Syracuse, N.Y. — Elijah Robinson called Nick Williams first. Then Fran Brown — after he’d called Colorado coach Deion Sanders to let him know he was hiring his defensive ends coach away to Syracuse football.
“I knew I was coming once they called me,” Williams told syracuse.com Monday. “I look up to these guys.”
Williams was the second assistant coach Brown brought on to his inaugural coaching staff after Robinson. Williams’ hiring as edge coach was made official Jan. 2, though Williams was in the Salt City and working with the program shortly after Brown arrived.
Williams’ career is still in its infancy — 2024 will be just his second season as a position coach — but Williams is burgeoning into a name to know in the football world having helped recruit some of the top classes in the country over the past six years at Georgia, Texas A&M, Colorado, and, on a short timetable, Syracuse.
His work ethic drew him comparisons to Brown even when he was still just a graduate assistant, and his energy allowed him to keep up with Sanders.
Robinson, Sanders and Brown each recognized Williams’ potential early. Their belief in him helped motivate him through each of his career stops thus far.
He gets to continue to grow now alongside and under the guidance of Brown and Robinson together.
“I’ve got a long way to go,” Williams said. “They’re really, really good, and I’m learning from ‘em. They’re really, really good.”
A mentor and confidante
Williams considers himself one of the first branches on Robinson’s coaching tree.
Robinson reached out to hire him at Texas A&M as a defensive analyst during a difficult time in Williams’ life, he said. He had a newborn baby girl, and his mom had died a few months prior.
“To get that call was really refreshing, and it kind of put a battery in my back to, ‘Hey, now you can continue to work hard. Someone notices,’ ” Williams said.
Robinson quickly became not just a mentor but a friend and confidante to Williams.
Williams said he tends to hide his emotions. Robinson somehow always knew when he needed to talk. He was always around to lend a listening ear, calling Williams into his office to check in with him about how he was doing.
Robinson’s wife and Williams’ wife developed a similar relationship.
What stuck out to Williams is that Robinson didn’t pretend to know how Williams felt. He didn’t pretend to relate to having lost a parent because he hadn’t. He just offered to be there for Williams.
“He knew if I felt better, I would work harder and it would just make it better for me at work,” Williams said. “He was there for me.”
While with the Aggies, Williams worked closely with Robinson and the late coach Terry Price. He broke down tape, helped with on-campus recruiting and helped during practices.
Texas A&M ranked No. 14 nationally in total defense in 2021, and, under the guidance of Robinson, Price and Williams, every defensive line starter went on to sign an NFL contract.
In 2022, Williams helped land the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, filling the gaps left behind by that departing talent.
When Price became sick — he died due to complications from Stage IV cancer in 2023 — Williams was given more responsibility helping lead the defensive ends group.
It was only a few months later Williams got the call up to lead a position group on his own at the Power Five level.
‘Deion Sanders just told me he would hire me’
Williams first met Sanders as a student assistant at Georgia around 2017.
He was helping with the recruitment of Sanders’ sons, Shilo and Shedeur, as well as another player at Trinity Christian School, where Sanders was offensive coordinator at the time.
On one of their visits to Georgia’s campus, Williams drove the boys back from an on-campus party to the hotel they were staying at as part of their visit.
Sanders came down to the lobby, appearing to have just woken up, Williams said, because he’d only slid his shoes halfway on, leaving his heels hanging out the back.
Sanders hugged Williams, thanked him, and then said what ended up being a promise Williams couldn’t quite believe at the time: “Hey, I’m gonna hire you one day.”
“That moment, I kept it to myself,” Williams said. “Even if he had never done it, Deion Sanders just told me he would hire me. So that just kind of made me work 10 times harder.”
It was about five years later when Williams heard from Sanders again via phone call. Sanders asked if he remembered what he’d told him that night in the hotel lobby.
He asked Williams to join him on his inaugural Colorado staff, and Williams joked he’d beat him out there.
At Colorado, Sanders constantly reminded Williams to be unapologetically true to himself and to keep up his constant hard work. He didn’t shy away from Williams’ natural energy.
Williams helped Sanders land the Buffs a Top-30 signing class in 2023. The Buffs had 27 sacks after having fewer than 15 in each of the previous two seasons.
When Williams said goodbye to Sanders at Colorado, the latter hugged him like he had that night years ago in the hotel lobby.
“Hey, I told you,” Williams recalled Sanders saying. “Go do great things.”
A serendipitous encounter
Williams was at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport about to get on one of its trains between concourses when he noticed a man who looked vaguely familiar departing the train.
The Georgia gear he was wearing tipped him off. The man he was looking at was Brown.
Williams had heard about Brown. He had even been told by people that he reminded them of the then-Georgia defensive backs coach. Both are known for their work ethic and recruiting chops.
Each recognized the other at the same time standing face-to-face.
Instead of getting on the train — Williams said he arrives at airports early and typically has lots of time to spare — he walked and talked with Brown for nearly 40 minutes.
Brown told him to keep working and not take anything for granted. He said that someone would always be watching.
When the conversation ended, Williams knew two things: One, Brown was as hard a worker as people had told him. Two, he wanted to work for him.
He added Brown’s name to the list he keeps as a young coach of older peers he wants to work under and alongside. Robinson is on it, too, as Williams expects him to become a head coach someday.
“It’s crazy how you can manifest stuff,” Williams said. “I didn’t have him on my list, and I put him down. ‘I wanna work for Fran Brown one day.’ Because I knew off the conversation, this dude’s gonna be a head coach.”
What Syracuse’s defensive ends unit under Williams will look like, and how successful it will be, won’t come to fruition until the fall.
But just as he did at each of his last stops, he’s already flexed his recruiting prowess.
Williams was integral in coordinating the December official visit weekend that flipped three recruits to the Orange. His relationship with KingJoseph Edwards, one of the top players in the class of 2024, helped sway the defensive end to choose Syracuse.
Similar to Brown, Williams doesn’t necessarily see Syracuse as a jumping off point for another opportunity.
The move has reunited him with Robinson, checked a bucket list item off in working for Brown and has brought his wife and children back close to family in Rochester after years living away from them.
It’s a new chapter. A step forward.
And: “It’s a blessing,” Williams said.
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