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EPISODE · Aug 25, 2023 · 38 MIN

Van Williams Jr Interview

from WXAV 88.3FM · host WXAV 88.3FM

On this episode of The Player's Profile, host Jotham Israel welcomes Van Williams Jr. Williams is sophomore defensive lineman on the Cougar Football team.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 25, 2023

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Salutations listeners and welcome back to the Player Profiles Podcast. I'm your host, I'm Israel and if you're looking to hear the fantastic stories of all the athletes we have here at St. Xavier University, then you have come to the right place. Today's athlete is Van Williams Jr.

Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Van is a defensive lineman on the S.X.U. football team. With that being said and without further ado, let's go ahead and get into the interview. Hit that rhyme.

Van, thank you for taking the time out to come and do this, man. So football, obviously, is the big sport here in America. Obviously, people love football here. What got you into football in the first place?

I grew up in like a not so good of a neighborhood. So, I made sure that me and my cousins were involved in a lot of activities in this football was one of those. Fun fact, I also really wasn't into football at first, but then they just made sure we stuck around for it and then eventually just became my first love. That's a cool upbringing, man, because sports is obviously something that brings a lot of people together.

It can also change lives. And obviously, that's something that a lot of athletes experience. But when you were a figure trying to figure out what position you wanted to play, what made you think that defensive line was the position for you? Really high school, because in great school, I played everywhere, so I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

But high school really brought out the skills that I had as a defensive lineman. You went to St. Lawrence, right? The more serious you get about football, the more you realize you got to climb up some ranks to get to where you want to be.

I believe it was the 2016 season, you're on the freshman team. But then after that, you played three years of RC. When you got the call up from the freshman team, you realize you're going to be on a freshman team as a sophomore. What was the mindset going into your very first varsity season?

It was kind of nervous because all the coaches tell you this is not freshman ball anymore. Everything's faster, people's stronger. So what I did, prepare well, going to weigh around then, of course, practice with other varsity members. Your first year was a relatively successful year.

You guys went six and three in a regular season. And you won a couple playoff games. You reached the quarter final. Obviously, the run ended when you ran into Providence Catholic.

But what was your first taste of a real full first varsity season like? Obviously, with the playoff running everything, there was a lot to take away from that sophomore season. I was on a varsity roster, but it really wasn't like it really is more sitting back and learning from older people. I really didn't get like a real varsity game until my junior year.

Yeah, and obviously the junior year was a little bit of a rocky one. Obviously, didn't make the playoffs. And usually when you don't make the playoffs, sometimes there are some questions about what went wrong. And obviously the school felt like it was time for a coaching change or whatnot.

And so you're going into your senior year. And it felt like everything was kind of, I'm sorry, a lot of things were different senior year. Your team captain has number one. Number two, you got a new head coach coming in.

And number three, it is your senior year. This is your last ride. So with all this new change going on, what were you thinking going into your senior year? It was just a lot of different thoughts.

I wasn't prepared for the coaching change. And then I didn't know if he saw me the same players, my old coach would be like, they've tried changes. But I did a good job of staying. I got to put it on.

Keep my relationship closer to teammates because these teammates I had since freshman year, we have people leave, but a lot of people stayed. So as long as I was good with them, I knew we was going to be able to get through the coaching change, all that together. Interesting, because obviously, it's hard to kind of know what to expect when you have a first year head coach. But it almost looked like it was looking more the same from last year.

But you guys did, you know, squeaking to the playoffs. You beat day last year pretty convincingly to clinching at large bid, which, and goodness for at large bids. But obviously, you know, this is your last round. You're your last go at high school football.

And I hate to bring up the Hillcrest game, man. But it is such a pivotal point in your football career. Obviously, you know, you guys were in it until the end. It was a defensive left, which I'm sure it was just the way you liked it.

You obviously don't want any team dropping 30 on your defense. But obviously, you guys did enough to give your offense a chance to at least try to drive down inside the game. Obviously, you guys had the ball with like around a minute left fourth and 13. Obviously, your boy, Darius Wilson, you know, he's made a great play.

Getting out of a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure in the space that way. And he threw a dime to Aaron Wafford. And unfortunately, he just had one of those drops, man.

And I it looked very heartbreaking on camera, but from a player's perspective, when you see that on the sideline, and obviously it wasn't from your own sideline, it wasn't in front of you. Thank goodness. But when you see that ball hit the turf and you realize, you know, you look at the scoreboard and it's like, man, it's over. You know, what was the reaction, you know, on the sidelines and what was going through your mind?

