BAMA STATE SUPER DUO
August 27, 2005
Hornets duo's friendship, leadership rock solidBy Josh Moon
Montgomery Advertiser
Keldrick Williams, left, and Tarvaris Jackson, both Alabama State University football players, grew up together on the field at Sidney Lanier High School. They joined the ASU Hornets together and have remained leaders through adversities that rocked the athletic program and saw a head coach replaced.
-- Karen S. Doerr
Alabama State University quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, left, leaps over Southern University?s Gabe Wallace to land at the 1-yard line on Oct. 2, 2004.
-- Advertiser
Alabama State University running back Keldrick Williams scores a touchdown against Howard University in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 4, 2004.
-- The Detroit News
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When Keldrick Williams and Tarvaris Jackson walked through the door of the Alabama State football offices in December 2002, then-head coach L.C. Cole knew things would never be the same.
In fact, after only a few short months of watching the impact Williams and Jackson had on the Hornets, Cole told anyone who would listen that ASU would be playing for a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship that year.
Naturally, few people took him seriously.
The Hornets were coming off a disappointing 2002 season in which they managed a 6-6 record and finished last in the SWAC's East Division. The program was in the midst of an embarrassing and distracting internal investigation. Many people were picking the Hornets to finish the 2003 season as the worst team in the conference.
Even so, Cole never changed his prediction.
"When we brought those two guys in, when they decided to play for us, I looked at that as our turning point," said Cole, now an assistant coach at Lane College. "We had struggled the year before and had all that mess going on, but anyone who watched the spring game could see that we were going to be tough. I knew it then."
It's been a run ASU fans won't soon forget.
Over the last two seasons, Jackson and Williams have been the cornerstones of one of the most successful spans in the school's football history.
They've led the Hornets to back-to-back appearances in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game, helped the team compile an 18-7 record over the last two seasons and brought home the school's first conference title in 14 years.
A week from today, the Hornets will open the season on national TV in Birmingham against South Carolina State. The 2005 season opener will mark the beginning of the end for Williams and Jackson's careers at ASU.
"It's not something that's really set in, I don't think," Williams said. "I think it might, the closer we get to the end. I know me and Tarvaris have talked about giving it all we've got this year and making sure that we do all we can for this team to have success. But I don't think we can really feel it yet."
Given the success they've had -- no matter what happens in their final season -- it will be hard to look back and not see their careers at ASU as a success.
"I don't think I could've imagined things turning out better," Williams said. "It's pretty much exactly what we hoped for. When we talked about transferring somewhere together, we wanted to go somewhere where we could make a difference, where we could show what we could do and help a team win. We've done that here."
Cole said many people don't realize just how much of an impact Jackson and Williams have had on the ASU program.
"They transformed that program in so many ways," Cole said. "They helped us in recruiting. They're a big reason we were able to pull so many players from the Montgomery area that year. Those players saw that we had Keldrick and Tarvaris, and it opened up the possibility of them choosing ASU over a big school. People will never realize how much those two guys did for that program."
The two have turned around a couple of Montgomery football programs over the years.
Growing up together
Jackson and Williams have been playing together since they were in junior high. In high school, at Sidney Lanier, the pair wreaked havoc on other local teams, carrying the Poets into the playoffs three straight years and to a Class 6A semifinals in 1999.
"We play pretty well together," Jackson said. "It's always been that way. Almost from the start, we were close. We had that bond that we gained through football. He brings out the best in me, and I bring out the best in him. I think that's the reason we've had the success. We like playing together."
During the past 11 years, they've been apart for just two seasons.
After Williams graduated in 2000 from Sidney Lanier, he accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Tennessee. Jackson played his senior season at Lanier in 2000 and then moved on to the University of Arkansas in 2001.
Even though they were both a part of prominent Southeastern Conference football programs, something was missing.
"Tarvaris wasn't happy at Arkansas, and I wasn't happy at Tennessee," Williams said in 2002. "We talked all the time. We wanted to play together again. We made the decision to go somewhere together. No matter where we went, we were going together."
They chose to come home.
"We missed the people here," Williams said. "All of our friends and our families are around here. We wanted to be close to them. This was the obvious choice for us. We talked to Coach Cole and really liked what we heard. It wasn't a tough decision to make."
While coming to ASU wasn't a tough decision to make, staying at ASU was.
In the spring of 2003, ASU officials began an internal investigation into allegations of NCAA rules violations within the football program.
