Don’t Waste Your First Chance
July 22nd, 2008 - bySquandered opportunities can haunt a recruit for years. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette checked in with one of college football’s most notorious recruits, Willie Williams, to detail his last chance. You may remember Willie as the high profile recruit who went to Miami after being arrested a staggering 11 times in high school. After the Hurricanes stuck their neck out for him, he rewarded the school by promptly transferring to Louisville after discipline issues arose. Louisville was in turn rewarded with an embarrassing failed drug test.
So Willie is down to his last chance at small Division II Glenville State in West Virginia. He will be senior on Scholarship in the fall and plans to graduate.
The former Parade All-American is taking his game to Division II Glenville State in West Virginia, a place known for giving second chances to tarnished athletes.
Miami and Louisville it’s not. The hilltop college is in a town of 1,500 people and in a county with only two grocery stores and four gas stations. The nearest big city, Pittsburgh, is 157 miles to the north.
“I’m using that to my advantage,” Williams said. “It’s best sometimes to fly under the radar. You’ll get more things accomplished.
Williams said there were no promises exchanged with Fiddler like those made — and later broken — with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich.
“It was just like ‘Willie, you know what you’ve got to do,’” Williams said.
“I realize the mistakes I’ve made in the past. All I can do is change and grow from it. Coach talked to me like I was a grown man. I interpret that better than a promise or something because he came to me like it was man to man.”
Welcoming players who were rejected by other colleges for past indiscretions has been well documented in West Virginia.
The poster child is Rand native Randy Moss, who lost scholarships at Notre Dame and Florida State before starring at Marshall a decade ago. There’s also Ahmad Bradshaw, who was kicked off the Virginia football team and flourished at Marshall.
Now, there’s Williams, who knows this is the end of the line.
Behave and perform.
NFL teams might be watching, and even then, they’ll have reservations about his character.
I’m all for second chances, but I want everyone out there to realize that 3rd chances are rare. Willie has been given one last get of jail free card, but is the exception due to his NFL talent. Athletes need to remember to not waste their first chance because they probably won’t be as lucky as Willie Williams.
