Cadillac Williams excited for Iron Bowl rivalry, wants revenge for draft day pass by Nick Saban in 2005

Cadillac Williams is making the most of what limited time he may have with the keys to the Auburn program. With the school likely looking to bring in an outsider to take the head coaching reigns for next season, this weekend’s Iron Bowl could be the last game for Cadillac in the driver’s seat. However, a win would flip Auburn onto the other side of the fence, making them bowl eligible, while a loss would end the season, effective immediately.

So a lot on the line for Auburn in their final game despite a season which featured a head coach getting fired. And of course, the Alabama game always means raised stakes for the War Eagle community, regardless that the two programs are experiencing down years.

For Cadillac Williams, the chance to face off across Nick Saban as a head coach is a surreal experience. He remembers like yesterday when Coach Saban recruited him out of high school and then eventually passed on him in the draft, too. But Williams is over those sort of petty grudges.

“Man, I got a lot of respect for the great Nick Saban,” Williams shared following the Western Kentucky win last weekend. “A lot of respect. I mean, he came and sat on my couch in 2001 and I was like…wow. My mom, my dad and me, we were very impressed by Coach Saban. You know, he did pass on me in the 2005 draft and he took Ronnie Brown over me. So that still hurt me a little bit, but I’m over it now.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

Williams went on to explain just how much respect he now holds for Coach Saban and the Alabama program. Although, he says his Tigers won’t back down, even when they’re standing at the gates of Bryant-Denny.

“But now I tip my hat out to him. That says that University I have but I look forward. We are going to play football, Auburn football. And whether that’s Dallas Cowboys, University of Alabama, many kids not gonna blink.”

After they finished celebrating the WKU win, Cadillac says they plan to get right back to work.

“We not thinking we’re gonna flush it. We’re gonna celebrate tonight, we’re gonna flush this apart and we’re going to be on to preparing for the Iron Bowl. And look, here we are excited. We’re excited for this opportunity, you know. We want to send these seniors out. Man, they deserve our best. Like I told them, no guarantees that we’re gonna win. But what we can do, we can look ourselves in the mirror and we can be happy with whatever results happened. So we’re gonna land on the line and see what happens.”

Given Alabama’s erratic play all season long, no reason to think Auburn can’t compete in and win this game. With that sort of personality as head coach, these guys will be hyped for this one.