“Everything Works Out For Kenyon”: Williams caps off Clarke career that was anything but traditional

Often described as the most important position in all of sports, the quarterback on any football team is always, at least, the face of a program.

At Clarke University, an institution that established its football program just five short years ago to play its first season in 2019, it's the quarterback that was never viewed as that face for most of his career that ends up being the face of the program by the end of his fifth season in the navy and gold.

Kenyon Williams, a fifth-year senior from San Diego, Calif., joined the Pride as a true freshman in 2019 out of Kearny High School where he starred for the Komets as their starting quarterback for two and a half seasons.

But his wasn't a story about the California kid growing up and playing quarterback his whole life to be handed the role of "QB1" in high school.

"I played some defensive end but then started to focus on offense first at tight end then moved to wide receiver in middle school and it wasn't until high school our first practice we needed a quarterback," Williams said. "Our coach asked the whole team who could throw, I raised my hand, threw a bomb to one of my friends, and it was actually a good pass so that's when I started playing quarterback."

A theme that will stick throughout his football life, there wasn't a desire to be the star or play the quarterback position in general, the young man just wanted to be on the field.

"I didn't really care what I played, I just wanted to play to be honest," Williams said. "I like having the ball in my hands and quarterback has the ball every play so I figured I could do something with that."

Expecting to play mostly on the freshman and JV teams for most of his first two years at Kearny, Williams got the unexpected call to be the varsity starter to begin his sophomore year and if it weren't for a broken arm halfway through that season, that would have begun a three-year high school career that caught the eyes of the local San Diego high school football scene and some important names that would connect to Pride football.

Williams finished his high school career with 5,387 total passing yards, 67 passing touchdowns, that included back-to-back 2,000-yard passing seasons as a junior and senior while adding 459 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.

The move to quarterback in high school was a bit of a surprise to then future Clarke teammate and now former youth and high school teammate Xavier Tate who knew Williams originally when they were in sixth grade, both playing receiver, before reuniting for their senior year of high school as teammates at Kearny.

"When I first met him he was playing receiver and tight end then our freshman year of high school I saw him post a highlight with a three-step drop so I was like 'woah, okay, cool'," Tate said. "He ends up on varsity as a sophomore, has one of the greatest years as a sophomore in San Diego before he got hurt. I remember one of our news outlets had him on their report every week and he continued that on throughout his high school career, when I would eventually get to join him our senior year."

Working with Tate and a handful of others, Williams would finish his senior year with the best stats of his high school career with 2,506 yards in the air on 58.6 percent completion and 33 touchdown passes but maybe the most important part of that year was an extra connection he made with a coach that came to work for Kearny that season.

Former Clarke head coach Miguel Regalado used connections of former players to help recruit the early classes for Pride football as Williams was able to get connected through his coach, who played for Regalado at Baker University.

"A former player of mine from Baker told me all about this kid that has a big arm and is very talented athletically," Regalado said. "We got Kenyon and his mother on a visit, and you could immediately tell he had a good head on his shoulders and was raised by his mother to be a competitor and always give his very best in everything he does."

"My 7-on-7 coach came to my high school for my senior year," Williams said. "He used to play for Coach Regalado at Baker and speaking to him about Coach Regalado and Clarke starting their program he emphasized how good of a coach he was, so I took a visit."

That visit and a greater understanding of the options in front of him to continue his football journey sealed the deal for Williams to sign his letter of intent to join the Pride football class of 2019.

Fast forward to his arrival to Dubuque, Iowa, before any college athlete steps foot on the field, court, or any other type of playing surface, they do the same thing as every other first year college student, they move into their residence hall and meet their, likely, stranger roommate for the first time.

For Williams, that roommate was defensive lineman Trey Hayes from the opposite end of the country in Saint Cloud, Fla. as the distance between where they grew up, didn't stop the soon-to-be teammates from connecting early and bonding over their similarities.

"Once we got here, we just clicked as roommates, hanging out a lot and he was really the only person I would talk to," Hayes said. "We knew we were from opposite ends of the map, but we still had plenty of similarities and that we went through a lot of the same stuff growing up."

