AUBURN | Carnell Williams finished his career with 3,831 rushing yards, the second-most in Auburn history, and a school-record 45 rushing touchdowns.

But well before all those accomplishments and being the No. 5 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, Williams was a standout at Etowah High School in Attalla, Ala., and committed to one of the Tigers’ SEC rivals.

Alabama’s 2000 Mr. Football rushed for 6,543 yards and 92 touchdowns in his high school career, leading Etowah to the Class 5A state championship as a junior in 1999. He earned his nickname, Cadillac, from Birmingham sportscaster Mike Raita and it’s stuck for more than 20 years.

And he nearly took his nickname and considerable skill set to Tennessee, the school he committed to following a visit a few weeks before Signing Day. But an in-home visit from Tommy Tuberville and Auburn’s entire coaching staff convinced Williams to visit the following weekend and shortly thereafter he flipped to the Tigers.

“We took Bo’s picture and put his face on it holding the Heisman Trophy, and we took the Heisman Trophy with us. We took every coach. It got us a visit and getting him on campus, he fell in love with it,” Tuberville said.

“Those are special kids like that. When they had a choice on anywhere to go, and things weren’t really that positive here at the time when we were kind of trying to dig ourselves out of a hole. He bought into what we were doing and it helped everything else from recruiting to fundraising — everything kind of just fell into place.”

As a true freshman in 2001, Williams had his breakout game at Georgia. He had a then-record 41 carries for 167 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-17 upset win. Unfortunately, he broke his collarbone a week later on the opening series of a 31-7 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl to finish his first college season with 614 yards and six touchdowns on 120 carries.

Williams was leading the SEC in rushing as a sophomore with 745 yards and 10 touchdowns on 141 carries before suffering a broken left leg at Florida and missing the final six games of the season. His injury-shortened season included a 40-carry, 202-yard and two touchdown performance in an overtime win over Syracuse.

“I was always begging Carnell, 'You can’t drag four or five people down the field. It’s going to take a toll on you,'” Tuberville said. “One or two, fine, but sooner or later you gotta go to the ground and get back up and go back to the huddle. That was just his mentality, just a hard-nosed running back.”

He finally got a full season under his belt in 2003 rushing for 1,307 yards and 17 touchdowns on 241 carries. Perhaps Williams’ most iconic run of his career came on the opening play of the Iron Bowl when he took a handoff up the middle, broke to the outside and raced down the right sidelines 80 yards for a touchdown. Williams finished with 204 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries and the Tigers won 28-23.

It was a vitally important game for Tuberville and his program as the fifth-year coach nearly lost his job in the days leading up to the game.

“When all that happened, we were like, ‘You know what, we’re going to finish this thing right,’ and Carnell breaks the first one for 80 yards,” Tuberville said. “You got to remember, he was always hurt in the Iron Bowl and that’s something he always wanted to do, to play well in this game. We just ran a basic power play off-tackle and when I saw him break the line of scrimmage -- ain’t nobody gonna catch him.”

When Williams, Ronnie Brown, Jason Campbell, Carlos Rogers and Junior Rosegreen all elected to return for their senior seasons in 2004, Tuberville knew they had the potential for something special. New offensive coordinator Al Borges put Williams and Brown in the backfield together, Campbell was named the SEC Player of the Year and the Tigers gained a then school-record 5,469 yards of total offense on the way to a perfect 13-0 season and SEC Championship.

“He and I were roommates on the road and I think it’s rare to find two guys that played the same position to have the type of bond that we had,” Brown said. “We competed very hard against each other but we hung out a lot off the field.

“Experiences are awesome and you have successes, but what’s more important is the people that you get to share those things with. We went through so much as a group, as a team from 2003 to 2004. We made the decision to come back and that was huge part of it because we all felt that we could be a pretty good team and we all made the same commitment with that in mind.”

Williams rushed for 1,165 yards and 12 touchdowns on 239 carries while Brown had 913 yards and eight touchdowns on 153 carries in 2004. The pair finished their Auburn career with 6,538 yards and 73 touchdowns combined, and they've remained close friends since.

“The thing about football and with sports alike, you kind of find out about a person when you see them do things that aren’t recognized, whether it’s practice habits or being good at the things that don’t take talent — can he be on time, is he where he’s supposed to be, did he do it the right way — and that was what I gained so much respect about Cadillac from,” Brown said. “You knew what you were going to get and that’s what made me a better player because I knew everyday we showed up to practice he was going to give it everything he had so if I didn’t, I was going to be sitting and I wasn’t going to get an opportunity.”

Williams is also the school career leader with 741 rushing attempts, is second to James Brooks with 5,084 all-purpose yards, and fourth in scoring (first in non-kickers) with 276 points.

In 2014, Williams returned to Auburn to finish his degree in sociology. He was named Auburn’s running backs coach on Wednesday.