I mean, that was just a heartbreaking moment. You know, first thing I did was know like, be there for my teammates because I know I'm not the only senior. So I put my feelings behind me and made sure everybody else was good. But again, we couldn't.

It was a hard break in mind, but we also had the prep voter. Now it's like, this happened. Now we have to look to the prep vote, how can we prepare and make our last win, our last game, a win. Instead of a loss.

So being a team captain taught you a thing or two about leadership. Yeah. Yeah, obviously, that's a moment where it's like, you kind of need a leader to step up because that's, I'm sure for that young man, that was a hard moment. So when you got to, you know, preparing for the prep vote, obviously it's a little bit of a different experience for you guys, because you guys had another game to play, even though I just say, you know, it was done for.

But how did you, you know, try to move on from that and, you know, prepare for, you know, a little more football in high school? It's really like making sure that everybody else is on board because, you know, after a loss is kind of like, I guess a lot of people look at the prep was a loser's bracket. So like, you got to make sure a lot of people still have that confidence to play and compete because it's still like pretty good teams because some, you know, we play semi on Saint Patrick, you know, so again, so, you know, it wasn't like, it was still competitive for about to need to be played. And if I'm not mistaken, you guys go all the way to the championship game, right?

So not too shabby considering, you know, what could have, you know, have you guys could easily hung your heads down after that? But you did, you made a great run after that. And obviously for you, in particular, you know, that was it for high school football. And obviously that was, that was fall 2019.

So the world has, we knew it changed four months later. And obviously you had, you know, big decisions to make because, you know, it was your senior year and you obviously decided to somewhat stay local and you decided to come to St Xavier. What made you think that this was the place for you to be? First of all, I'm a big Chicago guy.

So I really don't want to leave the area because I've, like, I've been on visit to like school in Wisconsin. It's a lot of like, you know, I want to say nothing but just something I don't feel much. I don't feel comfortable. And so Chicago, I always feel comfortable.

I know where I'm going. So I really, and I also like the way like when I came from over night visit and my different visit, I felt like the brotherhood in the Saint Xavier football. So that's what kind of led me this way. I agree because me personally, I may not be a football player, obviously, but I did feel, you know, like I had to, you know, try to stay close to home.

Because, you know, it's just like, you know, you know, the environment, you kind of know your way around. It's not like you're going to Timbuktu. No offense to Wisconsin, obviously they're a neighbor state, but me personally, I know where you're coming from. It's like home is kind of where the heart is, you know, right?

And obviously with you going to school in Burbank, that's pretty close to home here. So yeah, you decided to come here. Obviously the mayhem that was senior years behind you. And you try to figure out, you know, navigate your way through freshman year.

But obviously in your first year here, you were a red shirt. But in 2021, you did get some playing time if I'm not mistaken. So what was your first taste of college football like to you? And what do you think of it when you stepped onto the field for the first time?

Yeah. So my freshman year, I broke my hand so they registered me. But then when I was like fully recovered and stuff, I got, I got a taste of one college game. My freshman year, it was kind of nerve-wracking because you know, you're a freshman on a big stage for like, everyone's watching you.

I feel like as a freshman, I was like, I was thinking too much about a lot of things. I don't want to mess up. I'm thinking about what they want to see on the film. So I was really, I wasn't playing to my best ability because I was so concerned with other people that was thinking and watching.

So that kind of, that kind of just affected the way I played my first couple of games. So it, that's one of those experiences that kind of debunks the notion of football is not mental football is not a mental game. It's very well a mental game as well as a physical game. You clearly, you know, experienced that.

But obviously as the years went on and obviously the team had a pretty successful year. They won the MSF, A-MID West Division. What did you take away from, you know, that season, that first full year that you had? I took away that.

I definitely had room for improvement and that had a lot of guys in front of me that I can learn from and that if I just keep, you know, doing the things that it takes to practice is the film preparation that I can put myself into a really good spot my next couple years. I do want to highlight one more thing about that 21 season. Obviously, it feels good to win, but when you win in a dramatic fashion, it almost feels like very surreal. And I'm sure there's no better example of having that surreal dramatic win than the game at St.

Francis. Obviously, when Peyton missed the kick to win it, you realize, okay, the defense has to go back out there one way or another. You know, it's over time. It's over time.

