By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — All hands were on deck Saturday as East Carolina held its annual media day event inside the Murphy Center on the ECU campus. First-year coach Ruffin McNeill lit up the room as he charmed the media with his outgoing, easily-approachable style. Other luminaries such as Dwayne Harris and Emanuel Davis were more soft spoken, but when you’re named first-team all-conference your actions tend to say way more than any quote ever could.
Yes, the stars where out front and center Saturday, but the one person who stole the show was a player whom Pirates fans haven’t heard much from in a while.
The new-look Jonathan Williams sat by himself at table during the player interview portion of media day, and while the lack of his signature strawberry dread locks may have be the first thing that caught the eye, his gleaming, ear-to-ear smile was an immediate second.
For the embattled running back, there hasn’t been much to smile about during his tenure with the Pirates. The last time Williams was getting ink it wasn’t for his ability to blow by defenders, but for his blowup at an AutoZone Liberty Bowl banquet where he and teammate Leonard Paulk got into a dust up as Leigh Anne Tuohy, one of the stars of the book “Blind Side” was in attendance.
The incident not only embarrassed the two players involved, but the whole Pirate Nation. It was a time where the focus should have been on the continued emergence of a non-BCS school and its impending battle with an SEC power. However, even if it was only briefly, the attention shifted back to Williams for the wrong reasons … again.
For the past three seasons Williams, whom McNeill and first-year offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley both agree has NFL-type ability, has captivated the purple and gold faithful in a way that perhaps no other Pirate has with only one career start. Williams is widely viewed as a player who has potential to be one of the best backs in Conference USA if he could get his act together.
Entering his senior year, all the talk about potential and what he could be is over. This season will be the last chance for Williams, as a member of the Pirates, to not only live up to all hype surrounding his on-field potential, but quiet those that only dwell on his off-field antics.
Simply put, the future is now for Jonathan Williams.
The burly running back came to East Carolina as the local hero. The Greenville native led J.H. Rose to back-to-back 16-0 seasons while guiding the Rampants to consecutive 4-A state championships.
In 2007 the EA Sports third-team all-American accepted a scholarship to play for the home team, it seemed like a match made in football heaven.
Williams saw limited action as a freshman, but made appearances in 10 games as he rushed for 153 yards on 22 carries.
While Williams had an understated rookie year, his sophomore campaign put him on the map in more ways than one. On the field, the speedy, yet powerful, back took advantage of playing time afforded to him by injuries and posted a 5.1 yards per carry average which enabled him to score five touchdowns in the first seven games.
Off the field Williams was quickly making a name for himself as well, only it was with the local police. He was arrested three times in 2008 from April to October as he was busted for DWI, resisting a public officer and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon.
Finally enough was enough, and on Oct. 21 then-coach Skip Holtz announced the suspension of Williams for the rest of the season. Despite playing in only seven games the embattled back finished the year as ECU’s third-leading rusher with 380 yards.
Williams’ 2008 season polarized fans. Those who read in the sport section about how his 6-1, 200-pound frame burst through defenses understood that the sky was the limit for the hometown hero, while those who flipped over the paper could read about how that same hulky frame committed assault. He was literally a dual threat.
Despite the so-called warning signs, Holtz and his staff kept Williams on the team. Some called it foolish, others said it was about not giving up on a young but troubled athlete. Most noticed the that in college football redemption tends to be more in abundance for any 6-1, 200 tailbacks that can run 40 yards in 4.37 seconds (which Williams did in high school.)
Regardless of the point of view, Williams was back on the team in 2009, as the tailback took a backseat to Dominique Lindsay a the start of the season. East Carolina had a host of capable running backs as it brought in Kentucky transfer Brandon Jackson to play with the talented Norman Whitley and the sturdy Giovanni Ruffin (each of whom have had their own slip ups along the way.)
Playing time would have to be earned. Holtz slowly brought Williams into the mix giving him a few carries here and there. However, Williams would watch his season go by the wayside once again. Costly fumbles in back-to-games against then No. 24 UNC (31-17 loss) and Conference USA foe UCF (19-14 victory) earned the back a spot in Holtz’s doghouse and at he bottom of the depth chart.
Two games later Williams would injure his right knee during the Pirates’ 28-21 loss at SMU and he would not take a handoff the rest of the season.
That would not be the worst part of Williams’ 2009 campaign.
Rock bottom came when the Pirates players and coaching staff where blind sided by Williams and Paulk’s actions in front of the Blind Side star.
Williams was suspended for the Liberty Bowl, and was almost assured a permanent residence in that same doghouse for the start of the 2010 season and beyond, that is until a series of events that started out with someone else’s miscues helped put the rusher on the road to redemption.
In January the University of South Florida fired coach Jim Leavitt for allegedly grabbing and slapping walk-on Joel Miller at halftime of the Bulls game against Louisville on Nov. 21 (Leavitt has denied those allegations). That in turn led the school to pursue East Carolina’s two-time Conference USA title-winning coach. Once Holtz accepted the Bulls offer, it opened the door for Pirate alum and Texas Tech defensive coordinator McNeill to land in Greenville.
