Arizona State junior wide receiver Kyle Williams catches a short pass in the left flat, and before he can turn to run up the sideline, a loud "SMACK" halts him in his tracks. The attention of the players, who are still only wearing "shells" (shoulder pads and helmets) shifts to the sideline. That all-to-familiar sound might as well have served as the alarm clock waking the 2018 iteration of the Arizona State Sun Devils up to the approaching season. It was the sound of fall camp's first real hit, and it was a hit delivered by cornerback Kobe Williams.

"I didn't get all of him," Kobe Williams said with a smile during a media session later in the week. "I'm not going to run through Kyle in practice. We need him."

"I just wanted to let him know I was there."

That's the thing that Kobe Williams wants most right now- for you to know that he's there.

Kobe Williams played for current Arizona State linebacker coach Antonio Pierce in high school at Long Beach Poly. Pierce would tell Kobe Williams, as well as the rest of the renowned California team, who had with five-star athlete Jack Jones and four-star athlete Malik Henry as part of the class of 2016, that they were actually slept on.

'Slept on' might not have applied to the team as a whole, but it definitely applied to Kobe Williams, who pulled down six interceptions in his junior and senior years combined, and finished without a Division 1 scholarship offer. He knew that his ability outweighed his options, and decided to bet on himself.

"I got nothing in high school," said Williams. "I was mad. Steaming. I felt like I had something to prove, just like now. I did have Dixie State, but I didn't want to go. I told my dad I'd rather go to JuCo and try to get out."

"I went to Long Beach City to play for Coach Peabody, and did the same thing I did in high school."

Just like high school, Williams' strong play resulted in on field success for his team, and little in the way of recruiting attention from Division 1-level schools. The 2017 signing day came and went, and Williams began to prepare himself for a sophomore campaign at Long Beach City Community College. That's when a phone call came in to teammate DeMonte King that changed everything.

"I was practicing again in the spring with the JuCo, and DeMonte King got a call from Phil Bennett," said Williams. "After I got out of class, DeMonte called me and said "ASU is on us." I didn't believe him. I said when he comes, I'll believe it."

"Next thing you know, I got a call and he had offered us."

When the dust settled on Arizona State's initial 2017 signing class, it was obvious that Arizona State had issues with both quantity and quality in the defensive backfield. Kobe Williams knew that with his diminutive size, and the lack of hype surrounding his name, he would probably be considered by some to be a warm body and practice dummy. He'd think to himself, Do they actually want me or do they just need me? Ultimately, he decided it didn't matter. He was going to bring the same approach he had at Long Beach Poly and Long Beach City to Arizona State.

"First thing I thought when I got this scholarship is that that this thing I'm doing can't stop," said Williams. "I had to have the mindset that nobody really gave me a chance. I play this way for ASU because they gave me that chance, every day, every practice."

Williams said that Phil Bennett recognized the one thing he prides himself on the most- his football IQ.

"I think ASU knew I was an athlete, but when Coach Bennett got to know me, he found out that my football IQ is ridiculous. Football is all I do. I know this game inside and out. I think when he realized I was football smart, and that I go hard in every practice, he fell in love with me. It was easy from there."

That's right. Easy. Kobe Williams, who two years in a row watched teammates make commitments at signing day, left to wonder when his time would come, used the word 'easy' to describe his surprise ascension to the top of the depth chart for Arizona State as a 5-9, 175-pound true sophomore cornerback. A job he's yet to give back.

In his first game at Arizona State, Williams picked off a pass and returned it for an interception. In ASU's upset win over #5 Washington, Todd Graham referred to Kobe Williams as a "dominant corner." By late October, University of Southern California came calling to Sun Devil Stadium, and Williams found himself starting opposite his former high school teammate Jack Jones, who had entertained the idea of coming to Arizona State himself before choosing to play for the Trojans. By that time, Williams was ready to share the spotlight with the former five-star.

Jones, who has since been removed from the Trojans' roster due to an academic issue, and is combatting a separate legal issue that is preventing him from playing football this season, would be the reason from plenty of college programs to stop by Long Beach Poly, and ultimately fail to check on the roster's co-captain, and true cornerback, Kobe Williams.

"What was funny is Jack Jones mostly didn't play corner," remembers Williams. "He did a little bit his senior year, but he was going to college camps and playing it, which got him a lot of attention. For us he was mostly in the slot on offense."

Williams is used to being second billed, as he shares the field with emerging star corner Chase Lucas, who had nearly the same level of accolades as Jack Jones coming out of high school, but also had limited experience actually playing Williams' natural position. One thing that Lucas and Jones seem to also have in common, is their penchant for showing a large personality on the field of play. That's where Williams says that even if he seems comparatively subdued, the three are actually not so different.

"I talk, man. I talk," said Williams. "Everybody from Cali's got that trash talker in them. You've just got to be serious sometimes. Now's just not the right time for that. But when my team gets big, and I feel like we're on the map, I'm gonna show it."

Williams endorsed Poly teammate Jack Jones' immense talent, but was quick to point out that one of the reasons he had a seemingly less turbulent time transitioning to playing corner at the highest level, is that the life of a cornerback is all he's ever led.

"I've been doing this for so long that I feel like I'm the smartest dude on the field," said Williams. "I know formations, alignments, route combinations. I can pick things out as soon as I see movement. I'm a film geek too, and I put the work in to have the footwork that goes with it."

Fellow starting cornerback Chase Lucas endorsed Williams' dedication to his craft, specifically in the weight room.

"He goes hard every time," said Lucas. "It really sets the tone."

Williams said he's taken things up a notch since the arrival of new strength and conditioning coach Joe Connolly.

"This offseason I probably gained 10 pounds of muscle, and my squat numbers went way up."

Williams says all the work he's put in alongside Lucas is with the goal of elevating Arizona State's secondary to the top of the Pac-12, where it was just a few short years ago in the early portion of Todd Graham's tenure.

"Me and Chase are trying to take it to the next level and prove we're the number one cornerback duo in the PAC-12. This defense has so much to prove, and you've seen our demeanor this year. It's just different."

One of the main reasons for the change in the team's demeanor, according to Williams, is the addition of his former Long Beach Poly Head Coach, Antonio Pierce.

"When AP got here, the whole feel, style and swagger of the team changed," said Williams. "I feel like at Long Beach Poly he made us into this dominant team that nobody could mess with, and that's what I feel like is happening now."

Williams also made note of all the players Pierce helped Arizona State land in the 2018 recruiting class, such as Aashari Crosswell, Jermayne Lole and Merlin Robertson. Players Williams says he knew were headed to ASU the moment Antonio Pierce accepted the job.

"When Pierce got this job, it was exciting. I knew all these dudes before they got here. I knew AP would be focusing on California, and I knew those guys were coming with him," Williams said, adding "It's crazy how it all came back around, crazy that players I used to see around the way ended up back together in Tempe."

While Antonio Pierce might be in his corner as his former high school coach, the Defensive Coordinator that took a shot on him, Phil Bennett, has moved on from ASU. Kobe Williams finds himself yet again fighting to impress a new staff in Defensive Coordinator Danny Gonzales and Defensive Backs Coach Tony White- two coaches that didn't recruit him out of either high school or JuCo while together at San Diego State. Williams said he's used to having to prove himself to people, and that all the chips will fall where they're supposed to if he follows the same set of standards that led him to starting at Arizona State in the first place.

"All I care about, and all I'm focused on, is coming out here with my teammates and taking over this conference," Williams said. "I just can't wait until we go out here and start winning with this tough schedule, and watch all the critics come back around."

"If I stick to that, this is the year I finally put my name on the map."