Former Alabama star Sherman Williams has one big rule for his first Murphy High School football team.
“A lot of them want to emulate the ‘Shake,’” Williams said of his trademark ‘Sherman Shake’ touchdown dance he performed while playing for the Crimson Tide. “I tell them the only way you can do the ‘Shake’ is if you are in the end zone.
“You can’t do it for a first down, for a 3-yard gain. You can’t do it if you feel good about yourself for making a tackle or recovering a fumble. You have to be in the end zone if you want to perform the ‘Shake.’ Period.”
Williams was introduced as Murphy’s next head football coach in March. It’s the first high school head coaching job for the former Blount, Alabama and Dallas Cowboys running back.
“It’s been exciting, working with children and getting student athletes prepared to get to the next level,” Williams said recently of his first months on the job. “I’m excited to be a part of it. I’m in a good position.
“I have a great administration. I’ve got a great athletic director, so I’m getting full support. Everyone is starting to come around and buy into what we are trying to do at Murphy High School. We are just trying to build the program back up to what Murphy once was in the past.”
That’s a big challenge for Williams.
The once-proud Panthers have struggled mightily in the last decade. Murphy hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2019 and hasn’t won a postseason game since Ronn Lee was the head coach in 2011.
Since Lee left in 2013, the Panthers have had eight head coaches. That list includes Dwight Lambert, who took over on an interim basis last year when the school released Justin Hannah from his duties, and Williams, who has yet to coach a game. Since Lee’s tenure ended, the Panthers are just 43-70.
The last Murphy head coach to post a winning record was Rick Cauley (20-13 from 2014-2016).
“The biggest challenge is getting people to buy in outside the team,” Williams said of trying to rebuild the program. “The community has been down for a while. We are just recalling everyone who is part of the Murphy community and giving them a sense that Murphy is moving in the right direction.”
Williams generally likes what he has seen so far.
He said the numbers have increased from about 35 when he took the job to approximately 50 currently.
“We get one or two more out every day,” he said. “Hopefully, at some point, we will reach 60 or 70, and I think that will be a good, solid number for us to go out and compete.”
Williams said he has seen a lot of growth already in his team. He will need that and more to compete in the brutal Class 6A, Region 1 race along with perennial playoff contenders Saraland, Spanish Fort, St. Paul’s, McGill-Toolen, Theodore and Williams’ alma mater, Blount.
“More development needs to take place, but we are moving forward in marginal steps,” he said. “We are definitely taking steps in the right direction. We have some disciplinary issues we have to correct, and we are working to do that. We are working to get them back to the mindset of being a winner and just keeping them focused.”
Williams was the Class 5A Player of the Year at Blount in 1990. He said football hasn’t changed much since that time other than more teams favoring the pass over the run game.
The players? That is a different story, he said.
“The mindset for most is different,” Williams said. “When I was a teenager, we didn’t have cell phones or social media or many video games. All these things have crippled kids’ athleticism because they are not outside enough. When I grew up, I was outside until the street lights. Now they are inside until the sun comes up.
“It’s a different dynamic.”
Williams knows football for sure. Hopefully, he will be the right man to restore the Murphy football tradition.
He also knows redemption, and his story should resonate with student-athletes at the school. That is more important than any win or loss on the field.
It might even be worth doing the “Sherman Shake.”
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