During that time, things slowly began to fall apart for the football players.
Spring practice was delayed two weeks by then-athletic director Richard Cosby. Many of the players were subjected to numerous meetings with attorney Robert Clayton. As the 2003 season approached, the investigation still was going strong and the outlook was not good.
Just before the season started, Williams was suspended by Cosby for failing to meet with Clayton.
"That was one of the worst times of my life," Williams said. "I've never, ever experienced anything like that. Those people said so much false stuff about me and about Coach Cole. What they did to Coach Cole during all that and to the players, they should be ashamed. I hope they are. It was just crazy from start to finish."
Cole said there were times during the investigation that he regretted bringing Williams and Jackson to ASU.
"Those guys didn't deserve that," Cole said. "I don't think Tarvaris' name came up much, but they went after Keldrick pretty hard. He didn't deserve to be treated the way he was. And there was nothing I could do to protect them from it. They should apologize to those players every day. I promised them a good place to play football and a good program, and that's what they got."
Things got worse before they got better.
Cole and two of his assistant coaches were suspended shortly before the season started. New head coach Charlie Coe was brought in one day before practice began.
For Williams and Jackson, it meant another tough decision.
"We talked seriously about leaving," Jackson said. "It got to the point that we actually sat down and started going through options and making phone calls to coaches (at other schools). I talked with my mom about it and Keldrick talked to his. We were really close to walking out. I mean, it was a day before fall practice started, and we didn't know who our coach was. Keldrick had been suspended. We were going to leave."
Then they met Coe.
The Coe era
Determined to make an impossible transition as smooth as he could, Coe took extreme measures to keep the players happy. He kept the staff intact, left the playbook alone and made great efforts to distance himself from the university officials responsible for the investigation.
"I knew that there was a good chance I could lose these guys if I came in overbearing," Coe said. "I told them all, 'Hey, we're in this together. I'm here just like you are. I didn't have anything to do with what's gone on here. You might not like me, but somebody's gonna coach this football team. We can work together and get through it or we can quit.' I think once they saw I wasn't going to come in and shake things up, everybody started to relax."
Jackson certainly did.
"By doing what he did -- not changing the playbook, keeping the assistant coaches -- he showed us that he really did care about us," Jackson said. "That made a big difference. If he had come at us a different way, we probably would've left."
After a few days of giving Coe the cold shoulder, Williams had a meeting with his new coach.
"He came in exactly how you would expect Keldrick to come in -- very apologetic, very open," Coe said. "I told him, 'Son, you don't have anything to apologize about. I understand what you're going through.' But that's Keldrick.
"He's just an all-around good guy, and it was killing him to think that he didn't have a good relationship with me. After that meeting, everything was fine and everything's been great since."
That's an understatement. With Jackson and Williams leading the way, the Hornets surprised the rest of the SWAC by winning the East Division in 2003 and playing for the conference title.
Williams led the SWAC in rushing, and Jackson established himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the conference.
In 2004, the Hornets weren't sneaking up on anyone.
They didn't need to.
Williams, despite missing two games with an ankle injury, again led the conference in rushing and Jackson turned in his best season as he guided ASU to another division title and another SWAC Championship Game.
The Hornets played Southern in the championship game. ASU had lost two straight games to the Jaguars, including a heartbreaking loss at home during the 2004 regular season.
They didn't want to lose again.
Williams rushed for four touchdowns and Jackson, who was named the championship game MVP for his 400-plus yards of total offense, carried the Hornets to a come-from-behind win. It was the school's first conference title since 1991.
"That was sweet," Jackson said. "That's the game that sticks out the most in my mind. I'll remember that one for a long, long time."
Both players said they would be able to look back at their careers at ASU and see much more good than bad.
"I don't really think about the stuff that happened with the investigation that much anymore," Williams said. "When you have your teammates around you and your coaches and good people, it helps you get past that stuff. We did a lot of great things here. That's what I'll remember -- the good times, the wins."
While their memories will be primarily of great games and athletic accomplishments, Williams said he hopes ASU fans and people around Montgomery remember him and Jackson for other reasons.
"I've always tried to be a good person," Williams said. "That's how my mom raised me. I don't care whether people see me as a great football player. As long they remember me as a friendly guy -- someone they could talk to, someone who was there to help them out -- I'll be satisfied.
"That's all I really want. I think me and Tarvaris have done a lot of good here and not just on the field. I hope people remember us for that."
