Returning Williams No Stranger To Big Games For Speed
David Chappell
Thursday June 5, 2003
Wide receiver/defensive back George Williams, who returned to Richmond on Tuesday, will rejoin the Speed and expects to play against the Wildcats Saturday in Fayetteville, N.C.
Williams is delighted to be back in Richmond once again. “I’m just real happy to be back,” a smiling Williams said. “I’m happy to be getting back in the swing of things with my teammates, many of whom are new teammates to me.”
Richmond coach Richard Davis is just as happy to have the gifted Williams back. The 6’1” 195 pound speedster out of Kansas State University is only 24 years old, but has already racked up many a football accomplishment in Davis’ eyes.
“G-Will is a heck of a football player and brings a lot to the table,” Davis said. “He played a year and a half up in Arena1, not on the practice roster, but as an active player. We’re talking about a kid that had a fine, fine career at Kansas State and who played for us in our Arena Cup year, so he knows me and this team.”
In fact, the last time Williams sported a Richmond Speed uniform was on August 10, 2001, when the Speed battled the Quad City Steamwheelers for the 2001 af2 Arena Cup championship.
In that Arena Cup II championship game, which Richmond narrowly lost 55-51, Williams caught eleven passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns in an outstanding performance.
Throughout the 2001 af2 playoffs, Williams was Richmond’s leading receiver on a potent offense with any number of other offensive weapons. In the Speed’s first round playoff victory against the Birmingham Steeldogs, Williams nabbed seven passes for 134 yards and four TDs in the Speed’s 67-60 comeback win. Williams followed that effort up with an eleven catch, 156 yard and two touchdown performance in Richmond’s 51-50 American Conference title game victory over Tennessee Valley.
Coming to Richmond after the first game in the 2001 campaign, Williams had a superlative season in that magical year for the Speed. In the 2001 regular season, Williams caught 57 passes for 893 yards and led the team with a 15.7 yard average per reception. A vital part of the dangerous return unit for the Speed that year, Williams amassed 755 total return yards and returned two kicks for touchdowns. While playing DB in 2001 for Richmond, Williams recorded three interceptions and returned a fumble for a TD.
Williams’ stellar play in the 2001 Arena Cup game drew the attention of Quad City coach Frank Haege. When Haege moved up to the AFL in 2002 to coach the New Jersey Gladiators, he brought Williams up with him.
With the AFL’s New Jersey team in 2002, Williams caught 16 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns. Williams also returned four kicks for 49 yards for New Jersey.
The New Jersey Gladiators became the Las Vegas Gladiators in 2003, but Williams continued to excel despite the change of venue. Williams finished fourth on the Las Vegas club in receptions in 2003 with a total of 22 catches for 261 yards and four touchdowns. Williams also ran back four kicks for Las Vegas for 76 yards.
When Las Vegas waived Williams on April 29 to make roster room for a lineman, the Gladiators’ loss would soon become Richmond’s gain.
Williams has seen many new faces on this current version of the Richmond Speed. But there is still a good nucleus of holdovers around from 2001. Tim Jones, Al Ford, Rodney Sledge, Chris Feggins, and Jeff Townsley all still remain from the Arena Cup year.
It is Williams’ belief that the 2003 Richmond squad has just as much overall talent as the last Speed team he played on.
“I think we’re just as talented now, if not more so, as the Arena Cup team was,” Williams said. “We have guys that are willing to go out there and give it up. And that is what it’s going to take.”
Ever exuberant, Williams is not fazed in the least that he is expected to step in and contribute immediately on Saturday night. Williams said, “I’m really looking forward to getting things going, starting off this week.”
“I’m hitting the ground running baby,” Williams said. “I’ll be on the ground running.”
Running with Williams on the offensive side of the ball will be a number of other gifted Speed receivers. Williams’ wideout teammate from 2001, Jeff Townsley, also just recently rejoined the Richmond team. OS Damon “Redd” Thompson currently leads arenafootball2 in three receiving categories. Speed quarterback Roy Johnson continues to be af2’s highest rated passer.
Despite coming to a Richmond team that is an uncharacteristic 4-4 at the season’s midpoint, Williams is upbeat about what lies ahead.
“We’re trying to go 8-0 in our next eight games,” Williams said. “That’s what we’re looking to do.”
When Williams last played in arenafootball2, there was no Cape Fear team. Since Williams has been out of af2, the Wildcats have come into being and won the 2002 Atlantic Division championship and knocked the Speed out of last year’s playoffs. The Wildcats have only lost five regular season games in their existence, with three of those losses coming by one point each. However, Richmond has handed Cape Fear two of those five defeats.
This year, Cape Fear (6-2) again sits atop the Atlantic Division. A Wildcats’ win Saturday night all but puts the Speed out of the divisional race. However, a Richmond win cuts the margin to one game with Cape Fear having to travel to Richmond for a rematch in a scant two weeks.
With so much riding on Saturday’s game, both Williams and Davis see a very tough and emotional contest in Fayetteville.
“We’re 4-4, and we’ve put ourselves in that position by making tons of mistakes,” Davis said. “We’re not backing up from a single thing down there on Saturday night. We will take on whatever comes. We’re going to go play and we’re going to play as hard as we possibly can, I assure you that. If we don’t make mistakes, we’ll be right there in the game.”
Davis says having Williams, a proven big game performer, in the lineup Saturday will be a huge plus in what figures to be a hostile environment.
“G-Will will fight you,” Davis said. “He’s a competitor. He’s what this football team needs right now.”
Williams relishes the fact that his first game back for the Speed is a big game against the division leaders. While he has not faced the Wildcats before, Williams says he is ready to do battle against this new foe.
“Cape Fear is a good team and we respect them a lot,” Williams said. “But we’re not going to go in there and lay down for anybody. We’re planning on coming home winners.”
David Chappell is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has closely followed local sports in Richmond and vicinity for over thirty years, and Arena Football 2 since its inception. David currently writes extensively for a website that he co-founded which documents professional wrestling in Virginia and surrounding areas from 1974-1986. A former elected prosecutor, David is currently a practicing attorney in a large downtown Richmond law firm.