Another connection made that would help create a tight circle of friends would be one of Williams' future receiving targets and current Coordinator of Campus Activities and Leadership Anthony King who would spend a lot of time off the field with Williams and Hayes but was also able to get an early evaluation on what Williams would provide the Pride on the field.

"Our freshman year, we had a freshman camp, and he was our top quarterback for the freshman group so we would spend a lot of time hanging out, going over plays, getting to know each other," King said.

That freshman year would begin the stretch of five-straight seasons where the kid with the big arm and athletic talent, as Regalado described him, would open the season not as Clarke's "QB1" first to another California guy and Los Medanos Community College transfer Tim Evitt, who was named the starting quarterback for the Pride's inaugural season.

Evitt would start the first two games for CU, but suffer an injury in the team's second game, thrusting the true freshman, then wearing jersey number 14 behind center for Clarke to official begin what would be a repetitive cycle for Williams.

Opening the program's history with six-straight losses, a home game against Peru State College would see Williams and the Pride get their first win by a 18-17 final but the very next game, on the road at Graceland University saw the first instance of what would be his highlight trait, his mindset.

"That year, we would have some bad games," King said, "and he wouldn't be overly down on himself, wouldn't be down on us if we dropped a ball or ran wrong routes, he's just an uplifting guy that wants to win and whatever role that he's in, he's going to do whatever it takes."

Over the five years, more has been said about the steady nature in which Williams operates on the field, never getting too high or too low and it was needed in that game against the Yellowjackets with under 10 seconds remaining and the Pride down 23-22 on the two yard line and without much of a kicking game in that first season.

Williams was able to hit receiver Riley Langford for the game-winning touchdown for what would end up being a comeback from down 23-8 at halftime for their first double-digit comeback in the early stages of the program.

"We ran a slant and I just told myself 'all I have to do is throw the ball' it was a pass I throw every single day at practice," Williams said, "it's a pass I know how to throw so I just had to throw it."

Playing in all 11 games in his freshman season, Williams would finish with over 1,000 passing yards but more interceptions than touchdowns as heading into the 2020 season, which as we all know had its own set of complications off the field, the presumption was that the reigns of the quarterback position would either be handed back to a healthy Evitt or to a transfer quarterback who was originally recruited to Baker by Regalado, Brandon Mueller.

Fully accepting of spending the 2020 season on the sideline to maintain three years of remaining eligibility, Williams would watch CU only manage to play five games through the restrictions that the COVID-19 pandemic would provide but Mueller broke out as someone considered to be able to take Clarke football quickly to new heights of competitiveness, helping lead the Pride to two wins out of those five games.

With roles in the quarterback room fully established for the 2021 season, it would be déjà vu all over again for Williams and the Pride as this time it would be Mueller suffering an injury in the first game of the season, signaling for the now junior quarterback wearing his familiar number five jersey to become the starter once again.

A theme within the quarterback room, Mueller would have to accept his role of being on the sideline for the remainder of the season. But instead of doing it from a distance, with his head down, disappointed at not being able to play, he attacked the opportunity to act as another coach for Williams, continuously in his ear during practice, film study, and game days.

"2021 was a difficult year," Mueller said. "With everything that happened on and off the field, we all worked really hard together on the field and in the film room to make each other better and that was probably the year that brought us all together in our room, Kenyon, Malik [Inabinette], and I. I think Kenyon has that mindset about moving forward, always about that next step, never a regretful mindset about what he could have done and that surprised me the most about him because he's a little younger than me, so I didn't expect that from someone his age."

Finishing with a better statistical year as his freshman season, again playing in all 11 games, Williams couldnt boost the Pride to improvements in the win column as they suffered their worst season of their first five at 1-10 on the year.

"It was depressing to go through that season," Williams said. "Things were not going how I wanted them to at all, I never wanted to give up though. Every week and every play, I felt like I have to do something to change our momentum around and get things going because we had the talent, we just weren't putting up the numbers, especially when our defense was playing well."

With Mueller back and healthy for 2022, it was rinse and repeat for Williams, back to his backup role but his services would be required fairly quickly into the season again but in more of a short-term solution.

