Cadillac Williams
For the jazz trumpeter also known as Cadillac Williams, see Nelson Williams.
Carnell Lamar "Cadillac" Williams (born April 21, 1982 in Gadsden, Alabama) is an American football running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL and a former running back for the Auburn Tigers.
Collegiate career
Williams came out of high school as a very highly rated and very heavily recruited player. He originally committed to the University of Tennessee but changed when Auburn University football head coach Tommy Tuberville visited Williams personally at his home in Gadsden, Alabama and convinced him to play football at Auburn.
Williams moved on to Auburn University after graduating from Etowah High School in Attalla, Alabama.
He got the nickname 'Cadillac' from a TV sportscaster in Alabama for the style and the way he ran...he was a notch above everyone on the field, and the name stuck." While at Auburn University, he majored in Sociology. When the season started in 2001, he was a true freshman, and the #3 running back on the depth chart, but in the 8th game of the season he had a break-out game against the University of Arkansas and showed his outstanding talent and versatility as a running back.
Williams didn't miss a beat and in the next game, the annual Deep South's Oldest Rivalry game against the University of Georgia, he led Auburn to an exciting victory as he amassed 179 yards on an Auburn record 41 carries in one game, and scored 2 touchdowns one of which was the game winner. Unfortunately for Williams, he was injured early in the bitter in-state rivalry game against the University of Alabama (also known as the Iron Bowl) with a broken collar bone and had to sit out the rest of the season.
Before breaking his collarbone, Williams played in nine games and finished the season with 614 yards on 120 carries (5.1 avg.) and six touchdowns.
The 2002 season started out as a very impressively and promising season for Williams, but unfortunately, it also ended prematurely for him when he broke his lower left fibula against Florida and missed the last six games of the season. He was able to amass 745 yards on 141 attempts (5.3 avg.) and 10 touchdowns in only seven games prior to the injury.
In 2003, Williams was told that he would share the load at the running back position with fellow running back Ronnie Brown after Brown had a stellar season the previous year after picking up the starting role at running back when Williams went down with a broken ankle.
However, when Brown pulled a hamstring early on in the year, he sat out most of the rest of the season, leaving Williams as the sole starting running back. Williams went on to have a sensational season setting an Auburn single-season record with 17 touchdowns, and gaining a career high 1,307 yards on 241 attempts (5.4 avg.).
The 2003 season was an important season for Williams seeing as it showed that he could stay healthy and still excel on the field on his own.
In 2004, Williams decided along with Brown to return for his senior year at Auburn. This turned out to be a wise decision as he, along with quarterback Jason Campbell and fellow running back Ronnie Brown and others, helped lead the Tigers to an SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl winning season with a perfect 13-0 record and finishing a controversial #2 ranking team in the nation behind the University of Southern California (USC).
He led the team in rushing for the third time (excluding the 2002 season when he got hurt and Ronnie Brown started) with 1,165 yards on 239 carries (4.9 avg.) and scored 12 touchdowns. He also finished the season with 1,718 all-purpose yards, the third highest single-season output in Auburn school history.
Some argue that Williams' senior year performance was not as good statistically (4.9 yard rushing average for example, the lowest in his college career) as his others because of poor blocking, while others argue that it was because of all the defenses focusing on him specifically even before the game.
Williams finished his collegiate career with 3,831 yards on 741 attempts (5.2 yards per attempt) and 45 touchdowns, breaking the all-time Auburn career records of most rushing attempts by Joe Cribbs (657), and most touchdowns by Bo Jackson (43), while finishing second in total rushing yards in a career behind Bo Jackson. His career total of 5,033 all-purpose yards also ranks second in school history behind James Brooks.
Williams also has the distinction of earning nine SEC Player of the Week honors in his career, the most in conference history.
Collegiate statistics
Williams evades a would-be tackler at Auburn.
Note: Bold indicates Auburn University school record.
Professional career
2005
Williams entered the 2005 NFL Draft and was drafted with the 5th pick of the 1st round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gruden has set it up, Cadillac or bust".
The first half of the season for Williams was an up and down affair. Williams rushed for 434 yards in his first three weeks, setting records as the first rookie running back to ever have three consecutive 100 yard games, and rushing for the most yards in the first three weeks of a career, a record previously held by Alan Ameche of the 1955 Baltimore Colts now the Indianapolis Colts.
His shoes and gloves from week three were subsequently retired to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In the four games he played since, including the game in which he acquired his injury, Williams only managed to rush for a combined 82 yards on limited carries.
However, in his next four games, he averaged over 100 yards per game (408). He drew 47 votes of a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL.
He beat the likes of former running mate Ronnie Brown of Miami, who received one vote. Tight end Heath Miller of Pittsburgh and offensive lineman Logan Mankins of New England also received one vote.
On February 2, 2006, Williams was announced as the NFL Rookie of the Year Award winner based on the votes of over 1,000,000 visitors to NFL.com.
2006
Williams was unable to match the success of his rookie campaign in the 2006 NFL season as he failed to reach the 1,000 yard mark. Doctors were doubtful he could ever come back to full strength after this devastating injury.
Williams, however, said that he had "no doubt" that he would play in 2008.
2008
By mid-season in 2008, Williams had been practicing with the team and was listed as questionable on the official injury report. By November, he was taken off the PUP list, and added to the active roster.
On November 30 against the Saints, he scored his first touchdown since his return. One month later, however, on December 28, Williams suffered a torn patellar tendon to his left knee in the final week of the season against the Oakland Raiders.
2009
On September 20, Williams got his first receiving touchdown of his professional career.
On December 27 Williams had accomplished the first 100 yard rushing game in the past 2 seasons for the Tampa Bay Bucaneers.