So what were you guys, you know, kind of thinking on the sidelines? Because obviously there was a lot on the line. There was a playoff spot on the line. There was a title on the line.

And of course, you're on a road in a hostile environment in a game that, you know, you guys were down 10. It was kind of back and forth, you know, St. Francis went up 10 and you guys controlled the game for a good chunk. And then it was kind of a stalemate late four quarter.

So what do you think the, you know, the mindset was and the vibe of the team was like going into that overtime? Oh, we were ready. That was like, it was like Coach Tellers, like we always find a way to win whether it's a blowout or close game is we're going to we're going to determine the fact that we went to loss. Defense knew that we had to go out there and make one more stop put our offense on the field.

You know, and we did just that. Yeah. And you guys, you know, obviously you're on defense first, which some, you know, a lot of people considered that an advantage in overtime because it's like, all right, depending on what happens, you know, exactly what you have to do to win. You know, if you have to kick a field goal of your defense, Bakes and it's ain't stopped.

You know, you have to score touchdown. You know, if one team scores a touchdown, obviously, then you know, you're going to have to have to go for an on four down to get a score touchdown back. But you guys got the ultimate result, obviously. And that was when IO said no, no.

And the field goal, St. Francis tried to feel, obviously, was blocked. Not a lot of field goals get blocked in crucial moments like that. So when you saw that, you know, what was going through your mind personally and what were you thinking?

Was there a sudden belief? I mean, obviously you believe that you can win all game longer. That does not. But did you see, you know, kind of the light at the end of the tunnel?

Yes, because I know I knew our offense was going to come out there and do something. So when it went, I got that block field goal. It's kind of like a relief. Oh, yeah, it is.

I'm all right. And Mario didn't waste any time either. I mean, he took the carry. It was one play 25 yards.

I mean, it's like the ultimate dagger. You know, the defense doesn't even let a score happen. And offense says, you know, why kick a field goal? You can we can sort of TD right here.

So when you saw Mario in the end zone, man, and you realize you just came out on top of you guys, you're going to play off. You wanted the vision. What was it? What was it like?

I mean, did you run out of the sidelines? Yeah, that had to feel good. It was a Jeff Obama saying all the smiles on everybody faces, the fans, the coaches, players. It was a definitely a memorable moment.

I can tell man, like the game was broadcasted. St. Francis also had a media network. They broadcasted it too.

I can't recall the last time I heard a pair of broadcasters. So what's the problem? Yeah, so defeated. It's like the life got sucked out of them because you guys came out and did your thing when it mattered most.

And it was insane. You guys look like you party hard on that field. But you know, obviously when it came to the playoffs, you know, obviously you would love to have a different result than the one that you got in the court. You love to win a title of some sort.

Obviously going into into last year, you realize you're stepping up there again once again. And you're going to have a little target on your back because you guys sent the message. We're here. We're here to win.

You guys won. And you took it. And obviously there were a lot of moments to pick from last year because there was a lot of different scenarios that you guys got hit with. But what would you say from last year's season where it was some of the most impactful moments and some of the biggest takeaways you had from last year?

After that loss against the second game of the year, that's kind of where we were like, so this is kind of the term is what type of team we are. Because we know as a team, we knew that we didn't perform top best ability against UND. Of course, that's tough loss. And then I'm saying Thomas, but everybody kind of dig deep and found their identity.

So after that, we went on a roll after that. So that kind of was like the most impactful thing about last season. Yeah, you guys had a couple of dramatic wins along the way. I mean, obviously there's two very, very noteworthy games you probably know them already.

But we'll start with the Rosevale game. Emotions are high. It's homecoming. It's a team that forfeited against you last year.

Most of the time, a team that forfeited against you. And they're there and it's homecoming. And you know, you want to show out for the fans and you want to make sure that you guys are still on the right track. And you guys squeaked out a win.

I mean, you found a way to win. And sometimes you'd rather be lucky than good. But the fact of the matter is you guys got the job done. Obviously, there are a lot of things that happen in that game.

You guys are controlling Rosevale back. And you guys had the last lap. What was that game like? Because that was a game that felt like a seesaw.

So it's crazy because I feel like I'm pretty sure that half we're up quite a bit. Right? 14-0. It wasn't.

We knew it was still a ballgame. But I feel like after that, we kind of filled ourselves a little bit. They came out. They started smacking us in the mouth.

But again, we always find a way to get it done. Yeah. And thankfully, extra points are not automatic, right? Because Rosevale, I mean, I'm sure I was looking at the boss score.

