Donte Williams calls Diaco a 'defensive genius'
Nebraska cornerbacks coach Donte Williams is excited about the group of players he’s inherited this spring, but at the same time he understands the challenge ahead.
Williams had 16 practices with his new guys over bowl month, and now he’s had two under new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. He’s excited about transitioning into this new scheme, but at the same time he knows how much work is still out there.
“A long ways to go,” Williams said when asked how far away his corners are following Tuesday’s spring practice. “When I say that I mean all of us including me as a coach. We have a long way to go. You can count on it when it gets to Game 1 we are going to be every bit of what everyone thinks we are.
“They come out with all these rankings and we are supposed to be the top secondary in the conference. We are going to be No. 1. If there are 14 teams in the conference, we are No. 14. But I can count on when it gets to Game 1, we are going to be No. 1. My impression (of my guys) are they are athletic, big, long, aggressive, eager to learn, smart, but like I said we have a long ways to go.”
For Williams, he’s going to lean heavily on veteran senior cornerbacks Chris Jones (20 career starts) and Joshua Kalu (18 starts) to make this transition easier.
In the little time he’s been with Jones and Kalu, Williams said he’s been blown away by their competitive nature.
“What we are doing technique-wise, it’s completely different than anything they have ever done,” Williams said of Jones and Kalu. “It’s pretty much a challenge for themselves and they are so competitive amongst each other it’s like best friends that are competitive.
“They are like brothers and nobody wants to do less than what their brother did, everybody wants to out-do their brother and that’s how those two guys compete. If you tell one to watch 30 minutes of film, the other one is going to watch 31 minutes of film. That’s just how those two guys are, it makes it easy as a coach because those two guys are trying to out-do each other and they set such a standard and everybody in the group buys in.”
Another player Williams said he’s excited to work with this spring is sophomore Lamar Jackson, who has all the tools to be a big-time player.
Williams said it just comes down to learning the position going forward.
“Lamar (Jackson) is what I call a work in progress,” Williams said. “Anytime you have a first-round talent, talent can only take you so far. Just learn how to play the position. Everybody thinks you are supposed to be ready made corner, but Lamar played safety and quarterback (in high school) so this is a total different ballgame.
“He’s a freelance player when you are playing QB and every time you play you are the best person on the field or when you play safety you just play deep and hit people and make plays. He’s learning how to be a football player within the defense, but the talent is going to take over and once he takes over and learns exactly what he needs to do, the talent will take over, and when it does he’s going to be better than the guy who lines up against him.”
The dynamic of working with both Diaco and new safeties coach Bob Elliott also has Williams very excited for what the future holds.
"The guy is a defensive genius. I bought in from day one,” Williams said of Diaco. “The whole defense he brought in, his personality is no nonsense, but he can still have fun. Once you get the job done with him, shoot his personality is better than anyone. He’s a great defensive coordinator.”