DeANGELO WILLIAMS
University of Memphis
Running Back, 2002-05
 
DeAngelo Williams chose Memphis over bigger programs elsewhere because the Tigers told him what he needed to hear as a teenager — not what he wanted to hear. That message?
 
"Coach (Tommy) West told me, 'I know you have Division I talent, but I'm not going to tell you that you can come here and star,'" Williams recalled. "'What I'm telling you is you can come in here and re-write history if you live up to the potential that we think you have. I know we haven't been to a bowl game in 32 years, but you can help change that with the potential you have. You can go to all these other schools and be part of history, but you can come to Memphis and make it.'"
 
Those words proved to be prescient — Williams was part of a recruiting class that helped revive the Tigers' program, and he is now the first former Memphis player to make the College Football Hall of Fame. Not bad for a kid from Wynee, Ark., whose decision to spurn the SEC drew plenty of question marks at the time.
 
"It's wild," Williams said of being the first Memphis Hall of Famer. "Because when I think back in the history of the University of Memphis, you see guys like Isaac Bruce. But when you think about the guys who went on from the college level to the NFL, you just expected that they threw up incredible, awesome numbers in college, and that's not always the case.
 
"I think that's what it is in this situation We don't peak in college; we peak in the National Football League. That's a great thing. Every once in awhile, like myself, we come around. I thought I peaked in college, so it's interesting," he added, laughing.
 
Williams is the all-time leading rusher in Memphis history, having amassed 6,026 career yards on the ground, which ranked fourth in FBS history at the time. His 7,573 career all-purpose yards marked an FBS record then, too.
 
Memphis went 24-13 across the final three years of Williams' career, a remarkable turnaround after a stretch of eight straight losing campaigns. The Tigers went 9-4 and won the New Orleans Bowl in 2003, which ended the aforementioned bowl drought and set off a stretch of three straight seasons that ended in a bowl game, which was a first in the program's history.
 
"I chose Memphis because I loved the coaching staff," Williams said. "Coach West, (offensive coordinator) Randy Fichtner. I loved everything about Memphis."
 
Funny enough, Williams' career may have been stuck on the defensive side of the ball if not for the help of his childhood friends. His introduction to football came through schoolyard games among buddies that involved tackling, which was so terrifying to the then-8-year-old Williams that he saw no other path to avoid getting hit but to simply run away from opponents as fast as he could.
 
When he started out in pee wee football, Williams was relegated to a reserve defensive end role. He finally saw the field after several other kids ahead of him were hurt or left the team, and he recorded so many sacks that his coaches couldn't take him off the field.
 
"Another guy on the team I was on was like, 'Hey, Coach, I don't know why you're playing him at defensive end. At school we can't catch him. You need to put him at running back,'" Williams said with a laugh.
 
The rest, as they say, is history. Williams earned MVP honors of the 2005 Motor City Bowl and the 2006 Senior Bowl. He finished his career with five Conference-USA records, and he was a three-time league player of the year. The school retired his No. 20 jersey in 2006, and it renamed the team MVP award to the "DeAngelo Williams MVP Award" in 2012.
 
The Panthers drafted him 27th overall in 2006, and he spent nine of his 11 NFL seasons in Charlotte, where he calls home today. He led the NFL in touchdowns in 2008 and 2015. A father of four, Williams started the DeAngelo Williams Foundation in honor of his late mother, Sandra, and four of his aunts who died from breast cancer. Sandra Williams was sick when he was in college, and he cherished the chance to play so close to home.
 
"I credit all of that success to my mom, only because I wanted better for her," Williams said. "And as a result of me wanting better for her, it made me better, too."
 
UP CLOSE:
 

• Named a First Team All-American in 2005 and a three-time Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year.
• Concluded his career as the FBS record holder in all-purpose yards (7,573) and set an NCAA record with 34 games of 100-plus rushing yards, averaging 178.55 yards per game in 2005.
• Totaled 969 rushes for 6,026 yards (ranking fourth in NCAA history at the time) and 55 touchdowns while adding 70 receptions for 723 receiving yards and five touchdowns and returning 60 kickoffs for a 22.3 average.
• Played for head coach Tommy West.
• Becomes the first Memphis player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.