The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Jamie DePould

Players weren't even in pads yet. This was only a 7-on-7 drill. Not a game. Not grounds for celebration.

But don't tell Mike Williams.

After fellow receiver Donte Davis scored a touchdown on the second day of Syracuse's spring football practice, Williams charged in from the opposite direction to meet him in the end zone.

"Come on! Come on!" Williams screamed.

The two receivers leaped into the air and bumped hips as if 40,000 were at the Carrier Dome, not 30 outside at a practice field. It's not hyperbolic elation. The past three weeks have been a joyride for Williams, the tax return for one excruciating year away from his teammates.

Online, Williams was peppered with hate mail that said he was just another Buffalo prospect that flamed out in college. In person, friends badgered him at home with the same "What happened?" questions. On the television, Williams watched Syracuse's offense whimper to an abysmal 114th ranking in the fall. And in the classroom, Williams earned a B in every course to get back to Syracuse. Back to his family.

"That's my family, that was like going away from home," Williams said. "It's like they took me away from my home, so I had to get back home."

For a while, reconciliation seemed nearly impossible to Williams.

After getting suspended by SU for violating the Academic Integrity Policy, Williams' football career hit a crossroads. He considered transferring to a Division I-AA school, which would have allowed him to continue playing last fall and enter the NFL draft this spring.

Or he could have earned his way back to Syracuse by maintaining a C average at another school for a semester. Deal. Onondaga Community College was out of the question. Williams wanted to keep a low profile, safely away from students and the media. He didn't want to stick around his hometown of Buffalo, either. The Riverside High School graduate shoulders a heavy local burden. Locals have tracked Williams' every move. Naturally, his fleeting presence in Buffalo during the fall cued interrogation.

"Every day in Buffalo people asked me, 'Why are you home? Why is your team out there and you're not?'" Williams said.

Bill Russell, one of Williams' assistant coaches at Riverside, said the hometown pressure took its toll.

"He felt like he let down the community and friends and relatives," said Russell, who Williams refers to as a father figure. "It's a lot of pressure. It was tough for him."

Continued...

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