Daily Competition Creates a Strong Bond Between Charles Scott and Keiland Williams
The words “friendly” and “competition” are two words that are often used together, but the phrase rarely means what it says.
In the fast-paced industrial world, competition is laced with animosity. In sports, the passionate drive of athletic struggle typically doesn’t give rise to friendships. In the LSU backfield, however, it’s a different story.
It’s a story with which senior running backs Charles Scott and Keiland Williams are all too familiar. And it’s a story that will continue to unfold as one of the nation’s most talented 1-2 backfield punches enter their final season together in the Purple and Gold.
The much-scrutinized tailback tandem has been showered with comparisons, contrasts and expectations since they arrived in Baton Rouge together as freshmen in 2006, when they joined an already crowded backfield with future NFL backs Justin Vincent and Jacob Hester, as well as fellow recruit Richard Murphy.
Entering camp in ?06, the hype surrounded Williams, a five-star back from Lafayette, La. and arguably the top overall prospect that fall. Scott was also highly recruited with offers from USC and Florida among others, but LSU was his school of choice for a seemingly odd reason.
“I’m a fan of competition,” Scott said. “It wasn’t a big deal for me saying that I’m coming here with two other guys (Williams and Murphy). I felt like it was the best choice because I knew working with so many good backs that it was bound to make me better.”
The tone had been set for the next four seasons and the intertwined stories of Charles Scott and Keiland Williams had begun.
“He started out really good that year,” Williams recalled of Scott’s freshman campaign. “He had two good games, he had that Tulane game where he rushed for a hundred yards and against Mississippi State he had a really good game too.”
Scott was off to a fast start. In fact, with his 101-yard performance against Tulane, he became the quickest true freshman to rush for 100 yards in a game since Kevin Faulk did so in the second game of his career in 1995.
The competition began to seesaw back to even as the season progressed and Williams got more reps and earned the trust of his head coach.
“The game against Fresno State was where I first started getting comfortable in the running game,” Williams said of his 51-yard showing against the Bulldogs. “(LSU) Coach (Les) Miles told me that if I continued to run like that in the bye week that he’d go to me more against Tennessee the week after.”
The bye week proved fruitful for Williams, as he carried the ball 17 times and scored his first touchdown in the 28-24 win over No. 8 Tennessee in Knoxville.
The Scott-Williams seesaw fell back in Williams’ favor after he capped the season with his best game, a 107-yard, two-touchdown performance against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
With Jacob Hester getting the bulk of the carries in 2007, the Scott-Williams discussion subsided. Both retained key roles, but neither emerged. It was like the middle rounds of a heavyweight bout, except the two weren’t fighting one another, in fact, it had never been that way.
“Charles doesn’t determine whether I get on the field or not and I don’t determine whether he gets on the field or not,” Williams explained. “It’s the guys on the other side of the ball that determine that; it’s the guys we go up against every day in practice that decide who gets the carry in certain situations.
“We know our ultimate goal is the same; we both want to get better so we can win games and national championships.”
That is exactly what happened in 2007; they won games, they won the national championship and they got better. With Hester’s departure as the lone senior in the Tigers’ backfield, the starting running back job in 2008 was open with two friends vying for the coveted spot.
Emerging with the title of LSU’s starting running back in 2008 was Scott, whose season-opening performance against Appalachian State was a career day. Scott finished with 160 yards, including a career-long 56-yard scamper, and two touchdowns.
The Saline, La. native never looked back as he finished last season with 1,174 yards, which ranks fifth in LSU history. He also scored 18 touchdowns, the second-highest TD total in school history for a single season. For his efforts, he was named First-Team All-SEC by the coaches and Second-Team All-SEC by the Associated Press.
The Scott-Williams discussion quickly turned into the Charles Scott discussion. After he elected to stay at LSU for his senior season rather than enter the NFL draft, Scott was named to several preseason award lists including the Doak Walker Award, which goes to the nation’s top running back, and the Maxwell Award, which is presented to the nation’s most outstanding player.
With all the hype now focused on Scott heading into 2009, it would be easy for Williams to drift into his friend’s shadow, but that’s not what he intends to do.
He’s too competitive for that.
“Charles deserves all the accolades and the praise that he gets,” Williams said. “He had a tremendous season last year. We both are going after that starting spot. I think I’ve had one of the best camps I’ve had this season so I’m looking forward to taking that progression onto the field.”
Scott acknowledges that the battle for the starting spot is always on-going, and he appreciates Williams’ competitive spirit.
“Even if I play the first snap, it doesn’t matter,” Scott said. “Keiland is always in the mix somewhere. He has a huge role in the backfield. It’s going to continue to be like that.
“It’s great day-to-day when you have a guy who’s just as good as or better than you working right next to you. It brings the best out in both of us.”
Competition is usually depicted as an unfriendly struggle or a war waged between opposing forces, each with their own personal goals in mind. In the LSU backfield, competition is the glue between two champion running backs. It’s the common bond between two friends.
“If I score a touchdown I know it’s going to make Keiland want to do the same thing,” Scott said. “I’m cheering him on and I know he’s cheering me on.”
“When Charles breaks a big run or scores a touchdown, I want to get out there and match it,” Williams said. “But ultimately we want to see each other out there on Saturdays. I enjoy watching him play and I know he feels the same way about me.”
Through three years of comparisons, contrasts, expectations and a little friendly competition, Charles Scott and Keiland Williams have found something that transcends their wins, yardage, touchdowns and championships.
“Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition,” Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens once said. “Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.”