Trying to catch on
INDIANAPOLIS – A season without football hardly was a lost year for Mike Williams.
Sure, the league and the courts kept him out of the 2004 NFL draft. The NCAA wouldn’t restore his eligibility, forcing him to sit out a second straight national championship journey for Southern Cal.
Williams isn’t about to harp on those negatives, not when he has a chance to show the pros just how ready he is, beginning at the NFL combine this week.
“There’s probably 20 minutes of last year that I really was down, that I really felt like I had the world on my shoulders,” the wide receiver known for his spectacular catches said Friday. “I’m blessed to have a really good support group of people that really care about me, really care about my best interests.
“When I didn’t know if I was going to get back in school or not … I was getting calls from coaches at SC, wondering how I was doing, how I was holding up, making sure I was OK, making sure (if) I need anything. As soon as they found out I couldn’t get back into school, the phone stopped ringing. And I have no problem with that.
“Emotionally, I’m ready to go. I definitely put myself in this situation physically and mentally and with my work ethic to hopefully turn out better this year than possibly last year.”
A year ago, Williams entered the draft when the league was forced by the courts to open it to underclassmen. Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett brought the lawsuit, and when an appellate court overturned the lower court decision, it left Clarett and Williams in limbo.
While Clarett, who was suspended by the Buckeyes and missed the 2003 season, did not return to school, Williams petitioned the NCAA to be reinstated. He lost that appeal and has not played in a game since the Trojans won the 2004 Rose Bowl.
“I talked to Maurice a couple of times when things had first happened,” Williams said. “But I’ve … really tried hard to distance myself from his situation because we’re kind of at different ends of the spectrum. But in the same token, I think we’re always going to be linked together. We both understood that, but I definitely don’t see him as the reason why I wasn’t able to be in the draft last year. It’s nothing personal against him, never has been. I just worry about maintaining my focus and my image, and I take care of my business.”
Projected to go in the top 15 last year, when the wide receiver class was deep and five wideouts went in the first 15, Williams now is more of an uncertainty.
“It’s hard,” Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick said of evaluating Williams. “You have to go back to the tapes and that has not changed. You take what is on film and now it is a year removed. Even with all that, I imagine he’ll be a first-rounder.”
If your team is in dire need of a playmaking receiver, as the Ravens are?
“Maybe you take that little bit of a leap,” Billick said.
Unless Williams completely botches his interviews and workouts – he’s scheduled his “pro day” for March 10 in Tampa – he should be one of the first receivers selected. This again is a good crop, although not quite as strong as a year ago.
“Braylon is a great receiver,” Williams said of Michigan’s Braylon Edwards, generally considered the top wideout. “I know (Oklahoma’s) Mark Clayton personally. I know he’s a great receiver. I’ve met Troy Williamson (South Carolina); he’s a good guy. Terrence Murphy (Texas A&M) is a good guy. It’s a lot of really good guys that are going to do some things in this league.”
Including, of course, Williams?
“Mike is about as gifted as anyone I’ve ever seen,” said Georgia quarterback David Greene, who has been working out in Atlanta with Williams. “He’s caught quite a few balls he wasn’t supposed to catch and you just go, ‘Wow!’ “
But will the NFL go “Wow!” as well?