Williams, Rivers battle for Grambling quarterback job

Grambling, LA — Grambling quarterback D.J. Williams may only be a freshman, but he's certainly got the confidence of a fifth-year senior.

"I feel like the guys just rally around me," Williams said. "I'm good friends with all of the guys, on and off the field, and they just rally around me. I feel like I'm the best leader out there."

Williams and sophomore Frank Rivers have been battling throughout camp for the opportunity to be Grambling's starting quarterback when it opens the season against Alcorn State on Sept. 3.

The Grambling coaching staff has yet to make any statements about ...

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In the FCS Huddle: 2011 SWAC Preview

Philadelphia, PA - Doug Williams laughs that a lot of his football players at Grambling State didn't know much about him when he returned to his alma mater for a second stint as head coach.

Dezmond Spivey knew him well. He just laughs at Williams' style.

"He's a character, he's a comedian," Spivey said. "When he imitates Coach Rob, he goes 'only in America' and certain things. And I can say this, when there's a scenario to be given, he has one for every single thing."

Spivey's father played with Williams for one season at Grambling State under Coach Rob - the legendary Eddie Robinson - so Dezmond has a history with the Tigers' new coach that includes attending...

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Grambling State University football practice kicks off

Grambling, LA - Finally, football is here again. Grambling State's players report for training camp Wednesday, then have two workouts Thursday: a 6 a.m. conditioning test, then the first official practice at 7 p.m. After a long summer of keeping tabs on his players from a distance, head coach Doug Williams is eager to get back on the field.

"I really am," Williams said. "You go through the spring, and you go through some things from an evaluation standpoint, and then you spend the next few months with the kids away from you. You're just with the coaches, trying to figure out who is going to go where. You're trying to put the puzzle together."



Wednesday is mostly an administrative day. Players will be checking in, getting their equipment, getting room assignments, going through admission, registration and financial aid paperwork, sitting through meetings with trainers and campus security, and spending a little time hobnobbing with each other.

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Grambling will have new quarterback this season

Grambling, LA - Ask Grambling football coach Doug Williams about how it feels in his second stint as the Tigers head coach, and he'll tell you that he thinks the program is in better shape than it was for his first time around.

Ask him how his quarterback situation is shaping out, and he'll tell you that it's a spirited competition between two untested players — sophomore Frank Rivers and freshman D.J. Williams.

No mention, however, of last year's quarterback — Anthony Carrothers — who threw for 1,443 yards on the 2010 season and 115 yards in April's Black and Gold game. The 5-foot-10 Carrothers has transferred out of Grambling.

That, said Williams at the SWAC Media Day at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex on Tuesday, leaves Rivers and his own son, D.J.

"If you've only got two eggs to put in the cornbread, you have to put them in there," said Williams, who returned to the school in February after Rod Broadway left for North Carolina A&T."



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Williams preparing to make another run with Grambling

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Asked why he returned to coach football at his alma mater, Alabama’s Bear Bryant is famously supposed to have replied: “Mama called.” For Doug Williams, his whirlwind return to Grambling was for similar reasons.

“I always feel responsible for Grambling because Grambling was good to me,” Williams said as he faced a barrage of interviews Tuesday at SWAC football media day. “I hope that by coming back I’m giving back.”

The Zachary native was set to take a front office job with the Washington Redskins - the franchise he led to victory in Super Bowl XXII with a virtuoso MVP performance - when former Grambling coach Rod Broadway abruptly resigned on Feb. 3 to become head coach at North Carolina A&T.

Almost immediately, Williams said, his phone started ringing. At the other end of the line were ...

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AD's departure welcomed by Grambling State University family

Grambling, LA - There wasn't much of an attempt to hide the consensus opinion regarding Lin Dawson's resignation from his duties as Grambling State's athletics director. GSU alumni and fans are glad he's gone, and they've made the message loud and clear.

Usually when a coach or administrator leaves an athletic department, his departure is met with some boring comments about the hard work he put in for the betterment of the university.

Dawson's departure was met with brutal honesty. Head football coach Doug Williams — arguably the most important living figure in the Grambling family — said Dawson's departure was "in the best interest of the university." It seemed that Williams wanted to say more, but he chose to hold his tongue.

Jackie Hamilton, a GSU alum and the head football coach at Carroll, said, "I know ain't nobody gonna cry about it."

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Throwback: HBCU Greatest Football Champions of the Last Era

Players and Coaches from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played a significant role in the history of college football.

Black College football and NFL quarterback pioneers Pro Bowl MVP James "Shack" Harris and Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams have personally made this journey and remain committed to preserving the HBCU legacy. It is this promise that inspired them to establish the Black College Football Hall of Fame. The City of Atlanta, with its central proximity to more than half of the nation™s HBCUs, was selected as the perfect home for the Hall of Fame.

Shack and Doug next turned to the task of establishing a prestigious selection committee, with a special understanding and knowledge of the many great HBCU players and coaches. Numerous prominent journalists and football executives enthusiastically joined the Committee, which determines the Hall of Fame selection criteria, reviews nominations and chooses inductees.

Williams, Grambling expect to win

Philadelphia, PA - He's only an internet search away, but Doug Williams laughs that some of his Grambling State football players may not know a lot about what he has accomplished within the storied program or during his NFL career.

