HOW DID I GET HERE?
K’Waun Williams was not heavily recruited in high school, but a Pitt assistant coach believed in him. He made it to the NFL and Sunday he’ll start in the 49ers defensive backfield.
Jeff Hafley’s schedule has been a bit hectic.
On Dec. 16, the former Ohio State co-defensive coordinator was introduced as Boston College’s head coach in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Twelve days later, Hafley coached the Buckeyes in a College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Clemson in Glendale, Ariz. And on Jan. 13, he joined ESPNU’s coaches broadcast of the College Football Playoff title game, airing from Connecticut.
That all seems like a lot. And it is.
But Hafley’s on-the-go docket doesn’t change this week. The former San Francisco 49ers assistant will be in Miami Gardens, Fla., Sunday for Super Bowl LIV, pulling for his old team — and, more specifically, rooting for a player he has watched grow over a decade.
K’Waun Williams was an undeterred Pitt
cornerback from 2010-13. The Paterson, N.J., native started 38 games for the Panthers, played under three head coaches and competed in two different conferences. Williams was undrafted in 2014, was waived by the Cleveland Browns after two seasons and was picked up by San Francisco in 2017.
Now, Williams is a key cog in the 49ers Super Bowl run, thanks in part to Hafley — a Pitt assistant under Dave Wannstedt who unintentionally identified San Francisco’s starting nickelback, then an unranked prospect, 11 years ago.
“Pitt was my only offer,” Williams, 28, said over the phone from San Francisco. “Hafley recruited one of my teammates from high school . ... It just so happens that he saw me on tape.”
Hafley — Pitt’s coach assigned to recruiting New Jersey, his home state — flipped on film of Saint Joseph Regional School in spring 2009. Hafley, who already secured the signature of three-star recruit and Saint Joseph running back Kevin Adams a few months earlier, was breaking down the Panthers’ future back when he noticed Williams.
Hafley turned to since-retired Saint Joseph coach Tony Karcich and asked who No. 5 was. Hafley kept watching film on the 5-foot-9 corner and, like he did with undersized tailback Dion Lewis, called Wannstedt asking for his blessing.
“I found a guy, and you’ve got to trust me on this.”
Wannstedt authorized Hafley to offer a scholarship to Williams, his first real interest from a Football Bowl Subdivision side. Akron had told Williams he could walk on if no other program expressed interest, but that wasn’t necessary. Williams visited Pitt’s campus shortly after the offer — “I knew it was a football town, and I wanted to be a part of it,” Williams said — and committed in July 2009.
“I remember telling Coach Karcich, ‘This kid is going to play in the NFL,’ ” Hafley said. “I loved the way he moved. I love the way he shot his hands at the line of scrimmage. He was so instinctual. And then the more I got to know him, the more I liked him. He was hungry. He had a chip on his shoulder.
“Him and I knew all along that he was going to play in the National Football League, and he was going to have a great career. We both saw it, and we wanted to prove everybody else wrong.”
But, at least initially, Williams’ and Hafley’s time together was cut short. Wannstedt was forced to resign from Pitt after the 2010 season, Williams’ first with the Panthers. Hafley was poached by Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, and Todd Graham brought a new staff to Pitt’s South Side facility in 2011.
Williams was forced to “prove everybody else wrong” without the coach who believed in him to do it in the first place. And to the corner’s credit, he did.
Under the mentorship of defensive backs coach Tony Gibson in 2011, Williams totaled 64 tackles, 6 pass breakups, 5 tackles for a loss, 3 forced fumbles and 1 interception, his first of seven collegiate picks. As a junior in 2012, Paul Chryst’s first year at the helm, Williams added four picks. And in his final year with Pitt in 2013, he led the Panthers with seven pass break-ups.
Williams credited Hafley and Gibson for their help early in his Pitt career and offered thanks to the man who fine-tuned his skills as a senior — former Panthers corner and assistant Hank Poteat.
Poteat, now a defensive backs coach at Toledo, was a first-team All-Big East Conference selection in 1998 and 1999 after leading Pitt in interceptions both seasons. The former Harrisburg High School standout was drafted in the third round of the 2000 NFL draft by the Steelers and spent 10 years in the NFL with five different teams.
Poteat, who finished the 2009 season with the Browns, was contemplating coaching as a career path. So, in 2010, Wannstedt invited Poteat to sit in on meetings for a week and get a feel for the profession. There, he linked up with Hafley.
“He was telling me about this talented, young freshman,” Poteat said. “And it was K’Waun.”
The two met briefly and were later reunited in 2013, when Chryst brought in Poteat after he spent 2011 and 2012 as Kentucky Christian’s defensive backs coach. The connection between Williams and Poteat was, according to the latter, “instant.”
“He really wanted it,” Poteat said. “He wanted to separate himself from the other guys he was up against so that he could live out his childhood dream.”
That dream of playing in the NFL, though, was met with doubt. Not from Williams, but rather the league.
Williams wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. His name wasn’t read among the 256 selections at the 2014 NFL draft. And he wasn’t scooped up right after the draft as a free agent.
Instead, Williams was offered a rookie tryout by the Browns, who featured Hafley as their secondary coach. Hafley was insistent about bringing in Williams, and the former Panthers star didn’t disappoint. By Week 6, Williams supplanted 2014 firstround pick Justin Gilbert in the starting lineup as Cleveland’s nickel corner. He started in 2015, too.
Williams, who was waived by the Browns in August 2016, spent that season away from football, rehabbing an ankle that required preseason surgery. And in 2017 — well, you guessed it — he linked up with Hafley again.
“He gets cut, and I say to [San Francisco general manager] John Lynch, ‘John, we’ve got to get K’Waun,’ ” Hafley said. “I showed him some tape I had on him from Cleveland. He’s blitzing, covering, tackling. And John’s like, ‘Yeah, we need to get this kid.’ ”
“That’s how the league goes, man,” Williams said with a chuckle. “Once they’re familiar with you and know what you’re bringing to the table, they’re comfortable. Those are the kind of guys coaches look for . ... If they appreciate your work, they’ll find you.”
Williams signed a oneyear deal with the 49ers in February 2017. Seven months later — only three games into his San Francisco tenure — the former Pitt Panther inked a three-year extension he has since lived up to.
This year, while Hafley watched from afar at Ohio State and Poteat kept tabs from Toledo, Williams blossomed into one of the NFL’s best nickel corners. Teammate and superstar Richard Sherman lobbied for Williams to be added to the 2019 Pro Bowl ballot in November, which deservingly came to fruition. Williams’ 8.7 yards per reception allowed ranks fifth among the league’s cornerbacks, per Pro Football
Reference, and his four forced fumbles lead the 49ers.
His fourth came two weeks ago in San Francisco’s 37-20 victory against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship. Williams caught Aaron Rodgers off guard with a blitz and forced the ball free. The 49ers didn’t recover, but it was a swarming play indicative of both how San Francisco became the NFL’s No. 1 defense and Williams’ impact on it.
Williams said last week he hasn’t gone out of his way to rewatch or reflect on that strip sack. Maybe he will later but not with the Super Bowl still ahead of him. Not with the Kansas City Chiefs still left to contain, a tall task mind you.
But Williams has faced worse odds.
“If you really broke him down and studied him in high school, he should have been a five-star kid. And if you really broke him down and studied him in college, he should’ve been a high draft pick,” Hafley said. “It’s people’s fault for missing along the way. It’s not his fault. I mean, look what he’s done.
“All the kid needed, like most of us in life, was a chance.”