Notre Dame's Mother & Child Reunion A Boost To Both
In the final two weeks of September, Notre Dame’s offense received two jolts of needed juice on the football field.
The first came with junior Ian Book at quarterback in his initial start at Wake Forest leading a 56-point explosion after the Fighting Irish had managed only 70 points in the initial three contests.
A week later the timing couldn’t have been better for senior running back Dexter “Juice” Williams to make his grand entrance in 2018 after serving a four-game suspension for reasons undisclosed by the University.
Replacing the injured Jafar Armstrong (knee), who will be sidelined at least through the bye (Oct. 20) weekend, Williams burst for a 45-yard touchdown on his first carry versus No. 7 Stanford and finished with 161 yards on 21 carries in the 38-17 triumph.
In his first three seasons, he had never had more than eight carries in a game for reasons ranging from durability, to unsound assignment consciousness, to not recognizing blitz pickups in pass pro (he did impede one Stanford defender’s progress enough to allow Book to throw a touchdown pass to tight end Nic Weishar, and on another series in the second half helped prevent a sack of Book ).
“I had to be that spark for my teammates, had to be the one who comes in and gets everyone hyped — that’s why they call me the Juice,” said Williams, who received his moniker from his head coach, Bob Head, at West Orange High in Orlando, Fla., known for its surplus of orange juice. “I have to be able to keep them going, keep them rallied up, keep them on their toes. We can’t settle for less, we’ve always got to want more.”
Williams’ 39 carries last year averaged an amazing 9.2 yards, but sustainability through a full season is his next objective of “wanting more.”
“I told [Armstrong] before I came out here I was going to play for him and make sure that when he gets healthy he doesn’t have to worry about anything,” said Williams, although junior running back Tony Jones' status for this Saturday is also relatively uncertain after injuring an ankle versus Stanford. “We’re going to take care of everybody in the running back room. Coach [Autry] Denson had a talk with me before the game that you have to be that guy, you’ve got to come out and be that spark. That’s what I had to do for my brothers [on the team].”
The Matriarch
The Juice needed refilling himself this summer and September, especially after feeling devastation about his four-game suspension. It came in the form of his mother, Cheryl Williams.
When the youngest of her five children (Dexter) was in the eighth grade, the former private school teacher was in a coma at home when he tried to awaken her. By that point she was suffering from myasthenia gravis that would hospitalize her three months. It is an autoimmune disorder that causes weakness and rapid fatigue.
Complications are now to the point where she is in a terminal stage with her illness, yet she moved up to live with her son through the month of September in a local apartment to provide support through his own difficulties while on his way to his undergraduate degree this December. That, combined with the buttress of his teammates and coaches, has buoyed his spirits immensely.
Four years ago, Williams verbally committed to the University of Miami so he could be near his mother and provide any aid with her illness. However, he became intrigued how Notre Dame could develop him on and off the field, and took his official visit about three weeks before the signing period.
Three-and-a-half years later, it was mother who came up to provide the support and inspiration he needed.
“My mom has been up here since the Michigan game,” he said. “She’s been keeping me focused … I love the game of football. Having that taken away from me was a big loss, it was something I had never felt before, not being able to step out there and cross that line with my boys.
“It was something I had to work on and hold myself accountable — and still continue to hold myself accountable and continue to strive for greatness.”
He found the model person in his mother.
“She's the matriarch of that family,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. “I remember recruiting Dexter, and Dexter's home was kind of the safe sanctuary for all the kids in the neighborhood. She would have, when I visited that home, 10, 15 kids in that home …She was the matriarch of that neighborhood.
“There's a very strong relationship there. If I have ever had a problem, I just call her and it gets fixed like that. There's no debating when it comes to his response to his mother. She's going through a difficult time right now, but she's very strong and inspirational to Dexter. His fight to get back to where he is is certainly personal, but family had something to do with it as well.”
The Future
Growing up in Orlando, every day Williams recited the same four words he had put down on paper and hung with tape above his bed: “NFL here I come.”
The goal remains the same, but the perspective has changed in his time at Notre Dame.
“I really don’t try to think ahead,” he said. “I just try to take everything day by day and just continue to trust the process … stay focused on what’s important now.”
When queried about why he was suspended, Williams remained amiable but direct.
“I’m not focused on what happened in the past,” Williams stated. “I’m just trying to move forward.”
A couple of days before the Stanford game, Kelly was counting on possibly a maximum of eight-to-10 carries for Williams in his new role, and said anything around 20 would be unrealistic.
Apparently, 21 wasn’t.
“To his credit, he really worked hard to be in the best possible condition to go in there and impact,” said Kelly of the 5-11, 215-pound Williams, who added about 12 pounds to his body armor this past year.
“She told me before this game just to go out and have fun, live your dream out,” Williams said of the final message he received from his mother prior to the kickoff with Stanford. “I told myself I’m not going to worry about any stats. Whatever happens, when I get the rock just go and do what I have to do, hit the right holes, make the right cuts.
“A soon as we won I told her I love her and I blew her a kiss. It was a great feeling.”
The decision to leave Florida for the unknown in northern Indiana has had its share of setbacks, including an arrest for marijuana possession in August 2016, but the benefits have been getting reaped in his final months on campus.
“He's now, I think, just in a better place, a much more mature person that is now able to bring that on a consistent basis day in, day out,” Kelly summarized.
With plenty of juice still ahead.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne's Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcaston iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinneyand @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook