larry Fedora said. “But he understands now when a mistake is made whether it’s him or anybody.

“The cliche that the game has slowed down, what it really means is that a guy has become comfortable. The game hasn’t slowed down, but his decision-making process is so much faster.”

Williams hopes to ditch the stigma of savior in order to get his teammates involved — but also in an effort to protect his body.

“Whatever my team needs me to do, I’m going to do it,” Williams said. “There were times last year where everyone was covered, and I ran. I could have dumped it out, but I didn’t. I just took on the role of trying to be the hero.

“That’s not what it’s about this year.”

The hip injury Williams sustained near the end of the 2014 season kept him out of spring practice, but he is fully healed after having a successful surgery on his partially torn labrum.

While the injury might have slowed him down, it also helped him improve in the offseason.

“It started in spring practice when he wasn’t able to go,” said quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf. “He came out and got 1,000 mental reps. Instead of getting the physical reps, which he has gotten plenty of through the course of his career, he was able to focus on the mental side of it.”

While injured, Williams was also able to help aid the growth of his backup, sophomore Mitch Trubisky, who this time last year was considered Williams’ competition instead of his backup.

“I think me and (Marquise) work together well,” Trubisky said. “We are always pushing each other in meeting rooms and on the field.”

Williams enters the 2015 season on many preseason award watch lists, including the Maxwell Award watch list for the nation’s best player.

But his own personal goals for the season are completely different.

“I’m trying to stay humble,” he said. “It’s good to be on the Heisman watch list, but my goal is to get to Charlotte twice this year, in September and December (for the ACC Championship).”

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