Donte Williams leads USC into the Coliseum: 'It feels right. He's at home'
Shawnese Williams is talking about what Saturday night is going to mean to her little brother Donte Williams as he walks out of the tunnel in the Coliseum as USC's head coach, and she's trying to think exactly how close the family's home -- the one their mother still lives in -- is to the stadium.
In the background of the phone call, Williams' mother Maxine chimes in with a quick answer.
"Mom says exactly 3 miles from the Coliseum," Shawnese says.
For Donte Williams, going from his childhood in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles to becoming the first Black head coach in USC history has been a much longer journey than those miles can represent.
He grew up in the city, went to Culver City High School, got his coaching start at Los Angeles Harbor College, bounced around and climbed the ranks and eventually built himself into a highly-coveted assistant coach and top recruiter, which ultimately led him back.
Williams was comfortable at Oregon when USC came calling more than a year and a half ago.
"I wanted to tell him 'Yes,' but I wanted him to make up his own mind," Maxine Wimberly Williams says. "He's like, 'Mom, what do you think about me coming to USC?' I said, 'Oh, I'd be happy for you to come, but you've got that contract at Oregon.' He's like, 'Well, I've got to make up my mind -- I'll let you know.' And I wanted to tell him, 'You better come!' But I didn't want to make him come. I like my children to make up their own minds of what they're going to do."
Williams took the job as USC's cornerbacks coach. Less than a year later he added the title of associate head coach, and then Monday of last week he was promoted to interim head coach after USC fired Clay Helton.
When Williams was young, his Pop Warner football teams used to get free tickets to go to USC games in the Coliseum from time to time.
On Saturday night, he leads the Trojans into the historic venue as its history-making head coach as USC plays host to Oregon State.
"I'm going to be very excited. Very, very, very," Maxine says over the phone Friday night, her anticipation building 24 hours before kickoff.
Meanwhile, Williams' wife Jayna was running some final errands for the week Friday afternoon, having already coordinated tickets and transportation for family members, as she added her own perspective.
"To talk about even the emotions from last week was crazy. Just experiencing him on the sidelines from start to finish, it was just incredible. Then now it even feels like a bigger moment just to be at the Coliseum," she says. "You think about how this was always kind of the dream for us, to be able to be home and get to experience something as big as this. We just never dreamed it would happen so quickly."
'It's going to be pretty surreal'
Maxine Wimberly Williams learned the news last week from one of her son's youth football coaches.
"His little league football coach texted me and told me. I was like, 'What? Maybe this is a joke or something.' Then I went on the Google and I was like, wait a minute," she recalls. "Then all my nieces and nephews and people on the street was coming, my phone was blowing up. I was like, 'Are you for real?'"
She promptly called her other children, who had the same reaction.
"I was at work and my mom called and I was like, 'Are you serious?' And she was like, 'Oh my gosh, yes,'" Shawnese Williams says. "I immediately hung the phone up and got online to check, like, 'Maybe she's kidding.' I got online to check and I started calling people like, 'She's for real. It's really real.'"
While everything has changed for Donte Williams these last two weeks, in some ways nothing has changed.
Jayna Williams, who is a doctor of physical therapy, has always been there when her husband gets home from work to catch up on the day. Those conversations just happen a little later in the night now.
"Whatever time it is that he gets home at night, I try to be up still so we can kind of talk through the day. And then FaceTime as much as possible so he can see [his son] King. It ranges anywhere from 10 to midnight to 1," she says. "I don't think we've gotten to sleep before midnight, for sure, since he's gotten the job. You hear the alarm go off at about 5 [a.m.] and that's it -- it's time to go."
Shawnese Williams still hears from her little brother consistently through the week as well, no matter how busy he is these days. She and their sister Crystal Williams are 11 and 12 years older than Donte, respectively, and have always been close to their baby brother, taking him along wherever they went, helping to get him into sports at a young age, etc.
"I interact with Donte all the time. I've always interacted with Donte and Donte always makes time for me, both for myself and my sister. We are very close," Shawnese says. "So he's been very busy, but even if it's a quick text to say 'I love you' we always do that."
And Williams has also maintained at least one very important part of his pregame routine that has been the same for decades now.
