Cadillac Williams is an American football coach who used to play running back in the National Football League (NFL). Williams is the first African American to ever hold the position of Interim Head Coach for the Auburn Tigers football team. Williams won the NFL Rookie of the Year award for offense in 2005.
Early Years
Carnell Lamar “Cadillac” Williams was born in Gadsden, Alabama, on April 21, 1982. Williams went to Auburn University after he finished high school in Attalla, Alabama, at Etowah High School. A TV sportscaster in Alabama gave him the name “Cadillac” because of his style and the way he ran.
He was better than everyone else on the field, so the name stuck. He was the third running back on the depth chart as a true freshman in 2001. In the eighth game of the season, against the University of Arkansas, he had a big game and showed how good he was as a running back and how many different things he could do. Williams was made the starting running back after he ran for 177 yards in a 42–17 loss to Arkansas.
In the next game, which was the annual Deep South's Oldest Rivalry against the University of Georgia, he led Auburn to a 24–17 win. He ran 41 times for 167 yards, caught four passes for 71 yards, and scored two touchdowns, one of which was the game-winning score. That record stood until Tre Mason ran 46 times for 304 yards against Missouri in the 2013 SEC Championship Game.
Williams broke his collar bone early on in the bitter rivalry game against the University of Alabama, also known as the “Iron Bowl.” He had to miss the rest of the season because of this. Williams played in nine games as a freshman. He ran the ball 120 times for 614 yards (5.1 yards per carry) and scored six touchdowns.
What is Cadillac Williams's Net Worth?
As of November 2022, Cadillac Williams Has an Estimated Net Worth of $8 Million (Source: Celebrity Net Worth). He has made a lot of money from his main job, which is playing American football. After being chosen, he signed a $31 million deal with Tampa Bay for five years.
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Career
Williams was picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the fifth pick of the first round in the 2005 NFL Draft. He signed a five-year contract, while other running backs who were drafted before him, like his former Auburn University teammate Ronnie Brown, who was picked second by the Miami Dolphins, and Cedric Benson, who was picked fourth by the Chicago Bears, held out of training camp to try to get much better deals.
Jeff Reynolds of Pro Football Weekly said that Williams would be the rookie in the NFL 2005 season most likely to make a big difference “Jon Gruden couldn't get enough of this kid at the Senior Bowl. He took him out of school very early. Don't think that was just a random thing. He's the bad guy. Gruden has made it clear: it's Cadillac or bust “.
Williams's first half of the season was full of ups and downs. Williams ran for 434 yards in his first three games. He was the first rookie running back to ever have three straight 100-yard games, and he ran for the most yards in a career's first three games, breaking a record set by Alan Ameche of the Baltimore Colts in 1955.
Williams was also named rookie of the month for September and rookie of the week for the first three weeks of the season. After week three, his shoes and gloves were put in the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. But in week four, Williams hurt his ankle and the arch of his right foot, which kept him out for two weeks.
Williams only ran for a total of 82 yards in the next four games he played, including the game in which he got hurt. He averaged over 100 yards per game in his next four games (408). Williams had six 100-yard games in 14 starts as a rookie. He led all rookies in total rushing yards (1,178), earned three rookies of the week awards, and was second in rushing touchdowns, behind Brandon Jacobs (6).
The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award was given to Williams on January 4, 2006. A group of 50 sports writers and TV hosts from all over the country who cover the NFL gave him 47 votes. His old running mate, Ronnie Brown of Miami, only got one vote, so he beat him.
Heath Miller, a tight end for Pittsburgh, and Logan Mankins, an offensive lineman for New England, each got one vote as well. Williams was named the NFL Rookie of the Year on February 2, 2006, based on the votes of over 1,000,000 people who went to NFL.com.
Williams didn't get to 1,000 yards during the 2006 NFL season, so he couldn't repeat the success of his first year. He didn't do as well because his offensive line wasn't very good and he was hurt all year.
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St. Louis Rams
Williams joined the St. Louis Rams on August 3, 2011, to back up Steven Jackson. Williams ran 19 times for 91 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles in the first game of the 2011 regular season. Williams ran well for St. Louis all season, even though he was mostly just a backup. He ran for 361 yards and averaged 4.1 yards per carry by the end of the year. He also ran for a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the last game of the season.
Coaching Career
During the 2016 season, Williams was a graduate assistant on offense at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. Later, Williams was the running backs coach for IMG White, a new football team at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
In 2018, Williams joined the Alliance of American Football's Birmingham Iron as the running backs coach. On January 23, 2019, Gus Malzahn hired him as the running backs coach at Auburn. Auburn fired Malzahn after the 2020 season, but Williams stayed on as the running backs coach under the new head coach, Bryan Harsin. Auburn fired Harsin on October 31, 2022, and made Williams the interim head coach.
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Personal Life
Cadillac Williams is married to Evan Christina Davis. She works at Teach for America as a Human Assets Business Partner. Essence says that Williams and Evan Christina met three weeks into their first year at Auburn University in Alabama in the fall of 2001.
Williams came up to Evan Christian as he was studying for an English test. Soon after that, they went out for pizza, and the rest is history. Since then, they've been together.
The couple faced problems along the way, especially when Evan Christina moved to Houston to teach and Williams was drafted by Tampa.
But they made it work, and after nine years, Williams proposed to her on a romantic dinner cruise along the Florida coast on New Year's Eve. They got married in Decatur, GA, on July 2, 2011.
Cole, their first child, was born in 2014, not long before Williams went back to Auburn to finish his sociology degree.