Williams looks to continue revival of storied Pine Bluff football program
BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON
It was a tough decision for successful Texas high school football coach Michael Willians to leave the Lone Star State, but it was the right time and most certainly the right place.
Former Pine Bluff star Williams came back to his native Arkansas to take over the Zebras in 2022 and will enter his fourth season at the helm this fall.
That was after stints at Texas high schools W.T. White, Duncanville and Wylie East.
“It was indeed tough for me to leave Texas because the job that I had – it wasn’t that I had to leave, didn’t get pushed out or anything – and I could have continued to work my way up the ranks.
“…But the pull to come back and pour back into my community was one that I just couldn’t pass up.
“And another thing is Pine Bluff is just a Zebra town. Right now it is not a big UAPB town like it used to be, but I think it is going to come back back.
“Pine Bluff is a town that really supports its high school and I also get to see my family – I’d only get to see my mom and dad two or three times a year – a lot more than I did in Texas.
“My mom – class of 1979 – is the biggest Zebra fan that you would ever meet. If you hear anybody yelling in the stands and ringing a cowbell, it is probably my mom.
“That is always a great feeling to hear every time we are on the sidelines.”
Williams was named Hooten’s Arkansas Football’s sophomore of the year in Arkansas in 1999 and rushed for 2,700 yards in his last two prep seasons.
Williams graduated from Paul Quinn with a degree in biology and worked as a certified nursing assistant and industry chemist before deciding to pursue coaching.
He took over a Pine Bluff program that is the state’s second winningest of all time with 23 state titles and also boasts two national championships in 1925 and 1939.
“For my kids and wife (Lashanda) to be able to come to the game where I played and see how much the community bonds together on a Friday night,” Williams said, well, it is a feeling that you just can’t put into words.”
Williams had a youthful team that went 4-6 in 2024, a season after leading the Zebras to a 10-3 mark back in 2023.
That group included new Arkansas wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield and was Pine Bluff’s most wins in a season since the 2015 state championship team that went 13-0 to claim back-to-back state championships.
The Zebras did not have a winning record between 2017-2021 before Williams took after Rod Stinson left to become the associate head coach at Marion.
“We had that 10-win season, won the conference championship, made it to the semifinals and lost in the last part of the game, but it was still a huge success for us to build that pride back,” noted Williams, 19-16 so far in his return to Pine Bluff.
“But we did lose a whole lot that year and it was just trying to makeshift a team and trying to build the culture back with people that had never played before.
“The program at the beginning of the season looked a lot different than it did at the end of the season.
“We won 3 of 4 at the end for the year and beat our rivals. If we could have just had one more game and pushed into the playoffs with our (ninth grade) quarterback finally getting to play after having never played it and finally understanding the system.
“That would have been awesome to have that one more game, but since we didn’t, it still didn’t matter because we still built as the season went on.
“Also our middle schools have been doing well of the last couple of year so we are have some talent coming.”
Pine Bluff returns five starters on both sides off the football with receivers Quinton Roy and Rayshon Reed and defensive lineman Emmanuel Hudson all have college scholarship offers.
“We are still going to be young this year, gong to play a lot of sophomores and even a couple of ninth graders, but I feel we are going to make a push for the second or third round of the playoffs this year.”
Pine Bluff has spent the spring and summer getting in a lot of 7-on-7 work, in part to get sophomore quarterback Jamar Morrow some work.
“Morrow is going to be something special for our program,” Williams said. “He has a cannon for an arm.
“We have a lot of other young guys that are going to be special. We have some guys that are going to make a push for some big-time recruiting in the next couple of years.
“We went to Arkansas and went 5-1 and lost in the semifinals in overtime…We also went to Memphis and also did a good job in Shootout of the South.
“There was also a Bryant team camp that we went to and competed in right before the dead period began (in late June).
“We did a good job against Bryant, North Little Rock, Conway – all of the big guns. We are looking forward to the season.”
The 2025 season will begin with a trio of road games at Grenada (Miss.), Dallas Kimball on Sept. 6 and in-state foe Camden Fairview on Sept. 12.
“Our schedule is very tough and I like to scheduled tough non-conference games just for the fact that they can see different competition,” Williams said.
“Our guys sometimes think about being only the best in our state and I try to tell them there is so much more football outside of Arkansas.
“I tell them ‘we want to the best the nation and I want you to see other kids and how you match up with them.’
‘“Of course playing a tough Camden Fairview team, who really put it on us last year, and expecting them to still have a good skill group this time, makes our non-conference schedule against so tough again this season.”
Photo courtesy of Pine Bluff athletics
