AUBURN — Travis Williams doesn't want to be put in the bubble you want to put him in.
He's a young, energetic former player. In his three-year stint as Auburn linebackers coach, Williams has landed guys like KJ Britt and Owen Pappoe — two recruiting wins against Georgia, which is something not many assistant coaches in the country can boast. Even players outside of his position group point to Williams as a major player in their recruitment, a lifeblood to Auburn's recent recruiting success.
It's natural to try to pigeon-hole someone with such recruiting talent as just that: a recruiter.
But Williams isn't going to let you do that.
"I love it. I love recruiting. But I love coaching, too. I love both. I'm smart enough to know recruiting is your livelihood. You've got to get players. It's great coaches out here with Xs and Os, but if they don't have players, all of a sudden they become average coaches," Williams said last week. "I love recruiting, but I love coaching my current players too. One thing I don't want to be caught up in just being a recruiter. Our linebackers didn't get this far because I'm just a recruiter."
The first recruitment Travis Williams ever won began back in 2002. It wasn't a 5-star linebacker. He wasn't fending off Georgia and Alabama. He was a student-athlete for the Tigers, midway through his college career.
Williams drew on this memory to provide the perfect analogy.
"I met my wife in the student center in 2002. She gave me the wrong number. I just kept recruiting and kept recruiting. Now we're married. It'd be like people saying I'm not a good husband or a good father. No, I recruited her, and I'm still going to be a good husband and good father," Williams said. "When you get the recruit, you still have to coach them up and all that. I enjoy it. It's a process. I enjoy it because I know coaches get tired. But I take pride in coaching my guys, just like I take pride in recruiting."
Williams speaks like someone who has high career aspirations. He's off to a fast start.
He has established himself as one of the southeast's strongest recruiters. As a position coach under defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, he has taken a group once seen as the weakness of the team to one of the most reliable linebacker groups in the country.
That can be an easier task with athletically gifted players like Darrell Williams and Montavius Atkinson. Or an "IQ freak of nature" like Deshaun Davis whose position coach admitted: "You can't just come in there writing on the board and think you can just talk football with Deshaun. You have to be very prepared, you've got to know what you're talking about," Williams said.
But all three of those senior standouts have directly attributed their success — and the early recognition of their ability — to Williams, a young coach who many questioned whether or not was ready to be an on-field assistant when Gus Malzahn hired him.
Perhaps the most important distinction to make: He's doing this with players he didn't recruit.
But that's because Williams isn't just a recruiter. He's a coach.
"It can cloud it. It's just what it is. I just don't want to be just a recruiter," Williams said. "I'm the linebackers coach at Auburn University, and I know my job description. They pay me to coach those linebackers, and they pay me to find players. I try to be really, really good at both. "