I'm like, man, they had the game in control. And I don't know. Moments like that feel like it feels like a giant momentum swing because it's like they scored 20 unanswered. I mean, obviously, you know, when you allow 20 unanswered, it's going to be like a wake up call of some sort, especially that late in the game.

But obviously, that was the difference in the game because you guys responded and you made sure you got your extra point. And obviously, it was an electric win. It was an electric win. But of course, what other way would you want to end the regular season with kind of a running back moment this time?

You guys are the home team and St. Francis is coming in. It's the exact same situation. Winter goes to the playoffs, loser goes home.

And you guys went another close one against these guys. And it's just like, oh, man, this is, it had to feel good again, didn't I mean, it's two times in a row, man. For sure. Yep.

Definitely felt that was amazing feeling up. I do want to point this out because you are a defensive lineman. St. Francis did have the ball, you know, pretty much last.

But Joe Picelli gave you guys a big break by pinning St. Francis deep. He had a punt that went like 51 yards and landed at the A-yard line. So you look, you guys look back.

There's 92 yards of grass to defend. When you see that, you put in that situation, you know, as a defensive lineman. And you know it's crunch time. You know they're going to pass, most likely, unless they really want to risk running the football in that situation.

What is your mindset, you know, going into those situations when, you know, it's like you're in the trenches and you pretty much know what's probably going to happen. So, you know, St. Francis is that team that's like, they're very run heavy. The quarterback over there is like kind of, he's a really good player.

So our mindset is like, we know it's a pass, so it's go, go, go. But we want to contain him because he's capable of making big plays and what is feet. So we wanted to just make sure we keep him contained at the same time as we wanted that freedom to go. Yeah, and contained is a good word because obviously they had 92 yards to go.

So you had a lot of plays to be able to see from them. They got a couple first downs. Yeah. But of course, you guys locked it down didn't let them get too much farther.

And obviously a fourth and 12 is it was crazy because from your perspective, especially, it felt like the shoe was on the other foot from your Hillcrest game. The other team is now pinned deep. It's now fourth and long for them. And you guys get to stop this time.

You guys are the ones that are out on top this time. Of course, you know, it's difficult college now, not high school, but still I got to ask, man, was it kind of running through your mind that, hey, this situation kind of felt familiar but in reverse? Yeah, definitely. But you know, this time I better than the stakes.

Yeah, of course, man. I mean, of course, it's good to get another win, another division title. But obviously it felt like kind of a repeat of last year with the postseason. So obviously, you guys know you have a little bit of a mountain climb this year.

Seeing what has happened with the way the last two seasons ended. So coming into this year after two years of a lot of great experience, what do you think you guys have to do this year to get over the top? And not just win a playoff game, but maybe win it all in the National Championship. We got to kind of forget about last season.

Learn from it, but again, move on from it. We did lose a couple of key pieces on the roster. But I feel like we did a good job of filling those in. We got some younger guys step up.

So I think the kids just just played for about the best way we know how and we'll see the goal. Yeah. And one thing I do want to note, you guys have some late evening night games this start the year, which is not normal for our school, which I wish would become normal. I wish we would have more night games.

But your guys's first home game is like dead smack prime time under the lights and that the atmosphere should be rocking. When you took a look at the first schedule, it took a little peek at the first schedule for the first time. What were your first impressions? It wasn't only the time, but like the opponents we played like pretty big time opponents.

But I feel like we can get the job done if we play for about a little while. Okay, that's a good mindset to start off, especially like you said with some key guys, you know, having to be replaced from last year's team, which is, you know, it could be an ongoing thing for some of the most teams. So that leads me to ask you, you know, you've obviously have had practices for quite some time. Do you have any things that are noteworthy that you have seen in practice so far?

The practice has been good that they felt good. Well, first, I'm not playing as you do the injury, but I'm going to practice. I've been to this team looks great to go. Like they're playing with a chip on the shoulder.

No, got a lot of new guys, but new guys have definitely responded to college like quick. So I feel like I feel like it's going to be a good season. Okay. Well, obviously we'll miss having you in a trenches miss having you trying to control a lot of scrimmage to the best of your ability, but we know that this team, I mean, you experienced this for two years now.

They found it. They find ways. They find a way. So yeah, that's that's obviously your football perspective of college.

Obviously you are a student athlete. There's still a student aspect of it. How in the world do you juggle school with sport for so long? It's basically you got to have time management knowing, you know, be organized knowing when you have to be here.

