Damian Williams' motivation came from single loss

They say a photo can tell a thousand words. In the case of Damiam Williams and the 2004 Springdale Bulldogs, that may be an understatement.

In the photo, Williams is lying prone on the grass turf of historic Quigley Stadium in Little Rock. The image of a laid-out Williams after the hard-hit against Little Rock Central in the state semifinals told a couple of stories. First, it proved that Central was a far better team than perhaps anyone had given it credit for. And second, although Springdale was a very good team, it still had work to do to reach elite status.

“We got our butts kicked,” Williams said. “It wasn’t like one of those things where we gave it all we had and we lost. We gave it everything we had and we got destroyed by those guys. That team had Mickey Dean and Kevin Thornton and those guys. They were incredibly good. I don’t think people realized just how good they were.”

The image defined something else that night in Little Rock. Although beaten soundly 30-21, Williams and the Bulldogs did not stay down. And when they collectively got back up, they did so with a huge chip on their shoulders.

Williams and a star-studded team went into the offseason with a resolve not to lose again, and the Bulldogs’ opponents in 2005 paid a heavy price because of it. The 2005 Springdale team was arguably the best prep team in state history with a number of Division I recruits, a quarterback who won the high school Heisman, and a receiver who earned all Pac-12 honors and spent five seasons in the NFL.

Springdale went 14-0 and crushed every opponent. Only twice in 14 games did the Bulldogs fail to invoke the 35-point mercy rule. The season started with a crushing 35-7 win against Shreveport Evangel and ended at War Memorial Stadium with a 54-20 demolition of West Memphis. And they crushed Oklahoma powerhouse Jenks 44-0.

“The loss to Central the previous year was the driving factor — the main driving factor,” Williams said. “I remember after playing that game at Central, there were a couple of us — me, Victor Pongonis, Aaron Finch and Russ Greenlee — we looked over at the seniors on that team, and just the hurt on their faces. It was something that we knew we had to fight for, and not just for us, but we did not want to feel that.

“We put it on everybody the next year, but it was because of them.”

The 2005 season was a storybook for Williams and several teammates. Heading into the season, five members of the team were offered Division I scholarship offers and several more had offers from smaller schools.

Gus Malzahn, the coach at that time who is now the head coach at Auburn, tried to limit the recruiting circus around his team by encouraging the players to either make a verbal commitment to a college before the season or wait until the season ended to limit the distraction.

Williams, now 32 and living in Austin, Texas as a wealth management advisor, said at the time he did not understand that, but later came to realize Malzahn was putting the team ahead of the individuals.

“Gus did not want that to interfere,” Williams. “Now it makes perfect sense. At the time, 17- or 18-year-old kids, we were not mature enough to handle that.

“But I would be lying if I did not say it was a really exciting wave to be on.”

Williams originally made a verbal commitment to Florida, before he flipped his commitment to the University of Arkansas where he joined teammates Mitch Mustain, Andrew Norman and Ben Cleveland who all wanted to play for Malzahn after he was hired as the offensive coordinator.

What few people knew at the time was that Williams had strongly considered signing with Texas to play with Vince Young, the Longhorns’ quarterback at the time who was coming off a big Rose Bowl win against Michigan.

“We had to keep that on the hush-hush for a while because we lived in Arkansas and there was a lot of bad blood there,” Williams said. “But I really wanted to go to Texas. On my visit to Texas, we sat down with Vince for a long time. He came in and sat with us, me and my parents. Vince pretty much told me, ‘hey man, after this year, I’m leaving.’ At the time I didn’t know who Colt McCoy was. The guy I wanted to go play with told me he was leaving, so that was pretty much the reason I didn’t go because Vince was leaving.”

Williams spent just one season at Arkansas, where he started five games and caught 19 passes for 235 yards in 2006. The season was a tumultuous one and Williams asked to be released from his scholarship in December. Mustain soon joined him and Malzahn also departed for Tulsa.

Williams ultimately signed with Southern California, at the time the country’s most dominant college program coming off three straight national championship game appearances.

“It was a culture shock,” he recalled. “Just in itself going to LA was a culture shock. Just the city. I did not have a car, everything was extremely expensive. Just trying to navigate living in LA and trying to go to college at the same time was a heck of a balance, I’ll say that.

“On top of that, you’re playing for one of the most storied programs in the history of college football. I literally walked into a dynasty. I was the low man on the totem pole. There was a lot of faith that had to go into that. God blessed me, man, and my parents were very instrumental. A lot of times I wanted to go home.”

Williams flourished at USC. After sitting out the 2007 season, Williams put together two great seasons at Troy, earning first-team All-Pac-10 honors in 2009. In two seasons, he caught d

In the 2010 Rose Bowl, Williams dominated the big stage in the same manner he did as a high school star in Springdale, where he seemed to have his big games against the biggest opponents. Williams caught 10 passes for 162 yards in that game. It reminded Mustain of a similar game as seniors at Springdale.

“Damian just did what he always did, make spectacular plays,” Mustain said. “He always made me look good. He had that ability and we were fortunate to have him. He wasn’t terribly fast, but he could move and obviously he’s highly intelligent and could make a lot of plays happen. He had a lot of natural talent. Just get the ball to him and he did the rest of the work.”

Williams had a year of eligibility remaining at USC but entered the 2010 NFL Draft, where he was selected in the third round and No. 77 overall by the Tennessee Titans, who just happened to have a recognizable face at quarterback.

Young, who had held true to his word to leave Texas after leading the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship win against USC, was at Tennessee. Finally, Williams would have a chance to play with Young.

“When I got a chance to play with him at Tennessee, I was elated,” Williams said. “It came full circle. Vince was instrumental in my transition from college to the pros.

“People can say what they want to about him, but when it comes to family and football, he was the guy that exemplified that, He took in all the rookies and he made sure we understood the process and the work ethic, And Vince put in the work. I don’t think a lot of people realize that. There were a lot of days and it would be me, him and a couple more receivers at the facility or a high school down the street or just an open field. He’d call and say hey let’s go in there and get some work done.”

Williams spent four seasons at Tennessee, where he caught 96 passes for 1,200 yards. Williams later signed with the Miami Dolphins and the St. Louis Rams before his career ended.

His football journey was a long one and successful in every sense of the word. From high school star to college star in Los Angeles to the NFL, Williams excelled at every level. He still holds his memories in his hometown of Springdale in a special place.

“It was a pretty surreal thing,” he said. “I don’t think any of us appreciated it at the time, to be honest. Now, looking back on it and I’m 32, I don’t know that I really appreciated what we had. We had a team full of guys from every part of the city that just really came together collectively for one goal. We knew what the goal was and we worked our butts off to make sure that that goal happened.”