You're playing a game of pickup football on the HUB lawn. It's you and a few of your out-of-shape buddies along with the entire Penn State football team.

You and I are captains. You have first pick.

Who ya got?

A.Q. Shipley? No. This game is about the skill players.

Anthony Scirrotto? The safety could probably play both ways and deliver the boom, but this will be a friendly game and no one wants a ride in an ambulance.

Navorro Bowman? Nah, you could get a linebacker in the next round.

Your eyes scan the crowd. You need a playmaker. You're torn between Evan Royster and Daryll Clark. You want to play quarterback, but in the end decide Clark can chuck it farther than you.

"OK," you say. "I'll take Daryll."

I'm ecstatic. Overly-jubilant. My pick is still on the board. I was sure he would be the first pick. Isn't it obvious?

Well, I'm not hesitating with this one.

Derrick, as I point at No. 2. You're on my team.

You suddenly realize your error. You have a quarterback, but you're now without his most lethal weapon, and instead I've got Penn State's best player -- Derrick Williams.

Since he was the nation's most sought after recruit in 2005, Williams has seen his stock rise and fall at Penn State, which might lead some pickup football captains to question him as the top pick.

Williams has suffered through a season cut short by injury in '05 and another one full of average performances in 2006. For the nation's top recruit, that's been unacceptable.

But Williams has persevered. He hasn't lost a step. He may have picked up a couple in fact. Check the box score from Saturday's game. Three touchdowns. Three different ways. All on national television. Williams' coming out party?

You bet.

There have been those who have doubted the Greenbelt, Md. native and Penn State's judgement in recruiting him.

This year is his to respond to those doubters. So far, the naysayers should keep quiet.

In 2008, Williams leads Penn State with 657 all-purpose yards. He has found the endzone four times. Two of his touchdowns have come on blistering returns at key moments in the game on which the coverage teams for Coastal Carolina and Illinois have looked like J.V. squads.

Williams is returning punts and kickoffs. He's lining up in the slot, split-out wide, in the backfield next to Clark. He's doing everything.

The most beautiful play Penn State has run in years happened Saturday. No surprise, it was all made possible by Williams.

Clark took the shotgun snap just outside of the 20-yard line with Williams on his left. As a bit of foreshadowing, Clark faked the handoff to Williams then looked left down the field. Illinois linebackers keyed on Williams, thinking he would run around the right side of the Nittany Lion line, but Williams fooled them. He cut up the field and Illini linebacker Martez Wilson caught on too late. Clark's focus shifted to his No. 1 weapon, and Williams burned the Illini for the touchdown grab.

Perfection.

It was a common theme at Big Ten Media Days earlier this summer in Chicago.

Opposing defensive backs and linebackers talked about how they were used to keying on Williams earlier in his career. Last season? They had written him off.

Purdue linebacker Anthony Heygood said he didn't "remember much of [Williams] last year."

Other defenders had similar things to say of Williams.

"Wherever he was, that's where the focus of the defense was," Ohio State Malcolm Jenkins said. "I think we've kind of relaxed our gameplan now. I think they stopped using him as much in [different] situations.

"He plays a lot more receiver now. Although a lot of people don't think he's produced like he should, he's still a competitor that we gameplan for and somebody that needs to be respected."

Don't be surprised if commentators are talking about Williams' career year on New Year's Day.

Or maybe even on Jan. 7.

I will say I told you so, especially after Team Johnson, with Derrick Williams, burns your team on the HUB grass.