2023-12-23 14:00:00
Georgia football has its next person to run its secondary.
The Bulldogs announced former Southern California defensive backs and defensive passing game coordinator Donte Williams as its new defensive backs coach. Williams has coached the cornerbacks and defensive backs since 2020 and became USC’s interim head coach in 2021.
This will be the first time the California native, known as an impressive recruiter at USC, will primarily recruit in the Southeast. But this could prove beneficial for the possible recruits out West, a region that has produced Bulldogs such as Brock Bowers, Darnell Washington, Kendall Milton and most recently redshirt freshman Earnest Greene III and freshmen Roderick Robinson II and Justyn Rhett.
Williams was originally hired as a part of now Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton’s staff when Helton was the head coach at USC. Williams stayed and worked under current head coach Lincoln Riley before departing for the Bulldogs. Williams thanked the USC coaches and administration in a post on his social media.
“I would like to thank Coach Helton, Coach Riley, and all the amazing coaches I was able to work with and learn from these past four years at USC,” Williams wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Most importantly, thank you to the players for the memories and allowing me to coach you. When one chapter closes another one begins.”
Williams replaces former defensive backs coach Fran Brown, who accepted a head coach position with Syracuse and holds 16 years of collegiate coaching experience. Williams started his coaching career at Los Angeles Harbor College and then coached at two other community colleges before landing a spot with Nevada as the team’s defensive quality control coach in 2010.
Williams then joined Washington as a graduate assistant, assisting with overseeing cornerbacks and linebackers from 2011 to 2012. He then spent time with San Jose State from 2013 to 2015 as the team’s cornerbacks coach and eventually the team’s secondary coach and recruiting coordinator.
Williams then bounced around schools in the West, as he coached the cornerbacks at Arizona in 2016, Nebraska in 2017 and Oregon in 2018 and 2019 before joining USC. This will be the first position Williams has had in the Southeast in his collegiate coaching career.
Williams’ playing career goes back to 2002 when he was a defensive back at Pasadena City College. He then transferred to Syracuse in 2003 before transferring again to Idaho State and playing there in 2004 to 2005. While coaching Los Angeles Harbor and El Camino Colleges in 2007 and 2008, Williams played with the Rio Grande Valley Dorados and Arkansas Twisters of the Arena Football League.
Williams, in his time with the Trojans, has helped the team acquire top recruits such as former five-star cornerback Domani Jackson and top four-star recruits like cornerback Ceyair Wright, safety Zion Branch, safety Tackett Curtis and cornerback Maliki Crawford from 2021 to 2023.
It’s unclear if Williams will be with the Bulldogs for practice leading up to the Orange Bowl against Florida State on Dec. 30, but he will be with the team for their 2024 season.
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