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Vikings: Williamson left legacy at high school
Mark Craig, Star Tribune
July 24, 2005 VIKE0724.SIDE



PETTICOAT JUNCTION, S.C. -- Jimmy Green, a former Silver Bluff High Bulldog, points to a spot near the "Bad Dog," a royal blue charter bus that transports this proud little football factory.

"That's where we used to run the 40-yard dash," Green said. "We were freshman, and Troy comes out cold and runs a 4.4. In tennis shoes, man."

Troy Williamson, Green's cousin and the Vikings' first pick in this year's NFL draft, wasn't even serious about football when he ran that sprint years ago.

Track was Troy's true love. He won eight state sprint titles, with bests of 10.39 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 20.9 in the 200.

Troy's football career began much more slowly as an eighth grade "Bullpup." In fact, he almost wasn't allowed to play because of coaches' concerns about scar tissue from burns Williamson suffered on an arm and hip when he was a fifth-grader.

"Then, as a freshman," Williamson says, "I was a 5-9, 165-pound defensive end!"

Williamson, now 6-1, 203 and a receiver, said he was a freshman at South Carolina before he realized he had NFL-caliber talent. Silver Bluff's Al Lown, who also coached current Vikings safety Corey Chavous and former Vikings receiver D'Wayne Bates, said he noticed Williamson's pro potential before that.

"We're playing in the Class AA lower-state semifinals against Hanahan at Charleston Troy's senior year," Lown said. "We were down in the second half, 14-7. We just threw a go route to Troy. He just goes up over the guy, reaches way back with his left hand, catches the ball, pushes the guy off and scores about a 45-yard touchdown."

Williamson moved to wingback in Lown's wing-T offense his sophomore year. He started two games, then was kicked off the varsity for missing a game because of a church-sponsored trip to Dallas. He was demoted to junior varsity per team rules.

"One of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make," Lown said. "It probably cost us the state championship."

Williamson wasn't going to play as a junior. Friends talked him into it and the Bulldogs didn't lose another game en route to consecutive state Class AA titles in 2000-01. Williamson had a combined 2,524 yards rushing, 4,809 all-purpose yards and 51 touchdowns during his junior and senior seasons.

Williamson chose South Carolina over Georgia partly because Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz promised that he could run track.

"Coach Holtz, man, he was trippin'," Troy said. "He talked a good game when he was recruiting me. But I ran two meets, and then he said it was taking too much time away from football."

Williamson never played in a bowl game, going 16-19 in three seasons. Most experts thought he was making a mistake leaving school as a junior after catching just 91 passes and 13 touchdowns in 34 games. Southern California's Mike Williams, the popular draft-day choice among Vikings fans, had 95 catches and 30 touchdowns in only two seasons.

But Williamson jumped ahead of Williams on the Vikings' draft board in February when he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.34 seconds at the NFL scouting combine. Williams ran a 4.59, which was good for his size (6-5, 230), but not good enough for the Vikings.

"It would have been stupid for Minnesota to pick Mike Williams," Williamson says. "He isn't a guy who can stretch the field. The Vikings did what they had to do to make their team better, not just what pleases the fans."

Williamson, of course, has much bigger comparison issues to deal with. After all, he was taken with the draft pick -- seventh overall -- that was the key piece in the Randy Moss trade to Oakland.

"Yeah, I hear about Moss a lot now," Williamson said. "But that doesn't bother me. You can't expect me to come in as a rookie and replace him right off. I expect a lot of myself this year, but I don't expect that."