“Big brother” DJ Williams mentors close-knit Saluki quarterbacks room

CARBONDALE, Ill. — DJ Williams looks at rest of the Saluki Football quarterback room and sees a bright future, and he's determined to bring out the best in each of them.

The 23-year-old All-American QB has embraced the role of big brother and mentor to the team’s other four quarterbacks — Jake Curry, JC Mirasola, Owen Rann and Ridge Holman.

During the last two years, teammates have watched Williams develop into one of the premier passers in college football. He wrote the book on how to handle adversity and demonstrate leadership, enabling him to share graduate-level knowledge with the team's next generation of QBs.

“Those are my little brothers, and I treat them as such,” Williams said. “They can ask me for anything.”

Part of the job of being a big brother, of course, is to push little brother’s buttons once in a while.

“Sometimes, the big brother might pick on you a little bit,” Williams smiled. “Maybe give you some words of wisdom.”

Walk past the quarterbacks room on any given day, and you may hear the group alternate between rounds of laughter and heated debate. The most animated discussions in the room seem to be between Williams, a Chicago native, and the Florida-born Mirasola.

“JC thinks Tampa is the greatest place ever, all sunshine and rainbows out there,” Williams laughed. "Sometimes, I got to tell him it's not the truth."

“I will 100 percent always argue my position with DJ,” Mirasola shrugged and grinned. “That's what sparks a lot of our conversations in the quarterback room.”

Williams is not afraid to push buttons in the QB room.

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“Being from Florida, JC’s got that laid back flow, a cool kid, fun guy to be around,” Williams said. “I step on his toes a little bit. When I say something to rub him the wrong way, he knows I do it out of no place but love.”

“Curry is more of a chill guy, but people don't know he’s got a little feisty side to him,” Williams said. “If he doesn't like the way that something's going, he's not afraid to speak up.”

“Owen is the other Curry,” Williams continued. “They both give you that southern Illinois vibe that’s real relaxed, but if you get them going, they'll get real feisty with you.”

Holman, an 18-year-old freshman from Nashville, is the newest and greenest member of the group. At first, he awkwardly referred to Williams as “sir,” eliciting an animated response from the fifth-year veteran.

“He wants to call you sir, and we're on the same team!” Williams shook his head in mock dismay. “I just try to tell him, man, you can relax a little bit. Nobody's going to give you a whooping here. You can be who you are around us. All you got to do is be yourself. People will like who you are. Ridge is just a very nice guy.”

When he first arrived, freshman Ridge Holman referred to Williams as "sir. “

There’s a purpose behind the give-and-take and good-natured teasing, Williams explained.

“What you're doing is preparing them for the role of being a quarterback,” he said. “A quarterback's got to be able to have a thick skin, got to be a leader, got to be willing to interact with other people. I tell them, you got to tell people the truth. You can be real blunt and honest with them, and that's what it's going to take to be a quarterback.”

Williams continued, “I tell them, you’re going to have some people talk a little smack to you, and you can't be the guy that crumbles or gets down on yourself or tries to shoot back all the time. You gotta be the guy that's staying cool, calm, collected, through it all.”

The most animated exchanges in the QB room are between Williams and Mirasola.

A leader needs to have a deep understanding of the men he’s leading, Williams said.

“Sometimes, I’ll shoot at Curry a little bit, and I'm actually expecting a reaction,” he said. “If he doesn't react, it's like, you're not the same J. Curry today. If he doesn't shoot back, I'm worried about him at that point, and I got to see what's going on.”

Curry said he doesn’t mind the shots and has even learned to fire back.

“If DJ says something, sometimes I'll agree, sometimes I'll be like, what the heck are you talking about?” Curry laughed. “Sometimes you got to humble him, bring him down.”

It all comes back to “making them better quarterbacks,” Williams said. “I take pride in having a relationship with them on and off the field. Everything that I do with them is basically teaching them how to be a better leader. You got to be able to communicate with your teammates. That's what we do.”

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More about the Saluki Quarterbacks

Quarterbacks coach Michael Lindauer described the room as “a family.”

“It's a close-knit room,” he said. “You see how much they joke around. DJ likes to tease them all, but these guys are best friends. They go out to eat. They're hanging out on the weekends. It’s a tight-knit group.”

Even though Curry and Mirasola have been competing for the backup job, they’re rooting for each other to play well.

“They want to see each other succeed,” Lindauer said. “That's how we get successful. They push each other competitively, but out of respect for that person, because you know that guy's working his tail off to win the job, too.”

Curry appears to have earned the backup QB spot.

Coming off a record-breaking season with 40 touchdowns, DJ Williams (6-3, 230, 5th) continues to make subtle improvement to his game.

“DJ's been cleaning up some things in his footwork,” Lindauer said. “He’s really focused on being a more efficient passer and getting our completion percentage up.”

Having started six games as a true freshman in 2024, Jake Curry (5-11, 182, Jr.) appears to have staked a claim to the backup slot.

“I’m confident that if and when his time comes, that Jake's gonna go kill it out there,” Lindauer said. “You saw a glimpse of it as a true freshman. Now he's two years older and a lot better player.”

Entering his second year in the program, JC Mirasola (6-0, 185, So.) was impressive during spring ball and continued to play well in camp.

“Everybody knows JC's got the arm talent, the running ability,” Lindauer said. “He can do everything that we're asking him to do out there. Now it's just locking in on the details.”

Rann is a product of nearby Harrisburg.

Owen Rann (6-4, 214, So.) is a local product from nearby Harrisburg.

“Owen's got some arm talent, he really does,” Lindauer said. “He can spin it, he can move it around the field.”

Nashville native Ridge Holman (6-5, 226, Fr.) is the newest addition to the room.

“Ridge can play, and we brought him here for a reason,” Linda

uer said. “Like every freshman, he deals with some nervousness out there, but Ridge really graded out well in camp. The ball was where it needed to be.”