Former Alabama and Dallas Cowboys running back Sherman Williams met with the media for the first time Tuesday morning since being approved as the head football coach at Murphy High on Monday.
The Blount High School legend talked about his excitement for his first head coaching job and thanked some of his coaching mentors in Joey Jones, Ben Harris, Ronnie Cottrell, Dabo Swinney and Deion Sanders.
In a wide-ranging interview session, Williams also talked about his plan to restore the Murphy pride, his purpose of giving back to the community and even how he and former Alabama coach Gene Stallings found “common ground” in his “Sherman Shake” touchdown dance.
Here’s some of what Williams had to say:
Q: What makes Murphy the right fit for you at this time?
“It’s all about timing, and I think that this program is a good fit for me and my discipline, my character of what I’m trying to do and my purpose in life. So, to come into this environment right now of this program that’s in a positive change, I think that my vision, my idea of what this sport can bring to this school is happening at the perfect time.”
Q: Murphy obviously is a proud football program that has struggled in recent years. What do you need to do to get the Panthers going again?
“Well, I have a philosophy and it’s called the aggregation of marginal gain. That’s when you have a specific idea and, if you change it 1 percent, just as little as 1 percent on a daily basis, you’re going have success in the outcome that you’re looking for. It’s the philosophy we’re going to guide this program with and try to get to that point to where we have a commitment to be able to be successful.”
Q: Can you just talk a little about your coaching background and what led you to this position?
“Coaching is something that I always wanted to do. My first experience with coaching was as a volunteer coach at Mattie T. Blount High School under coach Lev Holly. Then I went back to get my degree at the University of Alabama because I wanted to pursue a professional career in coaching. I knew that was one of the requirements. I went out, got my degree and came back and decided that I wanted to give it a try again. I was able to get a job as a substitute, certified substitute, at Williamson High School under coach Antonio Coleman. I was able to study a little bit more about the position of being a coach. Then I came over here and interviewed for the Murphy job at the right time, and I’m very grateful that they had the right person in place (principal Ed Sanderson) because he stuck his neck out on the me as a first-time head coach. It’s a great honor to be under his direction.”
Q: What will your teams look like on the field?
“I want my team to be aggressive, very aggressive, and have the idea of being successful. I want them to be held accountable. Our team is going to be very disciplined, going to be very sound, fundamental and technique wise. And we want to go out there and make sure we compete at the highest level. It’s about competing at the highest level, getting these children in a position where they feel comfortable, feel proud to go out there and represent the Murphy Panther pride and go out there with a chance to be successful. We want to give it 100 percent on every play, everything that we do on the field and off the field.”
Q: How many touchdowns did you score against Murphy when you were playing at Blount?
“During my high school days, I was unfortunate. We never did get a chance to play against Murphy. You know, we were a 5A school and they were a 6A school, so we didn’t have a region matchup and we didn’t schedule them until after I left and graduated and went on to college.”
Q: Have you had a chance to think about what your coaching staff might look like here?
“I haven’t had a chance to formally interview the coaches that were on the previous staff, so I’m looking to see about doing that. I want to have the best situation for the children. The children are going to be the number one priority.”
Q: Do you talk to (former Alabama) coach Gene Stallings much? Is he still mad at you about the Sherman Shake?
“Well, me and coach Stallings have a great, great relationship. I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet. Me and coach Stallings, we go all the way back. We had our differences with the Sherman Shake, but we came to a common ground and everything. Coach Stallings is one of my favorite people in the world. I haven’t had a chance to talk to coach because he’s been busy, I’ve been busy. But I definitely want to reach out and talk to him and let him know. One of the stories that coach always talks about is I was one of the first running backs that he recruited that was able to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. And then his daughter, one of his older daughters, came and told us a story that he had a little dog that he named Sherman. His daughter used to tell us, he’d always run around the house, ‘Come here, Sherman, come here, Sherman, come here, Sherman.’ So that was one of the funniest stories about coach Stallings. But coach Stallings is a great, great human being and everybody knows that. And I will definitely be talking to coach. He’s older in his years now, but he’s still sharp as a whip.”
Q: Coach, you’ve been committed to making a difference and giving back to your community for a while now. Is this new job kind of part of that?
“It’s definitely a part of the purpose. When you have ups and downs in life, you understand highs and lows. You understand winning. You understand losing. You understand the purpose. And I’ve come to the point where I understand my purpose in life is to help be a servant, to be able to assist other people, to help the young people. The youth is where my heart is and where I think that I’m going to have the greatest impact on my existence here on this earth. This is another opportunity for me to engage with the youth of the community of Mobile and other communities all over the state of Alabama. I feel like that I’m in the right place and at the right time and with the right people.”
