Today’s college football makes it easier for players languishing deep in the charts to land better opportunities elsewhere. However, a former Indiana QB has found a starting job after years of being held back because of injuries. Now at a G5 program, he stands as the man of the hour. And he will also face his former home early in the season.

Curt Cignetti was yet to join Indiana when QB Dexter Williams II signed with the program. Unfortunately, not much came of his stint with the Hoosiers. After redshirting his first season in 2020, Williams was hoping to see playing time in 2021. Unfortunately, he was ruled out because of an ACL injury. Once again in 2023, he was out because of a yet-to-heal knee injury. After two transfers, Williams is now at Kennesaw State. After 5 whole years in college football, the QB is thrust into his biggest role yet.

Williams has been named the starting QB for the Owls, Pete Thamel reports. He will be leading the charge for Kennesaw State’s opener against Wake Forest, which will be an away game. An injury-marred career has kept Williams’s stats low. He appeared in 4 games for Indiana in 2022, tallying 184 yards, 2 TDs, and an additional 165 rushing yards. Transferring to Georgia Southern for the 2024 season, he was only able to rope in 248 yards, 3 TDs, and 45 rushing yards.

Dexter Williams will be the leader in a very new QB room, as new HC Jerry Mack brought in 4 more QBs along with him. This is his 6 season in college football, and he will work on taking the Owls to a better record after finishing 2-10 last year. “It feels like a long time coming, but every experience I had before has prepared me for now,” Williams told The Atlanta Journal. Williams will also face off against his former home, Indiana, in Week 2, as Curt Cignetti returns for a second go at the playoffs.

Dexter Williams will lead a fairly new Kennesaw State football through the C-USA, its second season as an FBS program. But along with taking charge as the Owls QB1, he has another very important role waiting for him back home.

Dexter Williams on balancing his family and football

After football practice, Williams has to slip into dad mode at home. Six months ago, his life saw another path unfold when his daughter, Delaney, was born. However, he’s dedicated to family as much as he is to football. With time, these things begin to take shape on their own. “If I’m in the building, I have my mind in the building. I’m at home, have my mind on my daughter and Isabel,” he said. Now QB1 of Kennesaw State, it’s going to be a wild ride of a journey for the QB.

Balancing both priorities is going to get difficult for Williams, but he’s up for the challenge. “[If] you care about something, you’ll always find time to do it,” he said. Kennesaw State is ranked at a worrying 131 by ESPN’s Football Power Index. The program returns a lot of its production from 2024, but they’re still a very new FBS team. In their very first appearance, they stumbled brutally, which ended the Brian Bohannon’s career with the team.

“Dexter has what we call an ‘old soul’ now,” Jerry Mack told the Journal. It’s going to be interesting to see how Dexter Williams II fares in his first ever major college football season. While he’s also got dad duties to manage, the QB also has to emerge as a productive leader, to help his program to a better record this season.