Injured Williams wants OU
V/
By Kent Endacott
First Dow n Reporter
Revenge is all the motivation Nebraska
fullback Randy Williams needs. Williams,a
6- foot-3,225-pound freshman from Broken
Arrow. Okla., was injured last week and is
expected to miss three weeks of action.
Williams said he still wants to make it big at
Nebraska to show his high school football
coach he was worth recruiting.
He claims his coach, Gary Harper, didn’t
like him and encouraged recruiters to stay
away.
“My head coach back in high school went
to the University of Oklahoma and played
football for Oklahoma,” he said. “The way
he feels is if you're not good enough to go to
Oklahoma, then you’re not good enough to
go anywhere. They were recruiting me, but
he told them 1 wasn’t worth their time. He
told a lot of schools 1 wasn’t worth their time.
“So a lot of schools started to back off. I
was recruited by Alabama, Notre Dame,
Penn State, Georgia and all of the Southwest
Conference teams and all the teams in the
Big Eight.”
Harper denied that he had discouraged
recruiters from pursuing Williams. He also
refused to discuss the nature of his conflict
with Williams.
“Thai is a lie,” Harper said. “I did not
discourage recruiters. The only thing I’m
going to tell you is Kandy Williams is a fine
athlete. Ant that’s it... If you want to know
the truth, talk to the Nebraska coaches, they
know the truth.”
Nebraska on-campus recruiter Dave
Gillespie said he never heard any stories to
indicate Williams “was anything other than
a good person.”
Williams said his problems with Harper
began in his junior year w hen he transferred
to Tulsa County Alternative School after the
Broken Arrow Senior High administration
threatened to suspend him for skipping
school. He returned to Broken Arrow for his
senior season, led the team in rushing and
was named the Frontier Conference’s Most
Valuable Player.
He also was included on several blue
chip lists.
By then, however, most schools had
stopped recruiting him.
“lie (Harper) told a whole bunch of
coaches I w as just a troublemaker, not worth
their time, and I was uncoachable,” Wil
liams said. “I really don’t feel like that was
true. All my assistant coaches really liked
me.”
Oklahoma Suite Director of Athletic
Recruiting Gordon Whitcncr said the Cow
boys had lost interest in Williams because
Oklahoma stopped recruiting him. But
Oklahoma Slate started recruiting him again
after school officials were contacted by his
mother, Kathy Williams.
“His coach didn’t like him and appar
ently didn’t recommend him,” Whitener
said.
In August, Oklahoma State released
Williams from his national letter of intent
because he didn’t meet the college’s aca
demic admission standards. Williams,
however, met the minimum 2.0 grade point
average in core curriculum classes estab
lished by Proposition 4«X, which sets aca
demic entry requirements for athletes.
“He was a very good player,” Whitener
said. “Two times he scored four touchdowns
in one game from the tailback position.
There was never any doubt about his ath letic
abilities.”
Williams said he contacted schools to let
them know' he was available alter receiving
his release from Oklahoma State. He said he
had to decide quickly because football prac
tice was about to start.
He narrow ed his choices to Nebraska and
Texas.
Williams said he chose Nebraska be
cause of its winning tradition and disci
plined environment. He said his assistant
high-school football coach, Phil Angien,
convinced the coaches he w as w orth a schol
arship.
"The coaches are calling him up, asking
him for references, saying, How is Randy?
Is he really pretty good? Coach told them, If
he’s got the right environment, the coaches
work with him and make sure he goes to
school and everything, he’ll be one of your
better players.’" Williams said.
—■Cqf
Williams
Andrea Hoy/First Down
