National Football Foundation correspondent Adam Caparell wrote this feature on West Virginia senior linebacker Reed Williams, a 2009 CoSIDA ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America selection.
Read more at: Tough as a Pinenut (Reed Williams), by Adam Caparell, NFF Correspondent
ALSO SEE: 21 Academic All-Americans® lead teams into Bowl Games this month (at CoSIDA.com)
andFlorida's Tim Tebow and Morningside's Beau Kildow top ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-America® Football Team
It didn’t take long for Reed Williams to go from the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows.
From celebrating the pinnacle of his gridiron career on an Arizona evening in January 2008 at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl to an agonizing decision he made roughly nine months later to sit out the bulk of the 2008 season, the West Virginia linebacker experienced the ultimate joys and humbling sorrows of football. He recently capped his collegiate career and the 2009 season by being named a 2009 NFF National Scholar-Athlete. On New Year’s Day, he’ll lead the Mountaineer defense against Florida State in the Gator Bowl.
“I’ve been to the top and I’ve been to the bottom, honestly,” Williams said.
When Williams came to West Virginia for his freshman season in 2005 he wasn’t just another rookie. Not to West Virginia Coach Bill Stewart. The coach knew Williams well before he was a Mountaineer because he’s known the Williams family for ages. Stewart and Williams’ mother, Jacqueline, went to school together and have known each other for well more than three decades. Stewart even helped recruit Williams’ older brother, Justin, to be a Mountaineer.
And after watching Reed work his tail off to become an impact player as a special teams player as a freshman and at strong side linebacker in his sophomore year, Stewart watched Williams enjoy a breakout season his junior year, saving his best game for his last. With a highlight laden performance in the Fiesta Bowl, Williams earned the game’s Defensive MVP honors. Nine tackles, a sack and a forced fumble; Williams had led the way on defense as the Mountaineers shocked the heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners to capture the school’s second BCS victory and Stewart’s first as the West Virginia head coach. The two basked in the glory of a monumental win for player, coach and program.
But the victory was bittersweet. Williams had a superb game on the biggest stage of his life, but the toll his body had taken to get there was heavier than just about anyone knew.
You can only play with tears in your eyes for so long and that’s what Williams essentially did his junior year. Playing with not one but two severely injured shoulders, the excruciating pain left him physically drained after every game. Most players have nothing left in the tank when the final gun sounds. Every week, Williams’ needle would break off the dashboard.
“The best thing a man can say about you in these West Virginia hills is he’s as tough as a pineknot,” Stewart said. “There’s not a tougher, more physical football player. This guy is an absolute tough, tenacious tackler.”
But the characteristics that made him such a great player the past two seasons had left him battered, bruised and broken. Williams needed to be fixed – he couldn’t’ fathom playing another season with the same pain – and with his highly anticipated senior season on the horizon, Williams knew he needed to address the torn labrums of his right and left shoulders. He couldn’t wait to feel healthy for the first time in over a year and a half.
First came the right shoulder – the one he injured sometime during his sophomore season – followed by the left shoulder – the one he injured lifting weights his junior season. He rehabbed relentlessly and after missing spring practice he was anxious for fall camp to roll around.
The only problem was when it did he wasn’t close to being 100 percent healthy. And as the dog days of August slowly rolled into the first few Saturday’s in September, not much changed. Williams wasn’t close to being healthy and then began to feel the worst pain any football player will ever feel.
“When fall rolls around and you’re still on the sidelines and you can’t help your guys win a game it’s terrible,” Williams said.
He kept working, kept rehabbing, and by the time Week 3 rolled around, Williams felt good enough to go. He would play against Colorado, a Thursday night game broadcast nationally. At a self-described 80 percent, Williams thought he could man up and get the job done. He had himself a good game that included an interception, but after watching the tapes of the upset loss to the Buffalos and the following week’s win over Marshall, along with some serious self-evaluation and consultation with the coaching staff, Williams had to take a step back. He wasn’t the same player.
