The biggest thing I took away from Friday’s events at Nebraska is there are a lot of people that care about Keith Williams.

The second-year Husker receivers coach was cited for a DUI this past Sunday morning, and it was announced by head coach Mike Riley and the University he would receive a two-week suspension of pay (just over $15,000), along with a four-game coaching suspension, which will amount to seven weeks when you factor in Fall Camp.

“It’s as significant of a penalty as I’ve seen for an assistant coach,” Riley said on Friday. “Two weeks suspended without pay and missing 4 games with our team. There’s going to have to be a lot of adjusting.”

Williams addressed reporters on Friday as well, reading a brief statement, but did not take any questions.

It’s no doubt been a very difficult week for Williams and his family. Williams’ son Keyan is a transfer wide receiver on the roster that just joined the team in January.

“Keyan is our brother,” senior linebacker Josh Banderas said. “He’s been with us for a short time, but it feels like forever. We put our arm around him and just be there for him and that’s all we can do.

“We are very supportive. (Keith Williams) is our guy. I love him to death. It’s the best of the worse situation that he’s trying to make of it. We’ll stay behind him and support him and get through it.”

Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst, Chancellor Ronnie Green and University President Hank Bounds also were involved this week.

I don’t ever recall in my time around Nebraska a decision having this many powerful people involved regarding an assistant coach.

I think it shows you how important they took this situation, and also how much they wanted to make sure they did the right thing.

“I think we all come together when we make failures in judgement,” Eichorst said. “We own it, we are genuine with it, we take corrective action where it’s appropriate and we move forward. That’s what I appreciate about a place like Nebraska. There’s a lot of passion, a lot of pride, we care about everyone and everything. I think there are a lot of folks that I know that are here that are going to put their arms around the program and around Keith and move forward and he said he’s going to do the same thing.”

You could tell this was not easy for Riley. He clearly recognizes the severity of this mistake and knows something much worse could’ve happened on Sunday.

However, you could also recognize how much Riley cares for Williams as a person and how he’s grown to respect him the last year. Before hiring him in January of 2015, Riley didn’t have any prior relationship with Williams.

“Keith is the same guy I hired a year ago. He might be a better guy,” Riley said. “He made a terrible mistake. We have decided to support him and give him an opportunity to work with our kids. The primary reason for that – many of you think it’s the coaching and the recruiting. What I think it is is he has a tremendous influence on our team and on his players. He’s one of the best I’ve been around. He talks real life stuff to these kids. These kids listen to him, they change under them and he has impacted them. I’ll go back and say it, it was a terrible mistake. We are going to support him, we are going to trust him and we are going to go forward.”

It took a lot for Williams to get up in front of all the cameras on Friday. I’m guessing if this same type of situation happened at his previous schools Tulane and Fresno State, the incident probably wouldn’t have made the papers and been front page news.

Nebraska football is a much different animal. Assistant coaches get as much attention as anywhere in the country. With that also comes some bad, where things about your personal life can become national news. Williams was man enough though to face the music on Friday.

“In the coming days, weeks and months I will work hard to earn back the trust I have lost from many in our community,” Williams said. “I will work hard to strengthen my life, and I will do all I can to make sure I educate the young and old on the dangers of making poor decisions. I make no excuses and I accept the consequences.”