In 2022's second game of the year against Missouri Valley College for their home opener, the Pride would find themselves trailing 30-25 with five minutes left on the clock. Mueller would drive the offense down to the 10 yard line but suffer a minor leg injury, forcing him out for at least a play, and who else would be ready to get his number called but Williams.

In the only snap he took in the entire game, Williams would receive a shotgun snap, scramble to his right and find Jayden Wyer open in the end zone for the game-winning strike for a 31-30 victory.

"During that game, I kept telling myself that the team was going to need me, that there was going to be something that happened where they were going to need me," Williams said. "Almost like I manifested it but when I was going in, I had to calm myself down, control my breathing. So again, I had a moment to tell myself, all I have to do is throw the ball. I ended up looking the wrong way at the snap but there was a defender in my face, so I ran, saw Jayden so I just threw it, I just did my job."

This isn't a hindsight, LeBron James-esque, "I knew it all along" type quote as King recalled a conversation between he and Williams pregame to provide further proof.

"He pretty much told me before the game, 'King I feel like I'm going to make a play today,' and then he ends up having to make the game-winning play," King said. "He's always believed in himself, no matter what, no matter who the starter was. Every single time you see him in practice, or you see him in the game, he's going to prepare himself like he's the starter and I think that's a great mentality that regardless of what's going to happen, he's still going to believe in himself and nobody's going to knock his confidence."

2022 would be the season that saw Williams have the least amount of field time of his career, not including 2020, as Mueller would maintain health to play most of the season and win a program-high three games in the first half of the season. Williams would make spot appearances off the bench when needed but unfortunately suffered a season-ending concussion against William Penn in the second-to-last game of the season.

Then finally, going into his fifth and final season of eligibility, Williams would mirror the Pride football program in a handful of ways but mostly, seeing the most change they would face since before the program even started and for Williams, prior to his high school days.

With the departure of Regalado, Adam Hicks would receive the promotion from defensive coordinator to head coach as Hicks would have the quarterback decision made fairly easy in his first season with Williams deciding to move back to the familiar position of wide receiver in the spring of 2023.

Along with Hicks moving into the head coach role, a new offensive play caller would need to be brought on board. Enter Bill Lang who had worked with Hicks at a previous stop in their coaching career, and knew he had plenty of experience at the quarterback position to work with but also some adjustments to understand.

"I knew coming in that we were going to have someone with experience, which is always good to have at that position, it's one of the things that you can't have until you have," Lang said. "When I got here, I was told that the backup quarterback would be playing wide receiver, so I figured he was a good athlete, and we'll see what he's got out there. Throughout the spring he was hitting big catches left and right so then to me, he proved it, he was going to play receiver and be our number one wide receiver and we're ready to go."

Along with different on-field responsibilities, Williams would join some of his teammates with some new off-field responsibilities as Hicks would establish a leadership council for a group of student-athletes on the Pride football team to be an extension of the coaching staff within the large locker room that is a college football program.

"We started the leadership council when I took over as head coach, it was one of the first things I wanted to do when I took over," Hicks said. "Kenyon was one of the top five names that came up that was going to be in that group. He's not as outspoken as others but he carries weight in the locker room with the way he conducts himself, you never have to worry about him being late, missing anything, and he's always going to have a great attitude, and that's infectious."

Now here we are, the 2023 season, and just like the San Francisco Giants in the 2010s, winning World Series titles every other year, the fifth year for Williams would look a lot like years one and three as Mueller would again suffer an unfortunate injury in the Pride's opener, forcing Williams to spend only one half of one game at the receiver position that he had moved to in the offseason to end up as the starting quarterback for the next four games before Mueller would return on Sept. 30.

This time, a performance-based decision would have to be made by the coaching staff following the bye week as eventually the job was turned back to Williams as the team's "QB1" a spot that was earned based off of something that isn't exactly Xs and Os or stats related.

"I don't know what it is about him and the team," Lang said, "but whenever he's at quarterback and smiling, everybody's got an attitude like we're going to move the ball, everybody's feeding off of his energy like we're going to go do something when he's in at quarterback, that's what sets him apart and elevates him. He just wants to play and go win, his last ride, he has nothing holding him back, so he just goes out and has fun and it's like watching back yard football."

