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Mack Brown tells story about Ricky Williams’ dreadlocks, Heisman voters and email addresses

On3 imageby: Andrew Graham11/16/22AndrewEdGraham
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Texas tailback Ricky Williams, winner of the 1998 Heisman trophy, poses with US college football's highest honor 12 December at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. Williams ran for 2,124 yards and broke Tony Dorsett's 22-year-old record career rushing record as he led the Longhorns to an 8-3 record and a trip to the Cotton Bowl on 01 January 1999. AFP PHOTO/POOL/Adam NADEL (Photo by ADAM NADEL / AP / AFP) (Photo by ADAM NADEL/AP/AFP via Getty Images)

Few players who have graced college football have been as fascinating a person as Ricky Williams. The former Texas running back was never one to stray from his own path and Mack Brown, his coach at Texas for one season in 1998, offered an anecdote to that end.

Brown had just been hired from North Carolina and Williams, the star running back, had heard that the new coach wouldn’t let him keep wearing his dreadlocks. Brown wasn’t going to outright tell Williams to cut his hair, but he wanted him to consider that it could cost him in the Heisman race — facile consideration or not.

“I said, ‘Well you may not win the Heisman, because there’s a lot of older people that vote. And some of them wouldn’t like dreadlocks,'” Brown remembered saying. “And he said, ‘If they can’t see me as a player and can’t see my heart, I don’t care what they think about my hair. It’s not a hair contest. It’s who’s the best player in college football.'”

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Williams was, of course, right and romped to 2124 rushing yards and 28 total touchdowns — winning the Heisman trophy in 1998. Brown wasn’t worried about Williams play going into the season, but evidently had been left with some impression that Williams wasn’t really concerned about the Heisman.

Brown was fine to be wrong about the dreadlocks, and quickly learned that there was no doubt about Williams’ intentions around the award, either. It was all about an email address — even though Brown didn’t explain the address perfectly in the present day.

“And he was so good, he was right. It was not about hair, it was about who he was as a person. But then one night I did see his email. It was Ricky Williams, heisman.com — so I did know that he had full intention of winning the Heisman.”