It came as no surprise that Judson offensive coordinator Rodney Williams was the popular choice to become the Rockets' next head football coach when the job opened in mid-April.
Highly respected by players, Judson administrators and people in the community, Williams fostered a bountiful supply of goodwill with his affable, even-keeled personality for seven seasons on the Rockets' coaching staff.
"He's like a father to us," junior running back De'Anthony Lewis said Thursday. "Before football, he gets your mind right. He cares about you. It makes you want to do right by him."
"Coach Will," as he is called by his players, was named Judson's interim head coach May 7, three weeks after Sean McAuliffe resigned to become head coach at Houston Cypress Ranch.
McAuliffe was promoted and named interim head coach when he succeeded Mark Smith in 2014. McAuliffe, who had been the Rockets' defensive coordinator for two years, went on to head the Judson program for five seasons.
Williams, 45, is the first African American head football coach in Judson's storied history. He will make his head-coaching debut Saturday night when the Rockets open their season against Clear Springs in League City, which is about 25 miles southeast of Houston.
While Williams is quick with a smile, he coaches with a firm hand and puts a high priority on discipline. Williams' players leave no doubt they appreciate his father-like guidance and integrity.
"He comes into your life and teaches you how to become a man, and take care of your family," junior running back/cornerback Trey Brown said. "It's more than football out here."
Brown said Williams is a good role model for all his players. But he quickly added that Williams is an inspiration to the African Americans on the team.
"Seeing him as our head coach makes me feel that anything is possible," Brown said. "It makes me feel that any of us can come do that if we work hard."
Williams "keeps it real," as kids like to say about staying true to honesty.
"I'm going to tell you like it is," Williams said. "I may sugarcoat it a little bit to make you feel good about yourself, but in the end, I'm not playing. Like I tell kids all the time, 'I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this to try to get you something. Take it, and it's probably going to work out for you.'"
To watch Williams work with his players and interact with them off the field is to see a coach whose sphere of influence extends far beyond the field house.
"When I got to Judson and was here for a few years, it was like when you get that feeling that this is where you're supposed to be," he said. "That's what you feel because you've got a lot of kids that need that male figure. Some of them have it but, for the most part, most of our kids, they look at us as fathers.
"I could go in the (locker) room and ask some kids about some stories about a guy my age, an adult male figure in their lives, and it's like, oh, he's in jail or oh, I don't know who he is. It just tears you apart. But you've got to be strong because you don't want them to see you falter. I can't fail them."
Williams has a passion for coaching, but he also relishes his role as a mentor.
"I told a kid yesterday, 'Dude, I really don't care if I win one game,'" Williams said. "'But if I can someway convince you to go to college, go to the military, do something, and you come back 10 years later and you're a productive citizen, I'll take that over any ring.'"
"That's just me. A lot of people, they win at all costs. I'm not winning at all costs because I think if I do right by those guys, they're going to do right on the field. They're going to play for you and winning will take care of itself. That's just how I feel. They know I'm not fake," Williams said.
It's that commitment to coaching beyond the game that made Williams the logical coach to succeed McAuliffe. Judson ISD athletic director Mike Miller was quick to list the traits that made Williams such a strong candidate for the job.
"Leadership, experience, wisdom and great connections with Judson, loyalty, all the things that we try to instill in our students," Miller said. "He doesn't have to do this. He does it because he loves it."
Williams and his wife, Rhonda, own and operate two day-care centers. They have three children, Keely, a sophomore who plays on the Judson softball team; Kaden, an eighth-grader at Corbett Middle School; and Kamryn, who is in kindergarten.
Born in Hallettsville and raised in nearby Flatonia, Williams considered a career in accounting when he started college at St. Mary's, but changed his mind before the end of his freshman year.
"I love numbers, but sitting at a desk all day was not for me," Williams said. "I think I pretty much always wanted to be a coach."
Williams' father, Donald Williams, now retired, was a longtime coach at Texas School for the Deaf and lives in Pflugerville. His mother, Shirley, who worked for the state comptroller's office before retiring, lives in Flatonia. Both of his parents, who are divorced, plan to attend Judson's season opener Saturday.
Flatonia is about 90 miles northeast of San Antonio on Interstate 10.
"My father and mother went to work in Austin when I was a little kid and they wanted me to stay in Flatonia," Williams said. "I was raised by my grandma, my mother's mom and my aunts. What was funny was that my dad's mother lived about a block down the street."
A five-sports athlete at Flatonia High School, Williams played baseball at St. Mary's for four seasons before earning his bachelor's degree in December 1997. One of the first people who called and texted Williams after he landed his first head-coaching job at Judson was St. Mary's Baseball Coach Charlie Migl.
"When we recruited Rodney, we knew right away, just by talking to him the first time, that he was a solid young guy," Migl said. "He took care of business. In the classroom, he did a great job there. On the field, he was humble but he was very competitive.
"Rodney had a big upside and you just knew that whatever he decided to get into, whether it was going to be coaching or something else, he was going to do a really good job and be very successful. For him to get the Judson job, I'm so proud of him, because I think that's the right guy in the right place."
Williams, who later got his master's degree at Texas A&M-Kingsville, started his teaching and coaching career with a one-year stint at Flatonia High School in 1999.
Williams then worked at Dobie Middle School in the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD for two years before going to Clemens High School in 2002. He coached at Clemens until joining Smith's staff at Judson in 2012.
Greg Ferrara was the defensive coordinator at Clemens when Williams joined the school's coaching staff. When Ferrara succeeded Robert Lehnhoff as head coach in 2005, he promoted Williams to offensive coordinator.
"He did a great job," said Ferrara, who is starting his 39th year in coaching. "He was very instrumental in my success at Clemens. He was great with kids and great with families. He can talk to people."
Williams hired Ferrara this summer to coach Judson's defensive line. He had coached the offensive line at Alamo Heights the past five seasons.
Friday Night Football will definitely bring excitement to the Alamo City.