Doug Williams said yesterday that he did not consider himself ready to apply for the head football coaching job at the Naval Academy after George Chaump's firing Sunday.
Williams came to the academy this season as an assistant coach in charge of running backs and later became quarterback coach.
"It was a great learning experience working for George this year," said Williams, who first met Chaump in 1979 when he was quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chaump was an assistant coach.
"But I don't think I'm a candidate at this time," Williams said. "One year as a college assistant and several years as a head coach in high school won't prepare you enough to be running a major football program."
Williams, the Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl XXII when he led the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos, completed his NFL career in 1989. A native of Zachary, La., he twice applied for the head coaching job at nearby Southern University without success. He now says he believes he needs more experience on his resume.
"Of course, if an opportunity came, I might have other thoughts," he said.
Williams said he does not know if he or any of the other eight assistant coaches will be retained when athletic director Jack Lengyel chooses Chaump's successor. All of the assistants have been assigned recruiting trips this week.
Lengyel said the final decision on who will remain on the staff will be up to the new coach, but added that keeping several of the current assistants would help maintain some continuity in the program.
Williams, assigned to recruit in Virginia, Washington, Louisiana and Chicago, has recognized that recruiting an athlete for a service academy is unlike selling any other college program.
"You have to provide different options," he said. "When you talk to the parents, they want to know what happens when their kid graduates. You have to push the six-year service commitment in a positive way. It's the start of a career, a great job opportunity. Take the average superstar coming out of college. A job in the service is not what's on his mind. You need to reach a special kind of kid."
Williams said Chaump's firing was "like losing a member of our family." It came one day after Navy's third straight loss to Army, which ended a 3-8 season.
Williams began the year as running backs coach, but became coach of the quarterbacks after offensive coordinator Greg Briner was fired after a season-opening 56-14 loss to San Diego State.
Despite optimism in preseason, Navy was never able to establish a ground game. The Midshipmen averaged 87 yards rushing, and junior fullback Monty Williams led the team with a modest 215 yards.
"I honestly thought we'd get more production out of our running backs," said Williams. "But as time progressed, you could see we were far more successful throwing the ball.
"I think that was predicated on last year. You can't go overnight from a passing offense to a rock-'em-sock-'em ground game."
Williams said he enjoyed working with senior quarterback Jim Kubiak, who ended his career with 17 academy passing records, including 568 completions and 6,008 total yards.
"Jim struggled some times and threw some interceptions that hurt us, but overall, he had a heck of a season," Williams said.
"We're losing three key guys in Kubiak, [tight end] Kevin Hickman and [wide-out] Damon Dixon. But we saw the development this year of some good, young receivers in Matt Scornavacchi and Ross Scott. There's some talent here. I'll just have to wait to see if I'll be back next year."
Lengyel said he does not expect to begin interviews until next week.
"I'm seeking background information on several people I have in mind, and then we will screen all the applicants," he said. As of yesterday, none of the assistants had formally applied.