Donte Williams, the cornerbacks coach at Nebraska for one season under Mike Riley, has a new job.
Williams was hired as the outside linebackers coach at Oregon, the school announced Thursday.
“We are excited to add Donte to the staff,” Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal said in a press release. “His leadership skills and impact on student-athletes will be of great benefit to our program. Donte is an excellent coach and a nationally recognized top recruiter, and we look to forward to utilizing his efforts, knowledge and energy to move our program forward.”
Williams is the third member of Nebraska’s former coaching staff to land a job elsewhere. Riley is now the assistant head coach at Oregon State, and former linebackers coach Trent Bray holds that same position for the Beavers.
Williams began his coaching career at Los Angeles Harbor College in 2007. He then jumped to El Camino College, Mt. San Antonio College, Nevada and Washington from 2008 to 2011. Williams worked three seasons (2013-15) as San Jose State’s secondary coach and recruiting coordinator. He spent one season at Arizona before leaving for Nebraska in December 2016.
Riley said in a press release when Williams was hired that he’d bring “great energy and expertise to our defensive coaching staff.” Riley also called Williams “one of the nation’s top young recruiters and defensive coaches.” In 2015, Williams was named a top-10 recruiter by Sports Illustrated.
Williams was one of Nebraska’s main recruiters for the 12 months he was in Lincoln. Williams was responsible — either directly or indirectly — for the recruitment of four-stars like Tyjon Lindsey, Elijah Blades, Chase Williams, Brendan Radley-Hiles, Mario Goodrich and Jamire Calvin, all of whom were committed to Nebraska at one point. Lindsey was the only one to sign and enroll at Nebraska, though.
As the cornerbacks coach, Williams primarily coached young corners, due in part to the move of Joshua Kalu to safety and an injury to Chris Jones. In 2017 under defensive coordinator Bob Diaco’s scheme, Nebraska’s corners combined for zero interceptions. The Huskers finished the season 11th in the Big Ten in pass defense.
