Sidelined With An Injury, The Sidelines Became His Home
11/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 19, 2004
By Pat Norris - Greg Williams is at NC State because this is where he has always wanted to be. The third-year cornerbacks coach is back for the second time as a coach at his alma mater. After 37 years in the coaching ranks, Williams is back in the job that he thought he would hold for the rest of his life when he first came back to the Wolfpack. After graduating in 1968, he spent one season as the secondary coach as NC State won the 1979 ACC title with a defensive coordinator named Chuck Amato.
"I came here to work with Chuck in 1979, and when head coach Bo Rein left, I went to LSU as the defensive coordinator," Williams said. "I thought after 11 years of coaching that when I came to NC State I came to stay for the rest of my life. In this business you can't plan and when you do plan, it never works out the way that you did plan for."
After coaching offense and defense for 37 years at 10 different schools, Williams has finally returned to where his plan always said he would.
"This is really where I want to be, especially working for Chuck," Williams said. "When I came here and saw the commitment to football from the school, the alumni and the Wolfpack Club, I was impressed. It was great to see the university change and grow from 7,000 students to 30,000 students and how Raleigh has grown as well. It was like being at the right place at the right time, and this is the right place for me. I'm really enjoying it."
His return to NC State almost came in 2000, when Amato was first hired by the Wolfpack. Amato called and told Williams about taking over NC State's head coaching job, and Williams was leaning towards running with the Wolfpack as well.
"He wanted me to come then, but I was coaching for Jim Donnan down in Georgia and had a good job," Williams said. "My son Gavin was was a senior in high school and I didn't want to change schools on him then. I was happy that they hired him as the head coach because I knew he would do a good job. When I finally was hired here in 2002, I could see the excitement and commitment to NC State football. There hadn't been a lot done in terms of facility improvements in years, but Amato changed that. It needed to be done."
When he was in high school, Williams saw coaching as a job that he wanted to pursue. For him football, and sports in general, was a way of life. He wanted to continue being around football, and coaching was the logical next step after his playing days ended. Likewise, going to college was just a way to play more football, at least initially.
"I was always so competitive in athletics and I never thought about going to college to get an education," Williams said. "Going to college was the next step to play more football. When high school was over I couldn't play football there anymore, and the next step to play was to go to college. Fortunately, I was a pretty good student, but I never had been a good student to go to college. I wanted to play football.
"My dad didn't go to college and not a lot of people in my hometown of Danville, Pa., went to college. I received these scholarship offers so I could go, and obviously I wanted to go so I could play football. It dawned on me in my sophomore year what a college education could do for me."
Williams and the famed "White Shoes" defense of the 1967 team won the first bowl game in school history in the Liberty Bowl, defeating Georgia 14-7. A senior on that team, Williams tore up his knee in the bowl game and was unable to play football again. Though faced with losing his chance to try out for the NFL, Williams had his first opportunity to coach. He wasn't redshirted as a freshman, so he had three classes to complete to get his degree in 1968. He stayed on with the Wolfpack as a graduate assistant coach that year, and he says he owes his coaching success to defensive coach Al Michaels.
"I couldn't play, so I wanted to coach, and I wanted to coach football," Williams said. "Back in those days you sent a scout out. Jack Stanton was our secondary coach and did our scouting. That year I worked with the freshman team and I was the eyes in the press box because Stanton went out to scout. You would exchange film with the teams and you would write it all down and hand draw the formations.
"Chuck and I always talked football, and I think we always knew we would be coaches. There was no signaling from the sidelines. We were taught what plays to call and when to call them during the week. Al Michaels stimulated us and made us think. Chuck called the plays on the field. We would make those checks and were taught that way. I think that is the reason why we are good coaches now and have had successful careers. How we learned football as players, how it was taught to us and how we practiced it. We were just lucky to be here. If I hadn't come here and been under Al Michaels, I know I wouldn't be as good a coach and I think Chuck would say the same thing."
After his stint as a graduate assistant, Williams began a 37-year career that spanned throughout the Northeast, down into the South and up through the Midwest. He has coached and played with Jim Donnan and Amato. He was a coach with Bobby Bowden at West Virginia and Florida State. He coached for Frank Cignetti, current Wolfpack quarterbacks coach Curt Cignetti's father, at West Virginia. He coached future NFL stars Ron "Jaws" Jaworski and Champ Bailey.
Williams went to college to keep playing football, and he became a coach to stay in the game after a career-ending injury sidelined him. The sidelines have been good to him.