"Ever since he was in high school, he always calls me and talks to me before the game. I just wish him good luck and [tell him] I love him, and he tells me how much he loves me," Maxine says. "Every game. Ever since he's been playing, he always calls me."
They had their call last weekend before Williams' first game as interim head coach, up at Washington State, and this Saturday night that conversation will happen in person.
"It's going to be pretty surreal. His mom is so excited," Jayna Williams says. "... It's going to be a lot of emotion."
Family is one major reason Williams came back to Los Angeles and took the job at USC in February of 2020, leaving a thriving program at Oregon to join one in which Helton's hot seat status was an annual narrative.
Williams' father Antone has been ill for a while and things haven't been trending well lately. When he was younger, his father took him everywhere with him, always wanting his company. So it had become increasingly important for Williams to now in turn be close to his parents, who played such an influential role in setting him on his path.
On top of everything he's taken on as USC's head coach these last two weeks, Williams has had an especially trying time personally.
"We've been going through lots of tragedies for the last month or so. My husband, he's in the hospital in intensive care and we just went out and spread ashes today of one of my grandsons," Maxine says, bringing it up herself in conversation about the emotions of this week. "It's really hard because when he saw his daddy hooked up the night they had him on the ventilator -- he's off the ventilator -- but he's extremely ill, they've been calling us every night to go in saying he's going to pass, I think when Donte went in there, there's something about Donte, when he sees Donte, it kind of perks him up and stuff.
"It's hard on Donte right now. He hates to see his dad like that because Antone was a big [strong man] and just took Donte everywhere with him. So it hurts him a lot."
"I'm just so happy and overjoyed that he's here," she reiterates.
A reporter apologizes that the conversation steered to such a tough and emotional matter and redirects back to the point of the call -- Saturday night in the Coliseum.
"Yes!" Maxine says.
There is the personal significance of the moment -- the L.A. kid now coaching the legendary college football program down the road. But there is also a broader and weightier significance to it all.
As noted, Williams is the first Black head coach in USC football history, and when asked about that last week a day after his promotion, he said, "It's a humble, humble, humble thing."
"There's been a lot of guys before me that probably did more than I've done to have the opportunity," he continued. "So it's not just about me, per se. It's about a lot of guys that came before me, it's a lot of guys that will come after me."
So, yes, while this opportunity means so much to Williams and his family, they hope it means something to so many others as well.
That's one of the first things Shawnese brings up in talking about why all of this -- especially Saturday night in the Coliseum -- is so meaningful.
"From the perspective of Donte being an African-American male in inner-city Los Angeles, it's just a wonderful opportunity for him to be able to represent our culture, to be the head coach at USC, to show other young men of color that what he has achieved is possible for them, to be a role model for them," she says. "And also to be able to do that in his hometown where he grew up and to be around his family ... it just makes that much more special."
Says Jayna: "I told him, 'You're always going to be in the history books.' That's a big deal. So I think it hasn't gone unnoticed for him the significance of that and the importance."
'God is good. It feels right. He's at home'
Through everything else swirling around Williams the last two weeks -- from the personal strain of his father's illness to what he now represents in this role to an undefined future as USC at the same time conducts a national coaching search -- he has maintained his focus on the details of the job.
Every detail -- that's just how he's wired.
"If I'm all of a sudden working 16, 17, 18 hours a day and things aren't done, then I need to figure out how I'm going to work 19, 20, 21," he said on Sunday evening.
In turn, Jayna Williams has taken on significant extra responsibilities these last two weeks as well.
"Oh my gosh, it's been nuts," she says Friday afternoon. "It was so unexpected. We really didn't see it coming, and then everything was kind of thrown onto us, like, 'All right, let's do this.' And it's kind of been a nonstop go, go, go mentality. And although it was a surprise, it's odd how we just kind of felt like we were prepared for this, we were ready for this.
"So even though there's been a lot of curveballs, we've needed more babysitters than usual, I've run a million more errands than usual in the past couple weeks, but I think just knowing what it's for it doesn't even bother me. ... It's been busy, though. I feel like I haven't slept in two weeks. Neither has he. In a good way -- it's definitely OK."
