South Carolina football players and head coach Will Muschamp weighed in on the return of former Gamecock David Williams to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.
David Williams is making his return to Williams-Brice Stadium this Saturday, and many Arkansas fans are hungry for the running back to unleash revenge on the South Carolina side he played for three seasons.
Plenty of Gamecock fans, meanwhile, are lamenting the loss of the back, who never broke out for USC but has found new life as a graduate transfer for the Razorbacks, scoring four rushing touchdowns, one receiving score and 279 all-purpose yards through four games. In his entire career with South Carolina, Williams accumulated five touchdowns and 1,058 yards in 29 games.
But for South Carolina’s players and coaches, the return of Williams this weekend isn’t about revenge or regret. It’s a chance to say hello again to an old friend, and that’s about it.
“Dave was a great guy here, a great teammate, so it’s gonna be great to see him. He’s been doing really well at Arkansas,” quarterback Jake Bentley remarked Tuesday.
“It’ll be good going against a former teammate,” linebacker T. J. Brunson said with a laugh.
“It’s not gonna be odd at all,” sophomore running back Rico Dowdle said, adding that he was “pretty cool, pretty close” with Williams last year, but that they did not interact much outside of football.
On Sunday, head coach Will Muschamp said essentially the same things as his quarterback, calling Williams a “good young man” and saying that he did not regret granting him a release to transfer to another SEC school.
“He did everything we asked while he was here. He’s a first-class person,” Muschamp said. “He’s a really good football player. I wish he was here, but at the end of the day he wanted a fresh start. He did everything the right way and I really respect that, and I respect him as a young man.”
On Tuesday, Muschamp repeated himself, calling Williams a “first-class citizen on and off the field.”
Muschamp did, however, say he disagreed with the graduate transfer rule that allowed Williams to leave USC.
“The rules, they say that if you’re a graduate transfer then you have the opportunity to go another graduate program and study something else, and that’s obviously not the reason he’s going, he’s going to play football,” Muschamp said.
“But I’m not going to block a young man from an opportunity if that’s what he wants to do.”
Williams himself has not spoken to the media this week, declining all interview requests because he does not want to contribute to any storyline regarding his return, Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said.
But he has reportedly spoken to his former teammate and fellow running back A. J. Turner. On Tuesday, the redshirt sophomore said he had been in contact with Williams several weeks ago.
“We were buddies when he was here,” Turner said. “I actually talked to him a few weeks ago and he said he’s liking it up there. … So we gotta beat ‘em.”
Defensive tackle Ulrich Jones seemed to speak for most of his teammates when he summarized his feelings towards Williams.
“Yeah he was a cool teammate, we got along well, but it’s football,” Jones said. “He made the best decision for him, got to Arkansas, doing pretty well with it, but he’s gotta come here, see his old teammates.”
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