Shannon Vizniowski/CFL.ca
Frankie Williams doesn’t do a lot of talking about himself.
A conversation with Hamilton’s jack of many trades is not one that is characterized by long, self-centred answers. Instead, it is one that is peppered with short bursts of personal modesty, supplemented with a healthy dose of all-for-one sentiment.
Frankie Williams really does seem to be one of those ‘I just go do my job’ kind of guys.
More like ‘I just do my jobs,’ actually.
“I’m open to anything if you’re talkin’ about gettin’ us a ring,” said Williams, in one of those short bursts. I’d just asked him specifically about whether he’d like to add to his full plate of activities – he’s a star defensive back and a star kick returner – and play a little receiver sometimes.
But he quickly steered the conversation towards team goals. He did that a lot, in fact.
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Frankie doesn’t brag about himself, at least not on this day and no matter how hard I tried to get him to.
Others talk about Frankie, though. They talk a lot and in glowing terms. How could they not?
“I’m just glad he’s a Tiger-Cat,” said Hamilton Head Coach Orlondo Steinauer this week, reflecting on not just the strong game Williams was coming off but on the entirety of the second-year corner’s work. “The tape speaks for itself.”
Williams is having a sensational season, one that could tempt a person into including his name in conversations about Hamilton’s MOP for 2019. Win the nomination? OK, that might be a stretch but not a big one. What the 26-year-old has meant to the Ticats as an opposition denier and a field position influencer has been huge. He deserves to be mentioned and considered.
He’s almost everywhere in 2019, immediately coming to mind when the top CFL special-teamers are compared, leading the way in punt return yardage with 687, and sitting fourth in kick-off return yards with 786. He’s returned a punt for a major and done the same with a kick return as well.
Among the most used returners in the league, those with 25 or more kick-off returns, he stands second to Saskatchewan’s Loucheiz Purifoy (26.8) in kick return average, at 25.4 yards per.
His return yardage has him standing fourth in the CFL in combined yards, with 1,473, just one yard behind the third place holder, teammate Brandon Banks.
Those numbers make him the favourite to be named the Ticats’ Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, and when you combine that performance with his standout work on defence, you get the picture of what Steinauer was talking about when he referred to Williams as a “pretty complete football player.”
He’s a key on defence with 35 tackles made, a healthy number for a man who primarily plays the corner position, that number bolstered by his agility; his ability to reverse course and arrive on the scene in a timely fashion in order to chip in with run support.
He’s an ultra-competitive guy. He’s a self-starter. He wants to be great. He has no desire to just be a returner or just be a DB. He welcomes all challenges.
– Orlondo Steinauer
Williams may have only one interception on the year, gathered in against Edmonton last week, but he’s tied for the league lead with 10 knockdowns. Three of those came in that game against the Eskimos on Friday night.
He’s fast become one of the CFL’s more formidable shutdown corners and when he does get beaten, it usually takes a play like the scintillating grab Edmonton’s Greg Ellingson made for a touchdown in Week 15, corkscrewing his body to somehow unglue himself from Williams’ coverage.
“Football is kinda over-complicated sometimes,” said Williams, explaining that his defensive success comes down to avoiding those complications. “But you follow the basic fundamentals.”
“Just play great technique, win all your leverage (battles) and the ball will come when it comes,” said the understated native of Tampa, Florida. “Make a play when it comes to you.”
This season, Frankie Williams has become the Ticats Mr. Everything. Well, their “Mr. Almost Everything,” really. You get the sense that he could do it all – and would – if a human being could play an entire pro football game on defence, special teams and offence.
It’s something that he did accomplish during his high school days, where he actually started out as a receiver. On some Friday nights, Williams said, he played both sides of the line of scrimmage and returned kicks as well.
He liked it, he said, partly because “it keeps you more in tune to the game. You’re dialled in.”
As for trying that sort of thing out now, you can forget about it, of course. Pro football is a far cry from high school ball, and Williams admits double duty is already taxing enough at this level.
Still, you couldn’t blame a guy if he was curious about trying. So, has he ever approached Steinauer about lining up at receiver, even on a limited basis?
“Nah, that’s not me,” Williams said. “If they moved me there I would go there but we got some guys on the other side of the ball, who I cover day in and day out… we’re pretty deep.”
Then, after a pause, he adds:
“But if they want me to go in and block, I would. I’ll go out there, be a blocker, decoy, anything.”
There’s the team-first streak that Steinauer likes so much about Williams, who framed the possibility of lining up on offence as an opportunity to chip in with some grunt work, instead of one where he could stroke his own ego with receptions.
“He’s an ultra-competitive guy,” said Steinauer. “He’s a self-starter.
“He wants to be great,” the coach continued. “He has no desire to just be a returner or just be a DB. He welcomes all challenges.”
For his part, Williams is thankful to have Steinauer – an all-star at three different defensive positions when he played – as a tutor.
“He’s a great coach,” said Williams. “Havin’ that around me every day is a blessing. He’s been there, so he understands. He lets you play.”
As Hamilton’s pass defence continues to tighten, now stingiest in the CFL in opponents’ completion percentage (60.8) and opponents’ passing efficiency (79.6), Williams is content to do whatever the team needs him to do, with the imminent return of injured corner Delvin Breaux on the horizon.
Stay on the corner, move over to halfback, whatever.
“The group we have is complex,” said Williams, excited about the way the pieces have come together in Hamilton’s secondary. “A lot of personality. But a lot of enthusiasm and dedication in our group.”
Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive back Frankie Williams (37) celebrates with teammate Brandon Banks after a kick return (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Same goes for special teams, one would assume, with coordinator Jeff Reinebold setting the schemes, blockers executing well, and Williams making the opposition pay for kicking to him.
It’s a pipe dream to think we could ever see Williams adding offence to his pro repertoire, but the good news for the Ticats is that he’s already doing tons of damage in the other two phases of the game, all while keeping his eye firmly fixed on the prize. The big one, that is, not any that might come his way at season’s end.
Asked about the CFL’s fast-approaching awards season, you could almost
hear him shrug over the phone line.
“I’ve won some awards in the past but….”
He paused, then swung his thoughts to the Grey Cup.
“I’m all in on that.”
