By all logic, Matt Williams should have been in the stands at Jones AT&T Stadium on Nov. 1, 2008. He should have been in the stands waiting for the final second to tick so he could join the mob of students rushing on to the field. Instead, he clung to the Tech sideline with Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree.
“[Beating Texas] was such a rush,” Williams said. “I’m not normally hyper, but after that win, I was jumping around and hopping on guys’ shoulders.”
In the midst of celebration, Williams was back among the same group of students he sat with six weeks earlier to watch the Red Raiders play against the University of Massachusetts. The same group he sat with whenever his name was called to kick in a contest to win a year of free rent back on Sept. 20.
Jumping out of the student section in-between the third and fourth quarters, Williams nailed a 30-yard field goal in front of 55 thousand screaming fans with head coach Mike Leach watching on the sideline.
Concerned that Tech’s other two kickers had missed a combined six PAT’s and 50 percent of their field goals in their first three games, Leach relayed a message to Williams after the game to come to his office and talk about possibly walking onto the team.
Williams accepted Leach’s offer, but he had to decline the year’s worth of free rent.
“It’s not like he warmed up in the stands with a kicking net,” Leach said. “The difference between his and the others is that his got up right away.”
This was not the first time Williams had kicked a field goal under pressure. Williams attended Weatherford High School, just outside of Fort Worth, playing soccer and football.
His biggest moment came as a senior in 2005 when he kicked a 49-yard field goal to tie a game against Mineral Wells as time expired.
Williams transferred to Tech from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, where he walked on to the football team but never kicked in a game. He arrived in Lubbock in fall 2008 planning to be just a student —little did he know.
After winning the contest and practicing with the team, there was a concern that Williams had to sit out the season because he was a transfer student. The NCAA finally let him take the field on Oct. 25 at Kansas.
Kicking nine out of nine extra points, Williams grabbed the national spotlight and was named AT&T All-American Player of the Week. After that, his story was everywhere.
“I never thought I would be on the same list with Harrell, Javon Ringer and Colt McCoy,” Williams said. “The national attention has been crazy but I’ve tried to ignore it.”
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