Williams said earlier this week that he has about 500 unread text messages he still hasn't gotten to since the news broke last week.
"I feel kinda like the a-hole because some people are probably like, 'Dang, why hasn't he got back?' But I literally had probably over 1,500 text messages," he says. "So it's like right when you just start getting through a couple, I have so many other things that are really, really important right now and pressing -- No. 1 this team, No. 2 this staff, so I have to make sure those things are handled first before I can get back, which sucks because you know I want to get back to everyone, especially everyone that's rooting for us."
While Donte focuses on the team, Jayna has handled all the planning and logistics this week, securing tickets and coordinating carpools, etc.
She says the ticket count for family members for Saturday night is around 30.
"And that's just family. We haven't even gone into the friends category yet," she says. "Donte's always kept a pretty tight circle, so the ones that are going to be there I don't think we even had to offer them tickets. They just were going to show up. ...
"Rarely do you ever get all of us together. If it takes him becoming head coach of USC to get us all together, then so be it."
While Williams sure doesn't seem to be approaching his stint as interim head coach as being any sort of temporary placeholder, his wife is also all-in embracing the new role regardless of any uncertainty for the future. (It's expected that USC would want to retain Williams on staff even if hiring a different head coach after the season.)
Jayna Williams has made a point to come to USC's Tuesday practices, which are family days, to get to know more of the parents and be a presence for the players beyond the defensive backs she's already gotten to know over the last year and a half.
And she's been active on Twitter, trying to rally fans to fill the Coliseum this week. That's the former cheerleader in her, she says.
"I cheered in college at UW so our coach drilled it into our heads that every person in the stands mattered and we could make a difference for every play of the game. So it's always been how I've thought about going to games," she says. "... Now that I have a platform a little bit more to call everybody out, I guess, I'm going to do it."
The most important fan this week, though, is Maxine.
Jayna says she has talked to Williams' mother every day, confirming the plans for Saturday, how they're getting to the Coliseum, where they're sitting (50-yard line behind USC's bench), etc.
"Donte's mom is 100 percent the most important person on the list, so just making sure we have her ride accounted for, her seat accounted for, that's definitely the most important," Jayna says. "This is definitely going to be a big day for her."
Maxine always thought her son would end up back home, coaching in the legendary stadium just 3 miles down the road. She didn't know when or in what role, but she held onto that thought.
Williams too.
"This has always been a dream of mine," he said last week.
From getting his start in coaching at Los Angeles Harbor College in 2007, to El Camino College in 2008, Mt. San Antonio College the next year, onto Nevada and Washington in support staff roles and then San Jose State for three seasons as defensive backs coach, followed by one-year stops at Arizona and Nebraska before landing at Oregon and really growing his profile on a national level, USC was always somewhere in his mind.
"We talk football all the time and what's next, you know. I'd always ask him, 'What's the top 5? Give me your top 5 dream jobs if you were the head coach somewhere.' And USC has always been No. 1," Jayna says. "It's always been the location, it's always been about being home. We went to Rome a couple years back and we went to the actual real Colosseum and we probably stood there for two hours while he just looked at it because it just has so much impact on him. The history of it and what the USC Coliseum means to him and what the history of the school means to him as well.
"So it goes a long ways to say that the journey has been difficult, it hasn't always been easy, but it's always worth it especially for moments like this."
Moments like last Saturday in Pullman, Wash., as Williams led the Trojans to a 45-14 win in his head coaching debut against Washington State. Moments like the celebration in the locker room afterward as the team he had rallied together just a week after a demoralizing blowout loss at home presented him the game ball and emptied water bottles on his head in celebration.
And, of course, moments like this Saturday night, leading the Trojans out in the Coliseum just those 3 short miles away from where this all began, with his mother in the stands just like she always imagined.
"He always loved USC. He always loved USC," Maxine says. "Even when I would go to the doctor I'd have on my Oregon stuff and they'd be like 'Err'. I'd say, 'USC, right? I love USC too. One day my son's going to be at USC.' I never thought about him being the head coach there, but I had a feeling one day he was going to come back and be at USC and it happened. God is good. It feels right. He's at home."