We have what time you have free to do this amount of work and things along the way. You know, you're when you're in college and you have to deal with the workload a little bit differently because you control your own schedule better than you do in high school. What is that freedom of, you know, crafting your schedule for the past few years? What has that been like and how beneficial has that been to balancing out school with football?

It's been very beneficial because now you know what's going to put it on. So like you said, you're in control of your own schedule. So you know when to be where when to be when to do what you're not set schedule everyday things change. You got to re have to take that into consideration for your body as a athlete.

Different things like that. So if I'm not mistaken, you are an exercise science major, right? I am. What do you think you want to do with that?

You want to be some type of coach or practitioner? What do you want to do with that? Probably probably start off as like a coach, but ultimately I'm going to get in like physical therapy and help athletes and I'll recover from different injuries and things like that. And the inspiration from for why you want to do that?

Yeah, because I tell my ACL, my freshman year of high school and I like the way like people cater to me like to help me and basically give me on the right track so that my knee injury is like basically non-existent after. So I just want to see in that, I just want it to help people the same way. Nice, man. A lot of people don't see the appreciation and the people that rehab them and to want to help people in the future who kind of are in the same spot as you.

You got my respect for that, man. But yeah, that's obviously school and sport, but got to know your hobbies, man. We know football is pretty up there. That's pretty point of like obvious.

You got to be a very famous, like are you a very famous, you're so deeply rooted in Chicago. I'm a very famous, I'm a very famous, sure. Any optimism about this upcoming year? I actually do.

I've seen a lot of free agency pick up the Draft 1 Well, so I think there will be a team running next year. I've been trying to tell people for the last few months ever since the Carolina trade. Like I've been trying to let people know a DJ Moore is a really freaking good receiver. Like I'm talking like number one potential that we got with the trade from Carolina.

Like I'm like we've needed a true bonafide number one receiver. I'm darn known he's great, but you know, when people crack the code, it's like we need a little more help. And to get DJ Moore, it almost felt like a steal. I forgot the exact detail of the trade, but I remember thinking to myself, oh, this is a steal for the pairs.

This is actually a good move by the front office. And I was like, I instantly got excited because I'm like, if fields can, you know, keep improving and we actually put good receivers around him. I don't know, man. The doors open because I mean, look, just look at the rest of the division.

I mean, Green Bay just lost Rogers. Right. You know what I'm saying? So we can't expect the Packers.

I don't care how much praise Jordan loves getting right now. We don't know what that man's going to bring until he steps into the ring week one. We don't know. And he's not he's not in our Rogers right now.

People want to compare the Brett Favre and Rogers transition. It doesn't always work out that way. And they have a weird way of operating their quarterback situations. I'll tell you that.

But yeah, Green Bay, you don't know what to expect Minnesota. They always feel kind of shaky. Yeah. Sure.

Like they're one of the teams that make the least sense to me because it's like Justin Jefferson's great. He's a great receiver, obviously. But when your team is, you know, they live by the Kirk and they die by the Kirk and Kirk Cousins is almost like it feels like hit or miss every other season, you know. He's like, he has some good seasons.

He has some bad seasons. But then there are a lot of other problems with Minnesota, but and that guy exposed by the giants of all teams. Like, okay, so yeah, don't know about Minnesota. Don't know about Green Bay.

Who knows if the hype will be real for Detroit? I mean, can they live up to the height? I mean, it's Detroit with all the respect. I you never know.

But that just leads me to believe that, you know, Chicago, they can only go up because last year was pretty bad. I mean, that's beyond it. They got the number one thing for a reason. I mean, for multiple reasons, I have to Houston help out a lot.

But yeah, dude, I mean, the NFC North is up for grabs. So there's a lot of reason for optimism. You know, I do have to ask though. I know this is a day after a game, but you know, Green Bay is coming to town week one.

What in the world are you guys going to do about that? You may as like a team or I mean, it could be as a team. It could be individually. I mean, are you going to watch the game in some special way?

Because it is Green Bay week one. I definitely got to find myself a seat in front of the TV to catch that game. I'll tell you when I will be, we'll be picking on Co-People that I know are Packers fans. I got a good feeling about our week one versus there.

So yeah, I do too. But it amazes me how many people around it, not even just in this school, but in this area, in the Chicago area, it amazes me how many Packers fans there are. It's just like, how do you how do you how do you live in the Chicago area and you are a bonafide Packers fan? It just it just it amazes me really.

