Players weren’t even in pads yet. This was only a 7-on-7 drill. Not a game. Not grounds for celebration.

But don’t tell Mike Williams.

After fellow receiver Donte Davis scored a touchdown on the second day of Syracuse’s spring football practice, Williams charged in from the opposite direction to meet him in the end zone.

‘Come on! Come on!’ Williams screamed.

The two receivers leaped into the air and bumped hips as if 40,000 were at the Carrier Dome, not 30 outside at a practice field. It’s not hyperbolic elation. The past three weeks have been a joyride for Williams, the tax return for one excruciating year away from his teammates.

Online, Williams was peppered with hate mail that said he was just another Buffalo prospect that flamed out in college. In person, friends badgered him at home with the same ‘What happened?’ questions. On the television, Williams watched Syracuse’s offense whimper to an abysmal 114th ranking in the fall. And in the classroom, Williams earned a B in every course to get back to Syracuse. Back to his family.

‘That’s my family, that was like going away from home,’ Williams said. ‘It’s like they took me away from my home, so I had to get back home.’

For a while, reconciliation seemed nearly impossible to Williams.

After getting suspended by SU for violating the Academic Integrity Policy, Williams’ football career hit a crossroads. He considered transferring to a Division I-AA school, which would have allowed him to continue playing last fall and enter the NFL draft this spring.

Or he could have earned his way back to Syracuse by maintaining a C average at another school for a semester. Deal. Onondaga Community College was out of the question. Williams wanted to keep a low profile, safely away from students and the media. He didn’t want to stick around his hometown of Buffalo, either. The Riverside High School graduate shoulders a heavy local burden. Locals have tracked Williams’ every move. Naturally, his fleeting presence in Buffalo during the fall cued interrogation.

‘Every day in Buffalo people asked me, ‘Why are you home? Why is your team out there and you’re not?” Williams said.

Bill Russell, one of Williams’ assistant coaches at Riverside, said the hometown pressure took its toll.

‘He felt like he let down the community and friends and relatives,’ said Russell, who Williams refers to as a father figure. ‘It’s a lot of pressure. It was tough for him.’

So Williams escaped it all. He attended classes at Springfield (Mass.) Technical Community College to earn his way back to Syracuse. He said he owed it to Syracuse. It would have been easy to transfer to a DI-AA school and leave the mess behind him, like so many NFL hopefuls do. But that’s not Williams’ style, Russell said.

‘Syracuse made a commitment to him and he wanted to make a commitment to Syracuse,’ Russell said. ‘Mike didn’t want to run away from the problem … He felt bad about letting down his teammates. He felt that he needed to make it up to them.’

After all, Williams committed to the Orange as a junior in high school – premature for a prospect drawing interest from Division I football and basketball schools. As more and more D-I schools swooped through Buffalo, N.Y., Williams stood by Syracuse.

The eviction was not a smooth ride. In Massachusetts, Williams watched Syracuse’s offense crumble every Saturday. He had 10 touchdowns himself in 2007. SU’s passing game produced only 11 scores all 2008. Out of frustration, Williams often turned the television off by halftime and opened up the textbooks.

‘All I had to do was schoolwork,’ Williams said. ‘I didn’t have football and I didn’t have my friends around, so it was just all schoolwork.’

Being banished from his team for one season had a numbing effect.

‘I learned that everything is not given to you,’ Williams said. ‘You have to work for everything. At first, I’m thinking, ‘I’m Mike Williams. I’m on top of the world.’ That’s how I felt. But now, me being suspended helped me. It helped me realize that I’m like everybody else. I can be suspended. I can leave, too.’

Throughout the banishment, Williams constantly talked to Davis. Williams scolded his good friend for not running crisp routes. (‘I’d say, ‘Ah man, that’s bad! That’s why you didn’t get the ball!”) And Williams gave Davis regular briefings on how his classes were going. When he learned that Syracuse was taking him back, Williams called Davis immediately.

‘I was just so filled with joy,’ Davis said. ‘Mike, that’s my man. Ever since freshman year, he’s been one of my best friends. So it’s good to have him back on campus, just being around him.’

To celebrate, the two went out to eat at Red Lobster. Now, they’re back on the football field. Williams out wide. Davis in the slot.

In his year-long isolation, Williams didn’t play any football. The 6-foot-2 receiver ran, lifted and played pickup basketball. The bruiser that nearly led Riverside to an upset win over Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn’s Niagara Falls team in high school plays pickup games with a purpose, Russell said.

‘He plays so hard whenever he’s in a pickup game,’ Russell said. ‘Some kids can get by jogging, but Mike plays so tenaciously. So he kept himself in shape.’

Williams, who had scholarship offers in basketball from Buffalo and Canisius, showcased that rebounding tenacity every day in spring practice. Scrimmages often morphed into a cruel game of child’s play.

During Syracuse’s first day of tackling, Cameron Dantley lobbed a go-get-it bomb to Williams up the right sideline. Cornerback Nico Scott had perfect coverage, but it didn’t matter. Williams timed his jump and plucked the ball over Scott’s head like something out of an intramural game.

Syracuse’s popgun offense didn’t complete one pass beyond 40 yards last season. Through the first week of practice, Williams caught at least one 40-yarder every day. No wonder Williams and Davis are partying in the end zone. A stale passing game has some sort of savior to cling to.

‘In practice, you can go to Mike all day,’ said SU’s new starting quarterback, Ryan Nassib. ‘We like to go to the other receivers, but Mike is a go-to receiver.’

Still, SU head coach Doug Marrone isn’t cueing the student band any time soon. Marrone said Williams needs to decipher man coverage from zone better, while developing more consistency.

‘I know people look and they see a big catch, but Mike would be the first one to tell you that he has a long way to go,’ Marrone said. ‘What you see out there today is the unfinished product.’

Williams realizes he needs to prove himself all over again. The receiver’s banner sophomore campaign of 837 yards and 10 touchdowns is nothing more than scraps from a previous regime – he said he feels like a freshman. Williams pays close attention to every detail from wide receivers coach Jaime Elizondo.

‘He wants to do everything right,’ Elizondo said. ‘He’s real conscientious. Right now he’s like a sponge, absorbing every detail and every assignment … Every route is counted on steps. There are a lot of details in our offense. He has really tried to pick up all the nuances.’

Things would have been much different had he chosen to transfer to a DI-AA school last fall. Instead of being interviewed by potential NFL teams for this year’s draft, Williams is now cattle-prodded by the Orange’s tough-love coaching staff. Instead of planning on what he’ll do with a rookie contract, Williams is abiding by the team rule to retrieve every wayward incompletion thrown in his direction. Instead of shaving seconds off that precious 40-yard dash time, Williams is blasted by Max Suter across the middle of the field.

‘It felt good,’ Williams said, smiling. ‘I told him ‘good hit’ in the locker room after practice.’

It’s everything Williams missed last fall. He missed his family. During the famed Oklahoma drill that pits two players in gladiator-like combat, a lively Williams never stopped smacking linemen on the rear, joining players in high-pitched yelps, and jumping up and down.

Williams is back. Even he can’t help but shake his head in that reality.

‘I didn’t know what was going to happen,’ Williams said. ‘I thought I was done. I didn’t know how things were going to go. I just tried to fight my way back, and it seems like everything worked out.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on April 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm