Beware of the Dawgs: UMS-Wright is socking it to opponents with physicality and tempo

 

 

 

BREWTON — Sam Williams was in such a hurry to get started at UMS-Wright that he didn’t wear socks to his introductory press conference last St. Patrick’s Day.

Williams hasn’t slowed down since inheriting the program from the illustrious Terry Wayne Curtis and not just because he knows he is expected to win as much as his predecessor, who was one of the best coaches ever at staying a play ahead of the opposition.

Williams’ offense — as he promised in March — appears an entire playbook ahead. While quarterback Max Fowler seems to read about a page a second while diagramming and proofreading all the sentences, the defense is still picking itself off the ground after the previous play. There is no huddle and little for Fowler to do other than impatiently stamp his foot while waiting on the gassed chain crew to move the down markers.

“It’s hard for them to adjust when we start going and we really get into a rhythm,” said Fowler, referring not only to the chain crew but the defense.

Williams didn’t wear any socks on Friday night, either, when his Bulldogs came to T.R. Miller and hollowed out the state’s all-time winningest program like a bone-dry gourd, 29-6. Williams may not even like socks but maybe he should start wearing some boots if his football team is going to start kicking the innards out of people.

Tigers coach Ronnie Cottrell, who also knows a thing or two about football, was genuinely unprepared for UMS-Wright’s tempo and perhaps relieved that he will not see it again in Class 3A this season.

“They create confusion,” said Cottrell, who offered no excuses. “They just beat us.”

Nobody else in Mobile — and maybe nobody else in the state — runs an offense the way Williams does. He describes it as “chaos on grass,” so it’s impossible to simulate unless someone turns a bag of tree frogs loose on the practice field and tries to catch them.

Take away the final possession Friday night, when they slowed down to run out the clock, and the Bulldogs snapped the football every 18 seconds — and that includes unpiling after a typical 5-yard gain.

That same approach helped Williams regularly take Brandon to the Mississippi Class 7A finals and unless an opponent has far superior athletes, it’s going to be a challenge to beat UMS-Wright, especially when the Bulldogs learn more about what they’re doing.

“I’m not one of those guys that thinks that I’m some offensive savant or genius,” Williams said. “You can kind of neutralize a little bit of talent when talent gets tired and I think it’s been really good for us. It’s obviously not perfect yet. It’s year one and we’re still trying to learn the answers of what we do.”

Williams didn’t even give himself a high grade on Friday night.

“I thought I did a pretty poor job on early downs of play calling and particularly going too fast, not being real situationally aware at different points,” he said. “I’ve gotta get better at that.”

But UMS-Wright may have proven something to itself and climbed some stairs by beating Miller the way it did. Fowler had to throw 58 times for 367 yards in a 39-26 loss to Vigor that should have been much worse given the talent gap. With a week off to regroup, Williams decreed that his offense must be more physical and his offensive linemen responded by getting under the unsettled Tigers’ shoulder pads. The Bulldogs ran for 206 yards after averaging 124 in the first four games and Fowler — who has doubled his passing attempts and touchdowns and tripled his passing yardage from last year — celebrated on the field with a backflip.

“It was more of a mentality change,” Williams said. “We knew we had to be physical and I wanted to see if we could do it. We tried to hit them in the mouth and they hit us back and we kept swinging. And that was good to see because that’s something we’re gonna have to do to win championships later in the year.”

That’s the standard Curtis created but none of his eight state championship teams ever looked the way Williams’ version does. While Curtis still works as a fundraiser at UMS-Wright and was on the sideline Friday night, Williams has never been intimidated by his presence, making it clear from the first day that he would be his own man.

“I took the approach of coming in and telling them, ‘Hey, man, there’s a lot of different ways to do things,’” Williams said. “Coach Curtis did a great job doing it one way and we’re going to do it a little different and if y’all buy in and believe, we’re going to be good.”

The Class 5A Bulldogs have a realistic chance to not only make their 32^nd straight playoff appearance but go deep. The rest of the regular-season schedule is favorable, as Citronelle, Elberta and Faith Academy are a combined 3-13 and allowing a cumulative 32 points per game. Williamson will be a heavy favorite on Oct. 10 but so was Vigor and it will be fascinating to see how the Lions’ great defense handles the tempo.

Regardless of where the season ends, Williams is getting the most out of his players and that’s all anybody can ask for. It’s already too much for most teams.