"Those young guys, sometimes they don't keep up with stuff. They might not," he said, chuckling. "They don't have to embrace me. I think it's important they embrace Grambling - the legacy and the history of Grambling."

There's no escaping that Williams has been a big part of the program that legendary coach Eddie Robinson built, first as a player from 1973-77 and then as Robinson's successor during a six-year coaching tenure from 1998-2003.

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Everyone wins with Doug Williams' hire

GRAMBLING, La. — Grambling State University was thought to have pulled off some sort of coup by luring back Doug Williams for a second stint as the Tigers' head football coach.

After all, how often does a school lose a coach the caliber of Rod Broadway, after signing day, and manage to take a monumental leap forward?

Hardly ever, as you could tell by the visible and audible jubilation pouring from Grambling alums, athletes and supporters — many who made lengthy journeys to mark the occasion Wednesday.

Williams: 'Coming home is about family"

Doug Williams sat intently as Grambling president Frank Pogue and athletics director Lin Dawson talked about him, but as the Tigers' new head football coach stood, held his black and gold baseball cap and began to address the room, he couldn't help but crack a wide smile.

"Wow," he said. "We are Grambling."

About 200 people tried to pile into a room with about 100 chairs for the press conference Wednesday morning at the Eddie Robinson Museum to officially announce the old news that Robinson was returning for a second stint as the head coach.

The coach is home again

When Thomas Wolfe penned, "You Can't Go Home Again," it's obvious Doug Williams didn't get the memo. Maybe he skipped that class when he was a student at Grambling State University.

But today, the Grambling community is quite happy Doug Williams doesn't know you can't go home again. And if he did indeed dash out on literature, it hasn't shown up on his permanent record.

Doug Williams criticizes NFL 'fraternity,' returns to Grambling State to coach son

Doug Williams acknowledges that coaching his son in his second stint at Grambling State may be a challenge, but it has to be easier than navigating what he calls the NFL's good ol' boys "fraternity."

Williams resigned over the weekend as general manager of the Virginia Destroyers of the UFL in order to return to Grambling State and criticized front-office opportunities for minorities in the NFL. He spent six seasons in the Tampa Bay Bucs' scouting department (from 2004 until last May) and hoped to become an NFL GM.

"The good ol' boy network is alive and well,'' Williams said in an interview with tampabay.com. "But it's changed from the good ol' boy network to the fraternity. I always find a way to overcome and just keep going forward. I look at it this way, you've got guys sitting in the front office that never coached.

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Culpepper leaving Tampa Bay Tech for GSU

TAMPA, FL - As he looked out at the faces of his football players gathered in the Tampa Bay Tech auditorium early Wednesday afternoon, C.C. Culpepper couldn't hold back the tears.

Culpepper was overcome with emotion as he revealed he was leaving TBT as head coach to accept a job as defensive backs and special teams coach at Grambling State University.

"If it wasn't for your hard work, practicing and playing, listening to me scream and cuss, I would not have this opportunity," Culpepper told his players. "It's the young men of Tampa Bay Tech who have given me this chance."

And despite how much work he put into TBT to change it from a perennial loser to one that reached the region semifinals the past three seasons, Culpepper said coaching at Grambling was just an opportunity that doesn't come around often.

Culpepper steps down at TBT

The most prosperous era in Tampa Bay Tech football history concluded earlier today, when Titans coach C.C. Culpepper informed his players he is stepping down to join Doug Williams' staff at Grambling State University.

TBT principal Scott Brooks confirmed Culpepper, also a highly respected business teacher at the school, informed him first thing this morning he was resigning. He's the fourth Hillsborough County coach to step down -- either voluntarily or by force -- this offseason.

"When Doug Williams calls and asks you, I'm not sure how you tell him no," Brooks said.

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Doug Williams leaving UFL job to return as coach of Grambling State Tigers

Doug Williams is leaving his position as general manager of the UFL's Virginia Destroyers to become coach of Grambling for the second time.

Williams previously succeeded Eddie Robinson in 1998 and compiled a 53-17 record in six seasons with three Southwestern Athletic Conference championships.

Part of the lure of returning to the job is the opportunity to coach his son, D.J. Williams, who signed with the school earlier this month.

Doug Williams returns to Grambling

Doug Williams succeeded legendary coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling in 1997. After leaving for other football ventures, Williams, the Super Bowl winning quarterback, is returning home.
This time, he’ll coach his son with the Tigers. Williams told ProFootballTalk.com that he is leaving his post as general manager of the Virginia Destroyers in the UFL.

“I was looking forward to working with the Destroyers, but this is a great opportunity for me and it is very rare that a father gets to coach his son at the college football level,” Williams told ProFootballTalk.com. “I went to school there, I coached there, and now I have a great opportunity to coach there again.

Va. UFL team's general manager leaving for Grambling State

General Manager Doug Williams' presence was stable through the Virginia Destroyers’ birth pains, which have included defections of coaches and team presidents.

No longer. Williams, once a Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Washington Redskins, is out the door of the struggling United Football League team, too.

Williams was hired today as head coach at Grambling State University in Louisiana, where he played and also served as head coach from 1998 to 2003. He will be formally re-introduced Wednesday.

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