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Ray Brewer
Durango High School football player Marcus Williams bested nearly 1,300 other recruits in early April by recording the highest score at Nike Football SPARQ Combine in Long Beach, Calif.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 | 2:05 a.m.
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The college football recruiting of Durango High rising senior running back and defensive back Marcus Williams could be considered a mystery.
The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Williams bested nearly 1,300 other recruits in early April by recording the highest score at the Nike Football SPARQ Combine in Long Beach, Calif. The SPARQ rating system — which uses times in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuffle, knelling ball toss and vertical jump — is one of the criteria used by college coaches in evaluating recruits. SPARQ is an acronym for speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness.
Williams had the top 40-yard dash time (4.43 seconds) and vertical jump (39.4 inches) to record the highest rating of the day at 128.91 points. The SPARQ tour has continued to other cities, and Williams’ score still ranks as one of the best nationally, even better than those recruits with multiple recruiting stars next to their names on evaluating websites.
Yet, despite all this, Williams surprisingly doesn’t have any scholarship offers. He also has no recruiting stars next to his name on Rivals.com.
That’s primarily because he played just three games last year for Durango after transferring from perennial power Bishop Gorman. He was a reserve as a sophomore at Gorman in 2010, carrying the ball 14 times in four games before leaving the school. Per transfer rules, he had to wait until the fifth week last fall to be eligible.
“It was painful sitting out because I knew I could have helped my team,” said Williams, who also had the second-best 20-yard shuffle time of 4.06 seconds. “But I had to get through and wait my turn. I’m happy here. I love this place.”
Williams has been in contact with schools such as Arizona State, where he unofficially visited last week, and says the general consensus is scholarships won’t be offered until he shows his ability on the field in the opening weeks of the season. If Williams had a complete junior season of game film for coaches to analyze, he likely would have a list of suitors. He’s been in contact with Penn State, Nebraska, UCLA and Arizona, among others.
In seven varsity games in two years, Williams has 313 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 53 attempts. That’s not enough of a sample size for college coaches to see if his combine times translates to Friday nights, or the next level.
“They want (more) game film,” Durango coach Matt Gerber said. “They want me to let them know what I think of the kid. Obviously, with the interactions I’ve had with him, he’s a fantastic kid. His times stand out for themselves. The 4.43 in the 40 is helping him get a lot of attention.
“He has to put it together in the season, though. He didn’t have a lot of opportunity last year and is going to have to have a good senior year. It was certainly a good starting point with the combine.”
Williams rushed for 237 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries last year against Sierra Vista in his best game of the year. He also scored twice against Pahrump Valley and had a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Desert Oasis.
Now, he’ll have to duplicate those efforts to earn a spot at the next level.
“I’m just happy and relieved that I have a full season ahead of me,” Williams said. “I just need to stay relaxed and do what I do best, and that’s play football.”
Williams is doing his part to become a major recruit.
He is part of the Durango track team, works out multiple times each week at Phase One Sports — a training center primarily for high school athletes — and even sent out recruiting tapes to coaches. It’s rare for a prospect with his documented talent to need to send out a recruiting tape, but after transferring from Gorman, where college coaches regularly visited campus, Williams is trying everything to get on the recruiting radar.
Gerber, who became Durango’s next coach last month, plans on showcasing Williams’ talent.
“I would be remiss to say I didn’t know he was here when I applied for the job,” Gerber said. “It was pretty obvious they had some talent over here, and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to come here.”
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.
Good luck to Marcus Williams. He will be found by the college recruiters and the offers will come rolling in.
Marcus is a great young man who is humble in life and a great leader by example. His speed and power are incredible, but mismanagement last season by the former coach really hurt the Trailblazer program. I have been fortunate to know him personally and I can't wait to see him every Friday night on the field. Keep up the hard work and the offers will roll in!
Of course blame the coach. Maybe the young man should of gone to the school he was zoned for in the first place, and he wouldn't of missed out on playing time. Learn to place responsibility on the athlete and the parents.
@GURU - let me be clear on this, the former coach was terrible, not only as a coach, but as a person. He made multiple comments to teenage boys that were so far out of line that if he would have said them to my son on the team, there would have been meetings that got him fired a lot sooner than the end of the season. Marcus was forced to sit out because he transferred from private to public (dont know why he left but sometimes things don't work out) not because of zoning issues. Regardless of him sitting out early in the season, he was way underutilized once he was eligible. He is one of the best athletes in the NATION, yet he doesn't play at every given chance when begging to help the team out on either side of the ball?
I don't want this to become a battle of negative comments under this article because it was meant to highlight the impressive performance of an athlete who is under the radar (for now). His parents have raised an incredibly respectful young man who I cant wait to watch this fall. Expecting big things from him!
SG1... give the man a break. Would you have preffered that it say "Marcus missed part of the season because he transfered from an unamed private school" Would you complain if it said he transfered from Valley? Good lord man fight the battles that need to be fought but this isn't one of them.
This article is about a supremely talented kid who missed a big portion of his junior season and performed like a phenom at the SPARQ rating. It's pretty clear that he went from a school that doesn't fail to get looks from college recruiters to one that is well off the radar. It's plays a big roll in why he probably hasn't gotten any offers. It's not Brewer's fault or Marcus' give it a rest.
Good luck to Marcus and I look forward to catching him in action this fall. Can't wait for the schedules to come out so I can plan my Thursday and Friday nights this fall should be a fairly competative season for the 4A Lite and an entertaining one for the big boys in 5A(-1)
Mytocents you must know this kid because you said it perfectly. This is an incredible young man that is very humble, very respectful and yes a leader by example. Oh yeah,and incredibly talented. I understand there are quite a few more schools that are starting to get involved w recruiting him now that his scores are out there for everyone to see. 4.43 forty is really moving especially for a kid that big.
Ray you do a great job in covering these kids, but get your facts straight. Marcus wasn't a reserve at BG. He was the starting fullback at BG the first 5 games. He transferred after the 5th game. That's why he wasn't eligible until after 5 games last year. He also played I believe some LB and most all special teams. But he was not a reserve. I believe one of the main reasons he left was because they wanted to keep him as a fullback going forward.
Watch out for this Durango team w 3 big backs in Marcus, McQuaig, and Germaine. I thought Gerber was a bad hire but what I'm hearing is he has a lot more fire and energy than he had at green valley, and the kids are happy he's there. So coach Gerber I apologize and I'm happy to see that I was wrong and I wish you and your team much success this coming year.