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Bill Carroll interviews Roderick Williams
Interviewed on: Sunday, July 12th, 2009 Bill Carroll: Roderick Williams is an underrated CB from Alcorn State but he intends to change that. He has made his stated aim to be considered the top corner among all HBCU’s and one of the top cornerbacks in college football. To that end Roderick spent much of his spring working out with All-Time great cornerback Darrell Green and has the Hall of Famer on speed dial. I asked the 5’10” 181 pound Monroe LA, native about his high school, college career, goals and mindset about playing on the “island.”
What’s your most recent 40, vertical, and max bench?
Roderick Williams: I ran 2 40s when I was working out with Darrell Green I ran a 4.36 with the wind and a 4.52 against it, on grass. My most recent vertical was just over 37” and my most recent max bench was 315, I benched 225 16 times. BC: Roderick where did you go to high school? RW: Edgewater high school I played for coach Greg Williams. BC: What was the style of play? RW: On offense it was smash mouth, throw the ball when you have to, on defense- man on man, heavy blitz. I was used mostly in press man. BC: What positions did you play and what was your favorite to play? RW: Mostly I played running back and corner, but my favorite position was return man. BC: Really?! Why return man? RW: I could make an impact every time I touched the ball. I felt like that was the position that gave me the greatest chance to change the game. At running back or corner you might get some chances to change the game, but not on every play, at corner they can just go away from you, at running back they can stack the line to stop you. BC: What was your longest return? RW: In high school, 99 yards to open the game. In college I had a 70 yard punt return. BC: 99 yards, you can’t go much longer than that can you? RW: No sir! BC: You were also a basketball player, a point guard? RW: Team captain in both football and basketball. We won a state championship in basketball. BC: How do you think playing basketball helped you to play corner? RW: Quick hands and feet, playing defense on a point guard is like press coverage, you need quick feet and hands. BC: What schools recruited you? RW: Southern Miss, Ole Miss, and Tulane were on me pretty hard, Wake Forest, because they were recruiting my teammate ‘Boo’ Robinson, but I had only gotten a 16 on the ACT with a about a 2.6 GPA. Also Arkansas, all the JUCOs and SWAC schools came after me. BC: What made you decide on Alcorn State? RW: My head coach, Greg Williams went to Alcorn and he really pushed me to go there. Plus I wanted to get out of state. BC: What was your transition like to college? RW: Well in high school you are ‘The’ man, but in college there are more guys like you and you have to compete harder just to get on the field. BC: What was your freshman year like? RW: I got 7 starts due to injury and never lost the spot once I got in there. BC: Did you have any competition for your position going into your sophomore season? RW: Oh yes sir, guys coming back and JUCO guys but I knew I was going to out-work those guys; no way was I going to give up that spot! BC: Also your sophomore year was your break out year; you had a really good season why? RW: I was real comfortable in the way we played, I was up on people and able to play real aggressively, I made All SWAC 2nd Team. BC: You have 2 two big games, what are you doing to prepare and though S. Mississippi and Central Michigan both run the spread what differences have you noticed between the two? RW: Central Michigan will try to break you down short and then go deep, Southern Miss will look to test you deep right of the bat. BC: Who were the best guys you have faced in a game or practice? RW: Well if I had to pick one guy it’d be a former teammate Nate Hughes of the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was pretty good. BC: Are there any other games that you look forward to? RW: Well there’s those first 2 other than that conference games are even more important you just have to play hard every week. |