I mean, who knows the Packers fans live in Chicago because that's that's holding it's all. I mean, that's that's like why Sox fan living on a north side type of type of guts. Like, that's that's that's different, dude. But yeah, obviously, like we've been saying optimism around the bears.

It's it's gonna be awesome. I honestly can't wait. But obviously there's there's also more football to pay attention to. I don't know if you you like NCAA college football that much.

Okay, you do. How do you feel about all the realignment that has been going on? You mean like with like transfers and things like that? Not even just transfers like conferences.

If you've been keeping up with that, no, no. So what if I told you that schools like Washington and Oregon are going to be in a big 10, which is a conference that is, you know, traditionally like a Midwest conference? It kind of plays a lot of different cards. I didn't know that.

So we'll see that works out because, you know, big 10 has a lot of competitors, but Oregon, they're also competitors. So it's gonna make some things up for real. Yeah, dude. And obviously as a college football player yourself, I want you to imagine that you go to one of these schools on the West Coast, like USC, UCLA, and you find out midway through your college career that you're going to go from playing conference games all across the West Coast to figure out.

Oh my goodness, I got to go from California to New Jersey and back and then go from here to Maryland and back and from here to Illinois and back. Dude, it's going to be crazy. So what I mean, obviously the furthest you guys have to travel within a conference might be, I don't know, Iowa, maybe Wisconsin, neighboring states. Right.

These guys are going to have to go from California to the Midwest and even the East Coast and back every other week. What would you, would you have any like second guesses on playing for a team in the West Coast that is in the big 10? Because that's like a lot of travel. That is traveling.

That takes a toll on a player, you know, especially like you get in the night before the game and it's like, you know, so that takes a lot of toll on a player. I mean, I imagine what those players are doing, but they, let's see, we'll see this is the season to see how it affects their play or if it does. Yeah, we definitely don't see. I mean, the reason why this is such a hot topic now is because, you know, it's like, there's going to, it feels like there's like mega conferences in college and NCAA sports now like the big 10 just went from like 12 teams a couple years to a couple years ago, and they're going to be 18 and 18 team conference by the time all this is said and done.

So it's a lot of power. People, people already know the power of the SEC, you know, they're pretty notorious for being the best football conference. They got it. It's not they're only going to get bigger and they're adding schools and you know this and everybody's, you know, trying to go to the big 10 or D SEC.

It's almost like a like a monopoly of some sort for college sports. So it's it's something that's, you know, crazy to see. And I honestly can't imagine something something like that were to happen to our conference, our CCAC conference and having teams that we probably have never heard of, you know, coming into our conference. Just I don't know, like, Hey, where your conference rival now?

It's a it would be like that that would be that'd be that'd be crazy. But I do want to ask if you do anything else on campus, because you know, I've seen you around doing a lot of things like you have, you know, you're even part of any like organizations or clubs. I'm also an RA on campus. First year, I miss semester and then I'm part of our, which is like the residence house association.

I'm an emerging scholar for African American students on campus. Okay. So you do find ways to stay active pretty much. Yeah.

I've never been a student to like go to class and just go home. You know, I just like to be involved, you know, experiencing, especially on a campus so close to home, you want to experience the campus. That's what possible. So I feel like being involved and going to events is definitely a way to do it.

That's the future mean man. And speaking of which this leads me to my final question. When this is all said and done, when you're done with college, both college football and, you know, your class is here and you ultimately graduate and do what you want to do with your life. What do you think you want your legacy to be at this school as a student athlete, as a man, you know, as a human being?

What do you think you want your legacy to be and what do you think you want to be, you know, sort of remembered for? Just the way I just the way I carry myself in the leadership I brought being a student leader then being a part of football team, how I handle my business, how I went about my business, basically on campus. And that's going to do it for another episode of the Player Profiles podcast. Special thanks to Van Williams Jr.

for taking the time out of his day to come and do this interview with me. I have one last thing before we end the show. Can I get it? Go Coups baby.

Thank you very much for listening to this WXAV 88.3 FM podcast. Be sure to visit our website WXAV.com for more information on your escape from ordinary radio. Support for WXAV 88.3 FM is being provided by Mozart Immersive, the soul of a genius. With music conducted by Mikhail Barishnikov, this premier production uses AI technology woven around Mozart's music to create an immersive journey.

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This episode was published on August 25, 2023.

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