Grambling State University fired coach Doug Williams on Wednesday after the team started out the season 0-2. The Tigers, who were 1-10 last season, lost their first couple of games by a combined total score of 71-19.
The university said it paid Williams for the remainder of his contract, which expires at the end of next season.
“We recognize Doug Williams’ many contributions to our football legacy, and we express our deep appreciation for his service to Grambling State University, and we wish him well in the future,” Grambling State University President Frank Pogue said in a statement.
Williams told the press that Pogue alerted him of his firing when they met in the president’s office Wednesday morning.
“There wasn’t a lot of conversation. I told him, ‘OK,’ and I was gone,” said Williams. The university said the firing occurred because they decided to “move in another direction.”
Williams’ son, D. J. Williams, is a quarterback on the team.
“I know D. J. is emotional, but I told him he has to be strong, and he told me he will,” Doug Williams told The News-Star, a Monroe, La. newspaper. “That’s all I need for him to be strong. If he’s strong, his daddy is going to be all right.”
Williams played at Grambling State before becoming a first-round draft pick for the Buccaneers in 1978. He is, of course, best known as the MVP of Super Bowl XXII, as well as the first African-American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl.
