'A sense of urgency'
Williams' reign at Grambling gets off to rocky start
Posted: Tuesday August 25, 1998 05:20 PM
| |
Williams (right) was 3-8 at Morehouse in his only other college job AP |
GRAMBLING, Louisiana (AP) -- Before the first pink streaks of dawn paint the sky over the old water tower, Doug Williams and his players are busy changing history.
Elsewhere, this would be football practice. Here, it is the beginning of a new era.
For the first time, someone other than Eddie Robinson is calling the shots at Grambling State.
"I don't have a sense of history as much as I have a sense of urgency," said Williams, a star Grambling quarterback in the '70s and the Super Bowl MVP for the Washington Redskins in 1988. "For years the saying was, `Grambling doesn't rebuild, it reloads.' Well, we're rebuilding now."
For a man whose fondest dream has come true, Williams is amazingly clear-eyed.
He is following the coach who won more football games than any other and made a tiny school in the piney-woods of north Louisiana famous. But that doesn't worry Williams as much as trying to prepare for the season.
For decades, Grambling expected victories -- 408 in 57 years, with at least a share of 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. But the Tigers struggled in Robinson's final three years.
Losing seasons were made worse by an NCAA investigation and probation, discipline problems with players, declining attendance and a lack of attention from the pro scouts that once flocked to Grambling.
"Grambling went 11-21 the last three years, including back-to-back 3-8 seasons," Williams said. "That makes it easier for me to take over after Coach. Everyone knows it's time for a change here."
That did not make the change universally popular.
Even at 78, Robinson did not want to step down. Ideally, he said, he would coach until he was 100. A move to oust him two seasons ago was thwarted when he asked for one more season to try to go out with a winning record. By that time it had sparked bitterness, split longtime friendships, and rocked the alumni and community.
When Williams' name surfaced as a replacement, his once warm relationship with his old coach cooled, and when Williams took over the two men did not speak. Then Williams was forced to work in a bare office in a trailer behind the athletic building when Robinson did not move out of his office until mid-August.
The rift remains. There was also some opposition to Williams from those who could not imagine anyone other than Robinson in charge.
"Some people I've known for years stopped talking to me," Williams said. "I know there are those who think I shouldn't be coach, but I can't hop on that, because I am the coach and I have a big job to do."
Scrapped were everything from the antiquated wing-T offensive set to the pre-dawn visits Robinson made to the dorm to wake his players for breakfast.
"He treats us like we're young men, not kids," senior wide receiver Silas Payne said of Williams. "Everything now is about responsibility. You don't have to make practice or lift or do the things he wants. But if you don't, you don't play."
During spring practice players had to report to a 5:30 a.m. conditioning drill. During the fall two-a-days on the field near the Grambling city water tower, practices were from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and again in the afternoon.
The late arrivals and carelessness that had prevailed over the past few years were no longer tolerated.
"All of a sudden the key words were discipline and hard work," senior offensive lineman Kori Smith said. "Practices are harder, faster, but everyone is really focused now. We know if we do the things he wants us to do there's a big reward ahead."
Williams makes his demands with the confidence of a successful quarterback. His coaching credentials may be slim -- he was 3-8 at Morehouse in his only other college job -- but his reputation is huge.
Williams passed for 8,411 yards and 93 touchdowns as a Grambling quarterback from 1974-77. The Tigers were 35-5 during that stretch and he was the first player from a predominantly black college ever chosen as a first-team All-American by The Associated Press.
Then, in one quarter of one fantastic game, Williams put his name in the NFL record books.
In the 1988 Super Bowl, with Washington trailing the Denver Broncos 10-0, Williams shook off a bone-rattling hit to spark a Redskins victory.
In the second quarter, Williams passed for 228 yards and four touchdowns to put Washington ahead 35-10. He ended up with a Super Bowl-record 340 total yards, a 42-10 triumph and an MVP award to highlight his career.
"I think Grambling prepared me for that kind of success as well as the struggles that led up to it," Williams said. "Grambling taught me who I was and what I was and how to deal with it. We worked so hard here and did so much with so little, that everything afterwards seemed easy. That's what I want to give these players. That sense that they have succeeded here and can do it again anywhere."
The path to success will be a hard one for Williams. This season he's replacing 12 starters and 22 lettermen, including the quarterback, kicker and punter.
Only a single Grambling player made the preseason SWAC team and his fellow coaches put the Tigers at the bottom of the conference in the early ranking.
Add to that only three home games and travels as far as New Jersey, Dallas and San Diego for those games that have traditionally earned Grambling substantial paydays, and Williams admits any victories will be hard-earned.
"Sometimes I find myself being optimistic, then I return to reality and realize how far we have to go," Williams said. "But this is Grambling and we've always had a lot of pride. Coach built something great here. I don't have the slightest doubt we can rebuild it. It'll just take a little while."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
MULTIMEDIA