Can you say clean slate.
Ruffin McNeill could, and did, to anyone that would listen. The best part about it for Williams is that he meant it.
“It was like another chance,” Williams said. “The coaches didn’t know me, I didn’t know them. I just wanted to go out and show them the positive side.”
McNeill said that when he inherited the Pirates, the past was the past for every one of the 105 players on the roster.
“I had heard about him of course because of his talent level,” McNeill said of Williams. “But from the first day it was a clean slate. I didn’t care about his past, and not just Jonathan’s, anyone of the player’s past, either success or failures. I didn’t feel it was fair.
“I knew that he had, had some tough times here, and he will tell you that he caused them. I was anxious to get around him and see if I could help him, love him and let him know that I care about him. I think he does.”
Sometimes a person can be told the right things a million times over and over again, but on occasion it just takes the right person to say it at the right time. It seems like that is the case with Williams and McNeill.
Williams sat in the Murphy Center on Saturday, smiled and talked openly about his past and how he has grown as a person as a direct result of it.
“It’s been a learning experience. The things you go through, I’m trying to just learn from them,” Williams said. “It was in my younger days. I’m getting older; that’s the real part. It’s just God’s plan, I’m still here. … I’m not an angel, but nobody is an angel. I’m just trying to stay positive and learn from the past.”
The new, positive outlook seems genuine. It would be easy to point to McNeill as the shepherd that guided Williams back to the flock, but the coach said that is not the case.
“I think he deserves all the credit for the effort he has put forth to become a better person; for letting people see his inside, because what’s inside a man comes out of a man,” McNeill said. “I really believe in Jon. I believe in all the boys on the team. I believe in Jon and the rest of the guys. There will be some tough times, nothing is rosy everyday, but I think the kids and Jon know that I love them. He knows at the same time I will discipline him. He knows that I don’t care what he is in terms of football, I care about who he is.”
After three arrests and the Liberty Bowl incident, fans may be a little hesitant to immediately heap praise on Williams’ new attitude reversal. McNeill understands any skepticism, but is hoping that Pirate Nation will embrace his effort.
“I think we as a people and as a community, we have been his age (Williams will turn 22 on Aug. 21), he has never been ours,” McNeill said. “I think we have a duty to help a person grow who wants to become better. … I think as much (negative) attention as Jon, which he admits he caused, received, I think we need to make sure he hears the positive. ‘He look, we’re proud of you.’ I think we owe him that. ‘Hey keep it going, we’re pulling for you. We’re praying for you, keep it up.’ I don’t think that, that is too much to ask of everyone too. You may say ‘I hope he keeps it up.’ But let’s make sure he keeps it up by letting him know, and giving him as much positive (reinforcement) as we can. I’m asking that.”
When the counter point was brought up that fans may want to see more of the new, positive Jon Williams first before they rally around him, an understandable McNeill rebutted with “I understand that argument, but my argument is let’s do it right now. That’s behavior modification, once a player does something you like you should reward it. My argument is that.”
Williams, praised his mother Evelyn Williams along with the rest of his family for helping him get to where he is right now. The senior Child Development and Family Relationships major plans on being a mentor to kids if his playing days go no further than this season.
Williams had a message for young athlete who may find himself going down the same troubled path he once walked through.
“I would tell that kid to just stay focused on the positive things in life,” Williams said. “You are going to go through some adversity in life, but you got to learn from it. I would just tell him to stay focused on life, it’s not all about sports, it’s about school too. Go to class, get good grades and focus on learning.”
At practice Williams’ teammates have taken notice his new approach.
“It’s a new Jon Williams. This is a Jon Williams I haven’t seen since I have been here,” said ECU’s all-time receptions leader Dwayne Harris, who is a senior like Williams. “I think he is excited about the season. It’s his last go around, he doesn’t want to worry as much about playing the game, but just enjoy it. I think he wants to enjoy the game more this year. He wants to go out and play the game for his teammates, his coaches and the fans. He wants to show everybody that he has matured and become a player that nobody thought he could be.”
East Carolina’s first-year offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley said that Williams’ role on the team grows everyday.
“He has a very commanding presence about him, he has taken to the leadership part of it,” said offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. “When he talks everybody shuts up and listens, and not a lot of people have that quality.”
Williams is not all talk on the practice field. The running back was asked to lose some weight and has checked into camp with a chiseled 6-1, 200-pound body that proves his dedication to East Carolina football.
“Jon needed to lose weight after the spring,” Riley said. “We told him he was too heavy. You could see the burst, but because he was so out of shape you would see it one time and then you may not see it again for the rest of practice. We watched him run yesterday (Friday) and you can see what kind of shape he is in now. He can do it all, like Dwayne (Harris) he can run you over or run around you. He is really smart kid and a kid who has really turned the corner and has a lot of good things happening for him that he needs to continue to build on.”