July 5, 2007
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Co-Captain Williams Comes
Full Circle
Feature Column By Will Matthews
NASHVILLE – It goes without saying that Vanderbilt, with its rigorous academic standards, isn’t always the easiest place for a student athlete to survive – much less succeed.
Credit Chris Williams for managing to rise to the challenge.
Four years removed from entering the Commodore football program as an undersized freshman recruit and three years removed from enduring the kind of academic struggles that might have permanently derailed a lesser individual, Vanderbilt’s imposing, 320-pound offensive lineman enters the 2007 season as a fifth-year senior on track to earn his degree in Human and Organizational Leadership, a captain of the Vanderbilt football team and one of the most highly regarded lineman in the Southeastern Conference.
For Williams, it has been a journey that, while not always devoid of some periods of rough sailing, has nonetheless seen him evolve both as a person and a football player and one that Williams himself says he wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
“I’ve matured a tremendous amount since I first arrived here,” Williams said last week, prior to joining his teammates for their daily, off-season conditioning drills. “Where everything came relatively easily for me while I was in high school, it hasn’t always been easy for me here. I have had to learn how to balance a number of different responsibilities from my responsibilities here to this football team to my responsibilities in the classroom. I’m a better person for it, though.”
An All-Region and All-Conference standout as a high school player in Glynn, La., Williams arrived on the Vanderbilt campus in 2003 weighing a relatively paltry 245 pounds. To succeed in the trenches in the SEC – arguably the nation’s toughest conference with some of the country’s biggest and most talented defensive lineman – Williams knew he would need to add some girth to have any chance at any kind of success.
So Williams red-shirted his freshman campaign and committed himself to developing physically into the kind of player that could compete with the SEC’s elite, enduring – among other things – 5:30 a.m. lifting sessions at least three times a week.
“That first year was great for me,” Williams said. “I probably put on at least 60 pounds so it helped me out a lot. Just to be able to get in, get my feet wet with the program and gain an understanding of the kinds of goals that I needed to set for myself as an athlete in order for me to be able to succeed here was important.”
Williams entered his sophomore campaign with hopes of earning a starting spot on Vanderbilt’s offensive line. But some struggles in the classroom rendered him academically ineligible and Williams didn’t dress for a single Vanderbilt game in 2004.
“It was a huge disappointment for me,” Williams said. “I was scheduled to be the starting center that year, but some academic stuff fell out of place. But it was a huge learning experience for me that helped me mature as a player and as a person. I learned that academics come first. When I got here, my primary focus was on football and I kind of slacked off on the school side. So that year allowed me to refocus everything and get my priorities back in order.”
Finally able to be a contributor in the field in 2005, Williams played in every game while splitting time between the left guard and left tackle positions and emerged as one of the team’s most agile and versatile offensive lineman.
The full-time starter at left tackle in 2006, Williams didn’t allow a single sack during Vanderbilt’s final 11 games of the year, earning second team All-SEC recognition by the league’s coaches and landing himself on the 2007 preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman.
“After that second year there was no turning back,” Williams said. “I had been given as many chances as a guy could get. I didn’t want to let my parents down anymore, I didn’t want to let my coaches down and I didn’t want to let myself down or my teammates. You get to a point where people are depending on you and you need to rise to the challenge. I am glad that, to this point at least, I have been able to do that.”
As one of the anchors of what will be a veteran-laden offensive line that shapes up as being one of the real strengths of the 2007 team, Williams has a chance to be a key cog in what could be a very explosive offense led by second-year starting quarterback Chris Nickson.
“He is going to be protecting Nickson’s blind side and I think that for Nickson, knowing that Chris [Williams] is over there doing his job and doing it to protect him, will allow Nickson the time and the opportunity to see the things that he is going to need to see and allow the game to slow down a little bit more this year,” said John Sisk, Vanderbilt’s head strength and conditioning coach. “I think Nickson will be much more confident in his throws this year knowing that there is some stability there in front of him.”
As far as Williams has come during his four years in the Vanderbilt program, he said he is not yet at a point where he can reflect back on his evolution with any degree of satisfaction. There is still too much yet to be accomplished, he said.
“There will be time for that, but not right now,” Williams said. “As far as football goes we haven’t performed as a football team where I think we should have. When we achieve the goals that I have for us as a team and when I get my diploma, then maybe I will be really satisfied. But as of now, we are still just clawing and scratching. We are trying to get this program rolling. And I’m not talking about six wins. I’m talking about 12, 13 or 14 wins.”
For Williams, discussion of a double digit-win season is not just big talk.
“Legitimately, we are capable of winning the SEC title,” Williams said. “As a team, we are closer than any team that I have ever been associated with here. We’ve got a big group of work hard guys here. We have the talent to do it, so now it is just a matter of doing it.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He earned his Master of Divinity degree in 2007 from Vanderbilt Divinity School. To email Will your feedback, Click Here
