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Coach Isaac Williams

By Jon Johnson (NCMFC Staff)

When I caught up with Isaac Williams last month, he was back home in Clinton, Mississippi preparing to move to his new home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We talked about his hometown and how he loved growing up in a small tight-knit community where his mother worked for the USDA and his father was an airplane technician. 

I asked when he started playing football and he told me that his brother, who is 4 years older, started playing and that he went to watch his first practice. Isaac was running around the field playing while the older boys practiced. Since he was a big kid for his age the coaches wondered why he was not out there practicing with the rest of the boys. He was only in the 3rd grade, but he ended up joining the team and playing with the big boys. He started out playing fullback, but soon exceeded the weight limit and moved to the offensive line. He told me that playing with the older kids taught him a great deal about perseverance and overcoming adversity, no one was taking it easy on him, so he had to compete. He said that he fully embraced the mindset of "the bigger they are the harder they fall," and he has taken that approach every day since. 

Listening to Isaac talk about his family I knew that his home life was well structured, so I asked about positive influences outside of the home that reinforced that structure and provide additional guidance. He responded by talking about Coach Hillhouse, Coach Mays and a few others from the Clinton Youth Football Association that really inspired him and opened his eyes to his potential. He said that these men were cornerstones of the community and taught him that all you need in life is an opportunity, but that you must put in the work to be ready to take advantage of it when it comes. He told me about his church family, pastors, deacons, the women of the church and how they spoke life into him at a young age. He took heed in all the lessons learned from the community and how they instilled confidence in him. In the 8th grade his principal was a black man named Anthony Goins. Mr. Goins was an authority figure in a white school, he became Isaacs mentor and always gave him positive affirmation.

In high school Isaac played basketball and football. He was fully aware of the sacrifices that his parents made for him, so he was committed to working every bit as hard in class as he did on the field. He was a standout athlete while carrying a 3.4 GPA so he was extremely pleased when he received a scholarship to Alcorn State knowing that it was something that his parents would not be burdened with. Isaac played 4 years at Alcorn and then went on to play in the Arena Football League. He was playing for the Columbus Lions getting paid $200 a game, $250 if they won, and working full-time at Best Buy trying to earn enough money to buy an engagement ring. 

Isaac knew that this was not going to cut it and that he had bigger goals, so he reached out to his mentor, former principal Mr. Goins, who gave him his first opportunity to teach and coach. Now back home in Clinton to teach and coach, Isaac started to feel that this was on the path that he was meant to be on. Judd Boswell, the head football coach at Clinton High School, really pushed him and told him that he could have a very bright career in coaching, so he went all in. 
Isaac started out coaching the defensive line and that opened his eyes to the other side of the ball. He wanted to learn everything he could that would make him a better coach and soon set his sites on college. He told me that he always wants to compete against the best and be an inspiration to young people who came up like him. So, on a whim he put on his suit and drove to Mississippi State in hopes of meeting head coach Dan Mullen and introducing himself. He then drove to Tuscaloosa, Alabama hoping to meet Nick Saban. Isaac told me that when he got there, he told them that he was there to meet Coach Saban and they let him in. He made it so far that he sat right outside of Coach Saban’s office. He said that he had a great conversation with a staffer and was then politely thanked for his visit. He was not at all deterred by that because he took his shot. Ironically, back at Clinton High School, Isaac had several players who were top recruits, including Cam Akers. This prompted a recruiting visit by Coach Saban and Isaac got his chance to make the connection he was seeking. A few days later he drove 7-hours to Tallahassee in the hopes of meeting Jimbo Fisher of Florida State. As luck would have it, he caught coach Fisher coming off the practice field. He walked right up to him and introduced himself and told Coach FIsher that he wanted a job. Coach Fisher invited him to come back and interview, so he did. He didn’t get hired but he was making progress and committed to keep pushing. He soon ended up getting a call from Earnest Collins, one of his coaches from Alcorn who was now at Northern Colorado. This led to an offer as a defensive graduate assistant. 