There were times during the two games when he thought he could gut out the rest of the season, grin and bear the pain of two achy shoulders and overcome their shortcomings, but reality had hit home. Williams had been caught at some weird angles, had been exposed. He couldn’t hide he was hurting and at the same time possibly hurting his team.
“You try not to think about it, but it’s always there,” Williams said. “Once you step on the field you can’t play hesitant. At this level they’ll take advantage of you and you’ll stick out.”
So the coaches and training staff got together and along with Williams collectively decided it was time to take a seat. He couldn’t protect himself. He wasn’t the Reed Williams of old. He had a more rehabbing and healing to do. So with the option thankfully still available, the Mountaineers slapped a red-shirt on Williams. The senior season he had been dreaming about and working so hard for was over before the calendar had hit October.
“It was hard, but it was the best thing for him,” Stewart said. “But it was a sound decision. He was hurt. I don’t want any of my guys playing hurt, particularly the guy I’m so close to and the guy whose family I’ve known for 35 years.”
To say the decision was a psychological blow to Williams would be an understatement. Deep down he knew taking the red-shirt was the right decision, but he wrestled with it. As one of the unquestioned leaders of the Mountaineers Williams thought he had let his teammates down.
“To sit out the rest of the year with guys I had played with, grew up with, the previous three and half years,” Williams said, “it was terrible. I had roommates I was sitting out on, best friends; it was highly emotional.”
With his focus strictly on rehabbing and strengthening his shoulders, Saturdays weren’t easy for Williams. In fact, they were gut-wrenching.
“Last year was a rough year for me,” Williams said. “There were a lot of times when I questioned it. But I learned a lot about life last year. It’s not always going to be easy. It’s how you react and how you deal with adversity that makes you the kind of man you are.”
He embraced his new role on the team, becoming a sort of player-coach. Williams picked up a few nuances of the game and learned more about himself than he had in his previous 20 years.
The focus became 2009 and with11 months to fully heal, rehab and strengthen his shoulders Williams made his return to the field in West Virginia’s opener against Liberty this past September. And while the stats were not as gaudy as they were his sophomore and junior seasons, Williams continued to improve during the season. Not surprisingly, so did the West Virginia defense. The Mountaineers allowed just 18.7 points per game over their last nine games, including holding high flying Cincinnati to its lowest output of the season and stifling Pittsburgh in a Backyard Brawl upset.
It goes without saying that the Mountaineers are a better team with Williams in the lineup.
“It just killed me and it killed us (not having him),” Stewart said. “When we had him in the lineup we were just a different defense.”
You can’t measure leadership, toughness and presence on a stat sheet, but you can certainly recognize it. And the Mountaineers have. Twice the West Virginia coaching staff has named Williams the “Ideal Mountaineer Man".
Don’t be surprised if he brings home a third. His perseverance brought him back to the football field and it also has him on the verge of earning his second bachelor’s degree. It also brought him to New York this week for the first time to take a seat amongst very select company.
In October Williams was named one of the 16 members of the 2009 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class for his combined academic, athletic and leadership skills. As a member of the class, he traveled to New York City as a finalists for the prestigious Campbell Trophy, which is handed out each year to the nation’s top senior scholar-athlete. Commonly referred to as the “academic Heisman,” the Campbell Trophy has been awarded to the likes of Chad Pennington and Peyton Manning with Tim Tebow claiming this year the trophy.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything special,” Williams said.
But the people at West Virginia, who nominated Williams, would disagree. For the hard work he’s put in the last five years, for the marketing degree he’s ready to add to go along with his one in finance, for the way he’s conducted himself off the field, Williams is precisely what the Campbell Trophy is all about.
“I feel like I’ve worked hard over the past five years,” Williams said. “You want to give yourself a pat on the back but you can’t. It just kind of makes all the work that I put in worthwhile and it’s a great honor.”
Up, down and now up again. His coach couldn’t be prouder because it seems only fitting for Williams that his roller coaster West Virginia career, with one game remaining in the New Year’s Day Gator Bowl, looks like it’s ending on a high note.
About The National Football Foundation: Founded in 1947 with leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, Play It Smart, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Campbell Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.For more information, please visit us on the web at www.footballfoundation.com