"Our main factor in the decision was the productivity of the offense," Hicks said. "When Kenyon was at quarterback, his demeanor, his preparation, his even-keeled attitude, I think our guys respond to that and you can see they play hard for him when he's out there and our offense was just clicking with him at quarterback."

His coaches point to the vibe he creates with his attitude and mentality as to what put him as the true starter this season, not by injury, but by merit. The Pride have once again won a program-high three games this season as Williams has put up his best yardage season as a college quarterback at, 1,439 with one game remaining in his career.

"We always joked as a staff that everything always works out for Kenyon," Regalado said. "He has an aura about him that projects to everyone around him. He has an incredible ability at such a young age to be able to shut out the noise and only focus on things that are in his control. Kenyon just makes sure he's always prepared, a great teammate, and everything else will work itself out."

Perhaps this development at the very end of his career is due to an outside force similar to karma, rewarding a young man who never put his head down, never considered transferring away from Clarke to a school that could have guaranteed a starting role, who went as far as to change his position away from the most popular position in the country just to do his job and try to help the Clarke Pride football team try and win games, in any way he possibly could.

"I never had resentment or hard feeling about being a backup because I played a lot and I knew I was talented enough to be on the field but our quarterback situation in my early time at Clarke didn't allow me to change positions and risk not having enough quarterbacks," Williams said. "People always voice their opinions about who should play or who should do what but there will always be those types of situations, nobody's perfect. Adversity is something that I'm not afraid of. I feel like it helps you grow as a player and it helps you prepare for more adversity because you can't run from it, you just have to put up with it and try your best."

"I'm proud of the kid, I love seeing him play," Mueller said. "This year, specifically, I've been telling everyone that I love watching Kenyon play, no matter what position he's playing, I love seeing him play. He tells me all the time that I'm a big reason why he's been as good as he is right now and continues to get better and I tell him that he's had all of that and I'm always here to help guide him to do that and I'm always here to watch him do that because I love watching that kid play, it's a lot of fun for me."

"It makes my job a lot easier when we have him in a position of leadership who has the ear of everybody else, willing to get everyone on the same page and also has a calm, cool, collected mentality," Lang said.

On Saturday he'll put on the shoulder pads and helmet one more time as the impact he's made on the program goes beyond the on-field performance, especially to his teammates and his head coach.

"The more guys that we can get into our program like Kenyon will be beneficial," Hicks said "I'm glad he's on our team."

"I think Kenyon is the epitome of how every player in this program should be," King said. "He's a person that believes in himself, but he doesn't need to go and tell people, sometimes you can just feel it and that's the type of person he is. He just likes to live his life in a positive way, he never lets things get him down, and he's just a really cool guy to be around, people just naturally gravitate to him."

"Kenyon does what he does, he goes in and does his job, that's all he says, any big play he makes, his favorite thing to say is 'I'm just doing my job' and I find that so cool," Tate said. "He's definitely someone you look up to when you're thinking of what the Clarke football player should be. He means everything to this team, everybody loves Five, without him a lot of things just don't happen, period, point blank. I've asked him if I can wear five when he leaves because I think it only makes sense for a San Diego kid to wear five, that's the kind of impact I feel he's had. By the time I'm done with my career at Clarke, I hope I'm remotely close to what he's done here."

"That's my best friend, he's always going to be my best friend," Hayes said. "We've grown really close over these past five years that we've been here, I know his whole family, he knows my whole family. We don't know what we're exactly going to do after school, we don't know where we're going to end up. My relationship with him has meant a lot to me, I've learned a lot from him, that dude has helped me a lot in this process, and I don't know if I would have even stayed here if it wasn't for Kenyon being here."

Take a bow Kenyon Williams, "Five", "QB1", your impact on the Clarke football program is exactly what you wanted it to be.

"I know every game I can say I tried my best and I just wanted to be there for the team and be a great teammate overall," Williams said. "I just want to make this team the best team it can be every time we play. I want Clarke football to be successful in Dubuque and just help the NAIA get more recognition. I feel like I was able to develop into a better man here at Clarke. I wouldn't choose anywhere else to go because this was meant for me."