When Isaac arrived, he wasn’t really open to the idea of switching to the opposite side of the ball, but the senior coaches impressed upon him the importance of how that would affect his growth as a coach. The next year Isaac became a fulltime coach and offensive graduate assistant with Coach Collins really wanting Isaac to learn the administrative part of being a coach. That season fellow Coalition member Jeff Anderson (current Cleveland Browns Defensive Quality Control Coach) came in and took over the defensive graduate assistant spot that Isaac vacated. They clicked like brothers right away and Jeff then introduced Isaac to Alonzo “Zo” Carter, running backs coach at San Jose State. Isaac and Zo finally met at the AFCA convention and Zo has been a mentor to him ever since.
In 2018, Isaac left to join another of his Alcorn State coaches, who was the interim head coach at Morgan State, where he became the O-Line coach and run game coordinator. The next year, Tyrone Wheatly came in as head coach and retained him in the same role. Isaac said that he learned so much from Coach Wheatly because he came in with that NFL mentality. In early-2020, before the pandemic broke out, Coach Wheatly told him that he had another guy that he wanted to bring in for the O-Line and that he wanted to move him to coaching the tight ends. Wheatly explained how being involved in the passing game would expand his coaching toolbox, but the pandemic shut the season down and he never had a season in that role. He reached out to Zo for guidance and got connected to John Embree the tight ends coach with the 49ers, now with the Dolphins. Anything that he asked for or needed Coach Embree would jump on a Zoom and pour out knowledge. He and Coach Embree stayed in touch, and he would check in with him often.

Isaac wanted to get back into the O-Line room, so he joined a West Coast Zoom featuring O-Line coaches where he met Lonnie Teasley who was the O-Line coach at North Carolina Central. A short while later he received a call from Lonnie Teasley letting him know that he was leavening for a position at South Carolina, and he asked if Isaac would be interested in filling the position that he was leaving. Isaac told me that he had never personally met this man a day in his life other the zoom calls and the next thing he knew he was on his way to North Carolina. Isaac arrived at Central in March 2021 for spring ball, he recalled how Coach Wheatly had introduced him to a pro-style offense and how excited he was to be going to a spread offense at Central. 
One day, out of the blue, he got a call from Greg Lewis, the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs asking if he would be interested in their Bill Walsh internship. He was so excited, but his first question was how did you come across his name? Coach Lewis said that Eric Bieniemy had inquired about Isaac because his resume had come across Bieniemy’s desk. John Embree had hired Coach Bieniemy at Colorado as his OC years ago and that network connection led to this opportunity. So, off to Kansas City Isaac went. He said that while in KC he was treated just like any other member of the staff and had full access to everyone and everything in the organization. He had a great experience and took that energy back to Central with him and maintained the relationships made. The next year at the NFL Combine he decided to reach out to Coach Bieniemy and inquire about a position that he had heard about with the Steelers organization. To his surprise Bieniemy told him that he had already been talking to Coach Tomlin about him for that position. Isaac was blown away by how his networking had been working for him behind the scenes. The next Tuesday, Matt Canada called and invited him to come to Pittsburgh to interview. Isaac flew to Pittsburgh to interview on Wednesday and was offered the job before he left the building. He is now the assistant offensive line coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers. When we spoke, he was in the process of evaluating draft prospects, free agents, and doing Pro days.
Oh, remember that engagement ring that Isaac was trying to save up for? Well, he got it and he married the beautiful Leonna Williams who he met at Alcorn. He told me that he couldn’t get her number for 6 months, but little did she know that he was up for the challenge. They’ve been married for 7 years now and have a 2-year-old daughter named Zaura and another daughter on the way (#GirlDad). He told me how blessed he is to have Leonna because she’s allowed him to be focused on coaching knowing that she’s got his back and holding it down at home.

I asked Isaac what he would tell other young coaches working their way up and he told me what his good friend told him years ago: AOAI (Always On An Interview)! He ended our conversation saying that God is the greatest, he’s been extremely blessed, and that he wants to honor him in everything he does.

Between Coach Tomlin and now Coach Williams, I’m finding it really hard not to root for the Steelers. I know that the Coalition will be rooting for you Coach and excited to watch as you continue to climb, and your family continues to grow.
*You can connect with Coach Williams via Twitter:

@coach_iwilliams

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