http://oklahoma.247sports.com/Article/Williams-happy-recruiting-is-over-61513

DAMIEN WILLIAMS, RB, 6’1, 212, 4.5, WESTERN ARIZONA COMMUNITY COLELGE, ARIZONA:

One of the last stories from the 2012 recruiting season that hasn’t been told is what went on the last two days of the recruiting season for OU running back signee Damien Williams. The day before and on signing day neither I nor any other reporter could get hold of Williams because he had lost his cell phone returning from his last recruiting trip to Texas Tech.

OU appeared to be the leading contender to sign Williams as he headed for his last visit to Texas Tech, and the Sooners knew that the Red Raiders would be a serious contender for Williams’ signature. After his visit, Williams was returning to his home in Arizona when he realized on the plane that he had left his phone in Lubbock, Texas.

“So ‘OK’ we are going to start with me losing my cell phone huh,” said Williams with a big laugh as I finally caught up with him on Tuesday. “I was actually on my visit to Texas Tech and I lost my phone when I was out there. I was really disappointed because it was the last visit and everybody was going to be trying to call after that visit and everything, and I was like man without my phone it was going to be hard for me to get in contact with coaches and everything.

“Coaches could also not get hold of me, but when it came down to making my decision my mom had made sure that I take all my visits. She made sure I didn’t commit to anybody, and then we sat down and talked and we talked for a good hour or two maybe. We were just trying to find the pros-and-cons of all the schools and we just sat down and figured out it was going to be OU.’

For Williams, after that last visit to Texas Tech, he admits that he had a tough decision to make.

“It all led down to Texas Tech and Oklahoma,” said Williams. “They both had great opportunities for me. They both had injuries and they were both in need of a running back, and at first both schools were not going to recruit a junior college running back. As a junior college running back you have to think about what is the best decision for you.

“So I really had to think about it. OU is a great school and had a better tradition, but as a juco player with two-years left you can’t think about that. You have to think about how much playing time that you can get, and not how much time you can possibly get. I feel like Oklahoma is going to give me that opportunity.

“Texas Tech had shown me all kinds of love and they made my decision harder. On those visits the guys are not coming to your house anymore, because you are actually out there in their environment and they are showing you what their school is really about. I thought the visit to Tech was great and I loved the visit, but my decision was all about the football and nobody can beat Oklahoma when it comes to football.”

All of us know that with cell phones, most of us don’t memorize phone numbers any more, because most of us always rely on our phones to pull up our important numbers for us. Consequently the saying ‘hey I would be lost without my cell phone’, really does apply when you lose your cell phone and have been using it all the time. Thus with no cell-phone he had no numbers and Williams was scrambling to get hold of OU running back Coach Cale Gundy and the coaches at Texas Tech to let them know his decision.

“I didn’t talk to Coach Gundy until the day before signing day,” said Williams. “I had to talk to my mom and she got hold of him for me and I talked to him right before signing day and told him that I was committing. Then I signed with Oklahoma the next day.

“I know publicly, nobody knew that I had committed to OU, because I didn’t talk to any media members. I know I would have talked to you, but I didn’t have your number either, and since you had never called my mom she didn’t know how to get hold of you. When we finally got hold of Coach Gundy we had so much business to cover as far as actually signing I didn’t have time to ask him for your number or anything, so I just signed the papers on signing day and celebrated the signing.”

In prior interviews with Williams he never gave the impression that he feared competition or that he cared who else that OU or any school had on their roster, but in reality Williams did have to have a good feel that he would be given an opportunity to play right away no matter where he signed.

“Competition is going to be everywhere and everybody is going to have great players,” said Williams. “That is something that I can’t think about. I have to think about my skill level and what I can do. Oklahoma has running backs coming in, and they have running backs there, but I look it from the standpoint that they are coming to get a junior college running back for a reason, and that is because they are in need of a running back. I am going to go in there and try my hardest and I think things are going to work out for me at Oklahoma.”

Williams has studied the Oklahoma offense as much as he can from the outside, and he believes that his skill set will fit right in with what OU wants to accomplish at running back.

“I think Oklahoma is going to use me in a lot of ways,” said Williams. “I can catch out of the backfield, and they can put me at a slot receiver. I can run routes and a lot of the things I did here they do at Oklahoma. So I needed to go where they utilize my style of running and Oklahoma is that school. They run down hill, they run in the ‘A’ gap, they run the zone, and they run screen plays and all that. I think I can go there and be a great contributor to the team.”

Since Williams was out of contact so to speak what kind of day did he have on signing day?

“Signing day was crazy,” said Williams. “We had over 19-guys sign with different schools. I was the guy that everybody really wanted to know where I was going, because I didn’t tell anybody until the last minute before I signed. It was crazy as I had everybody trying to get hold of me on Facebook and they tried to call my phone, but my phone was off, so it was hard because I couldn’t get in touch with anybody. It was wild.”

What is interesting is that even though Williams had made contact with Coach Gundy, the night before, the Sooners were nervous because they had sent the paperwork to him by FedEx. While they knew it had reached the coaches office, Williams did not have them in his hands at the time they talked. So OU knew that Texas Tech had sent papers back with him from his visit, and OU could only hope that Williams had their papers in his possession.

“Coach Gundy let me know that he was worried about it, because my decision really came down to the last minute,” said Williams. “I couldn’t get hold of anybody and the only person that he could really call was my mom because she had a phone, but she really couldn’t get hold of me unless I called her from one of my friend’s phones. She could call my friends and tell one of them to come and find me and she did that a few times.

“Coach Gundy was worried until the end but I told him late the night before that I was committing to OU. I let him know that I was going to sign with OU and that it was going to be all good what I told him.”

Williams did sign on signing day as his papers were the last papers that were received in the OU coaching office leaving the telling question of did he ever get his phone back?

“Actually somebody called and said they found it, and I asked them to mail it to me,” said Williams. “However, they never did so my mom had to get me a new one and I was able to keep the same cell phone number.”

Williams’s life has settled down and now all he is concentrating on is getting ready to report to OU in June.

“I will be down there at the beginning of the summer,” said Williams. “Right now I am working out with all the guys who signed this year. We work out every might and they have been keeping me on track.”

Before this interview the last time I talked to Williams he weighted 207-pounds and he has put on what he says is five good pounds since the season is over. He says he wants to report to OU at around 210-pounds and then get into Coach Jerry Schmidt’s conditioning program and let that process determine how big he is going to be by the time training camp starts in August.