Colorado & Denver News

AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans and Associated Press Writer Jeff Carlton in Fort Worth, Texas, contributed to this report.
DENVER (AP) ― Darrent Williams' former coaches and teammates recalled him on Monday as a football player who always strove to improve and who matured during his time at Oklahoma State.

Williams, a cornerback for the NFL's Denver Broncos, died early Monday in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver, just hours after the Broncos' season ended with a loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Up to a dozen bullet holes were visible on the driver's side of the limousine in which the 24-year-old Williams was riding.

Williams played for Oklahoma State from 2001 to 2004, receiving first-team All-Big 12 Conference as a junior. He used his sprinter's speed to return five interceptions for touchdowns in his career -- a Big 12 record -- and as a junior he returned two punts for touchdowns in a game against Louisiana-Lafayette.

His 11 career interceptions rank fifth on the Big 12 chart. He even recorded a rare two-point defensive conversion after a blocked extra-point attempt in a 2002 game against Kansas State.

"He was the greatest player I have coached in my 20 years," said Oklahoma State assistant coach Joe DeForest, who oversees the Cowboys' secondary and special teams. "He wanted to prove to the world that he could play. He had a chip on his shoulder and I mean that in a good way.

"He wanted to prove himself, and that's the way he approached every game. It was what made him a good player."

Williams spent hours in the film room and studied the game, a quality noted by then-OSU coach Les Miles as one of the reasons for Williams' success. On Monday, Miles, now head coach at LSU, called Williams a "very tough, hard-working guy" who made a significant impact for the Cowboys.

"He started as a true freshman at the back end of that (2001) season," Miles said Monday. "Very bright guy, comes from a difficult situation, dealt with city issues his whole life and it's difficult.

"You put yourself in the wrong place and it's always the most tragic when somebody who has all the potential in the world, a very bright man, business student, good (grade point average), a second-round draft pick, made the Denver Broncos, had a really nice start to an NFL career and he's no longer with us. Terrible. It's the wrong story."

Williams' senior season in 2004 was limited to five games by a broken arm he suffered in a win over Iowa State on Oct. 2. After the injury, he returned five weeks later to play one series and record one tackle against Texas, but missed the remainder of the season.

Williams participated on a limited basis in the Cowboys' practices leading up to the 2004 Alamo Bowl, but Miles suspended him from the game because of a violation of team rules.

Before his injury, Williams had been the Cowboys' top punt returner with an average of 27.7 yards on nine returns with one touchdown. The Broncos picked him in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft.

Williams wasn't just flashy on the field. His choice in clothing -- anything from blue pinstripe suits to oversized NFL replica jerseys -- caught the eyes of many on the Oklahoma State campus in Stillwater.

Underneath the flash, though, Williams was maturing during his time with the Cowboys, said Anthony Criss, his coach at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

"When he was younger, he always gravitated to the wrong crowd," Criss said. "I remember he went to church and the minister was talking to him about needing to pray and stop hanging around with the wrong people, and he started straightening up and doing the right thing.

"I visited him his junior year, and he was grown," Criss said. "Everything was, `Yes, sir. No, sir."'

Current Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, then an assistant with the Cowboys, also noticed the change in Williams.

"He obviously was a very good football player," Gundy told television station KWTV in Oklahoma City. "More importantly, he had come a long way in his life, to the point where he was really enjoying himself. It's just disappointing his life was cut short."

Williams is the second current or former member of Oklahoma State's secondary to suffer an untimely death in recent months. Vernon Grant, a three-year starter at safety who played alongside Williams, died in a May 2005 car accident in Dallas.

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