| Most people agree Mike Williams stands out in a crowd because of his 6-5,
350-pound frame. Those who have had the pleasure of extending a hand to Williams’
giant paw know there is more to him than length and width. "He’s just a big
ol’ kid," said Tim Nunez, Texas’ offensive line coach.
The 22-year-old Williams admits he is a fun-loving football fanatic. He hosted
"The Mike Williams Show" on head coach Mack Brown’s website, which featured
outtakes with current Longhorns. He also shares his time with children and "is always
wearing that big grin," according to Nunez. When Williams was honored as a Playboy
Preseason All-American in August, he spent the weekend on the East Coast with his peers.
Instead of being a face in the crowd, Williams stepped up as the life of the party.
"I like to dabble in certain activities here and there," said Williams, who
spent a good share of his free time in the evening on the dance floor, showing off his
country line dancing moves. Yeah, 6-5, 350 in sweet, gliding motion.
"He has the personality," said Gil Brandt, a member of the Playboy selection
committee, who spent three days with Williams. "The other thing, though, were his
feet. When we had a rodeo on Saturday night of that weekend, I can tell you from watching
Williams do that country and western line dancing that he has incredible feet. He moves
like a gazelle."
Williams played defensive and offensive tackle at The Colony High School and was the
district’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. At Texas, he played all 12 games
as a freshman on special teams, goal-line defense and some offense. As a sophomore, he
started four times and then shed his grin and started the final 11 of 12 games his junior
season.
"I knew I was just as good as Leonard (Davis), but he had to be on the
field," Williams said. "I was never intimidated. I knew what I could do, the
coaches believed in me, and I got the chance."
With the 6-6, 370-pound Davis, the No. 2 overall pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2001,
absorbing the spotlight at left tackle, Williams felt he had to do something special to
prove that he belonged. On the first play from scrimmage in the 1999 season opener against
North Carolina State, Williams made a lasting impression.
"I drove a guy back about 15 yards. Just kept on him," he said. "The
next game, against Stanford, I was starting."
"It was tremendous for him to have Leonard around," Nunez said. "Leonard
played at 367 (pounds) and that was not much fat. Mike, and the other linemen saw that and
saw how hard Leonard worked. There wasn’t a harder worker in the weight room, in the
offseason or at practice than Leonard Davis. Mike fell in love with Leonard’s work
ethic and took it to another level."
Williams played the right side last season as well, protecting the blind side of
left-handed junior QB Chris Simms. He gave up one sack (the second of his career) and had
64 pancake blocks. By Nunez’s measure, the sack that Williams allowed was a
technicality and his pancakes were the only ones in the nation calculated properly.
"Well, that one sack was a recognition sack," Nunez said. "He
didn’t fan out because there was a communication breakdown. And pancakes are actually
pancakes for us, meaning a guy has to be put on his back — flat on his back. This
pushing him to the ground stuff that other schools credit, that is a knockdown."
For the record, Williams had 67 knockdowns. Though tackles are graded on pass
protection first because of the value given to safeguarding a quarterback, Williams gets
it done on the ground too. In 3rd-and-1 or 3rd-and-2 situations when
Texas ran to the right side, their conversion percentage was better than 82 percent. Nunez
said Williams could easily play left tackle in the NFL. The simple transition, like the
one made by Davis from tackle to guard in his first pro season, will require an adjustment
in Williams’ stance and peripheral vision.
When compared to linemen in the 2002 draft, the parallel most commonly drawn is between
Miami (Fla.) OLT Bryant McKinnie and Williams. Most scouts figure McKinnie, then Williams,
will be the first two offensive linemen selected in the draft and have even discussed
McKinnie as the top pick.
"There is no doubt, none at all, that Mike Williams is a good football
player," Brandt said. "I think it is hard to compare him to Bryant McKinnie on
the field because McKinnie played on the left side. Both are incredible talents that are
going to get a heckuva lot better."
Like McKinnie, Williams is still raw. Texas waited until Williams was a sophomore to
move him to offensive line full-time. But also like McKinnie, the best seems destined to
get better.
"When I recruit a lineman," Nunez said, "I look more than anything to
see what happens when you get on somebody. When Mike gets on somebody, they don’t get
off. Ever. He just doesn’t let you go. They just cannot get off. His feet are his
best asset, but then his strength and leverage. I see him bucket-step and do a 5-technique
and blow up the defensive end … pancake him."
Nunez knew Williams would be in the NFL long ago, but his prognostication was confirmed
this season when Colorado visited Austin during the regular season. Freshman RB Cedric
Benson took a shovel pass from Simms and then looked for Williams, who is first
responsible for the rush end, then, in a testament to his quick feet, shuffles in front of
the running back. When the play was over, Benson, who runs a 4.5 40, was only two yards
ahead of Williams when he was pushed out of bounds after a 60-yard gain.
"The biggest thing I had to learn was patience," Williams said. "I was
set on defense. It was attack, attack, attack. Offense is a game plan — positions,
personnel, knowledge. You can’t fire off at a guy that is going to swim you. You have
to wait on the defense, wait for that first move, and work from there. If you don’t
and fire out, you will get clubbed, ripped, he may spin you, swim you, go inside. …
You want to be aggressive as an offensive lineman, but more importantly, you want to know
when to be aggressive."
Nunez stopped short of calling Williams’ personality a weakness, though he
anticipates Williams encountering his share of struggles in the early days of his NFL
career.
"I think it might be an adjustment when it becomes a job," Nunez said,
sighting Williams’ boyish nature and want to always have fun. "I think in the
NFL you lose a little of the camaraderie. Mack Brown emphasizes that football is a game at
Texas. But soon enough that commitment for Mike is going to be 8 to 5 or 8 to 6 like a
regular job. I know he’ll stay focused and adapt to it because he is motivated and
articulate. But every week he’s going to see somebody as good as the best he’s
ever seen in college."
Williams said the best defender he matched up against in college was former Missouri DE
Justin Smith, the No. 4 overall pick in the draft in 2001 by the Cincinnati Bengals. Smith
had a school-record 11 sacks and 24 tackles for loss to go with two forced fumbles as a
senior. Williams met him only once, as a junior.
"That boy, wow," Williams said. "He was challenging. He was such a good
player because he made himself that way. Smith had explosion, a great motor and tenacity.
That was enough. If you took a play off, you were dead. He was dangerous in that you
couldn’t take a breath because he was always going."
Williams, who said he expects to be among the top five draft picks April 20 and
therefore won’t be available for the hometown Dallas Cowboys with the sixth pick,
isn’t losing sleep because of recurring images of Giants DE Michael Strahan or a
reunion with the Bengals’ Smith. Add confidence to his growing list of strengths.
"I was taught to fear no man," said Williams, the son of a military officer.
"I only fear God. You say that is big talk, but that is true. That is what is in my
heart. If he can’t take my life, and even if he can, there is no fear."
One area scout, who saw Williams multiple times during the 2001 season, said his
weaknesses will be easily erased.
"He’ll go high, one of the top picks," the scout said. "His
weakness is his technique. There are some technique things that could be easily coached
and corrected at the next level. But he has the feet. He’ll get out of position at
times, but he is athletic enough to recover. I think he just needs to get nastier at 350.
He’ll flash it once in awhile, but he doesn’t have that temperament yet —
that (Tony) Boselli-type temperament, which if he gets that, he’ll be a Pro Bowl guy.
He’s going to remind you of former UCLA and Baltimore (Ravens) OLT Jonathan Ogden. He
is that type of guy. Ogden was a big ol’ athletic guy, and Williams has that kind of
feet and size."
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