RAIDERS TWICE AS DANGEROUS : Allen Was Enough of a Threat, but Now There’s Williams, Too

It’s back to San Diego for former hometown favorites Dokie Williams and Marcus Allen, who were archrivals twice over before uniting under the banner of black and silver in the never-ending quest for truth, domination and the Raider way.

Their stories are well known, even if one of them is somewhat better known than the other.

Allen went to USC, shattered the NCAA’s single-season rushing record, won the Heisman Trophy, became a No. 1 draft choice and an NFL star.

Williams went to UCLA, where he became an ace triple jumper. He also played a little wide receiver. From a publicity standpoint, he had sailed off the end of the earth.

But the fat lady hadn’t been heard from. Three seasons after the Raiders made him a surprise No. 5 draft choice, Williams has donned the mantle of Art Powell, Warren Wells and Cliff Branch, their latest nominee to strike fear into opponents’ hearts.

Even after a quiet afternoon in Seattle, where the cornerbacks started backpedaling when he got off the bus, he has 32 catches for 632 yards, tied for fourth in the AFC, and a 19.8 average, third in the AFC. Fearwise, that isn’t bad.

In their junior season, Williams, an El Camino Wildcat, was San Diego prep athlete of the year.

El Camino won the 2-A football championship. Lincoln lost before they could meet.

In their senior season, Allen, a Lincoln Hornet, was prep athlete of the year.

Lincoln won the 2-A title. El Camino lost before they could meet.

Williams and Allen would come together for one of those group pictures of prep all-stars. They’d be introduced, say hello and look each other over.

Allen said: “In high school, you always think you’re the best. You always kind of wonder, ‘Who is this guy?’ ”

Williams said: “If our schools had played, it would have been bitter, no doubt about it, school to school, person to person, fan to fan. Our schools were pretty dominant down there. They were more of an inner city school. We were barely in the county. We were kind of the bad guys from the north.”

Said Allen, laughing: “Rivalry? We never even played!

“Dokie and those guys played a lot of private schools with little enrollments. They played eight-man football. We would have torn them up. You’d have never heard of Dokie Williams if they’d been in our division.”

Bigger things awaited them, although not gigantic things.

Allen went to USC, which wanted him to be a defensive back.

Williams chose UCLA, which wanted him as a wide receiver. Since Terry Donahue was then in his ground-oriented phase, wide receiver was not one of the hottest spots.

It didn’t get much hotter. As a triple jumper, Williams won a Pacific 10 title and went to the Olympic trials. As a football player, he was used rarely--”Every five games or so”--and told to go long.

“The passes all went to the starters, Cormac (Carney) and JoJo (Townsell),” Williams said. “They’d be on one side. I’d always be one-on-one on the backside. The coaches would call the play, and Tom Ramsey would come to the line of scrimmage and audible it to me. That’s how I got eight passes.”

Donahue denies that he kept Williams out for choosing track over spring practice. He and Williams have since smoothed things over.

“The last time I saw him, we sat down and talked about the situation,” Williams said. “I don’t have any bad feelings about it. The way I look at it, things could have turned out a lot worse.”

The Raiders look at it that way, too. They got him with a No. 5 pick.

Said Allen, drafted the same day, as the 10th pick in the first round: “Dokie is like me. If they thought he was any good, he’d have been somewhere else.”

Williams walked into his first minicamp in 1983, with his big round eyes and his shy, boyish manner. Branch took charge of him from the beginning.

“Sure did notice him,” Branch said. “He was lockering next to me. I took him under my wing, the way Fred Biletnikoff did to me when I was a rookie. I figured this was a young receiver I could work with.

“I saw he had real good quickness. And he had that extra gear to get the ball. That’s what you look for in a home run threat. I told him right away he was going to make the ballclub. He was down on himself at the time.”

Williams said: “He told me that, but I didn’t believe him. I really didn’t know what to expect. I think probably the scariest thing was what the off-field attitude of the veterans toward the rookies was going to be. It was exactly the opposite of what I expected.”

Of course, some rookies are easier to like than others. Williams was duck soup. Williams is so likable that today’s rookies agitate him, rather than the other way around.

“Post pattern?” said Reggie McKenzie, a rookie linebacker and a No. 10 draft choice at that, joining Williams’ interview. “You don’t even know what a post pattern is.”

“Come out early,” Williams said, straining to sound menacing. “I’ll show you what it is.”

He played little as a rookie, but a little more last season when Branch was injured. Williams caught 22 passes for a 23.1-yard average, and after that, he was clearly ticketed for the starting lineup. When he made it, it became clear he was ticketed for more than that.

Now he just has to keep going, like any young gunfighter.

“That’s exactly it,” Williams said. “It’s kind of like, once you start to do it, everyone looks for it. I don’t know if I’m getting more coverage, but I’m getting a different type of coverage. I think all the defensive backs are concerned about the deep ball. That’s the first thing they want to take away.

“At the beginning of the season, it was a challenge situation. You have to prove yourself. Nobody is going to give you anything because of something somebody wrote on a piece of paper. It’s a show-me situation.

“But it’s a good feeling sometimes. You come up to the line of scrimmage and you see the defensive backs 10-11 yards off you and backpedaling as soon as the ball is snapped.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re fast,” said McKenzie, joining in once more. “There’s something wrong with their ankles.”

To make his point, McKenzie sat down on top of Williams.

“Rookies,” snorted Williams.

His teammates think he’s only warming up.

Lester Hayes said: “The story on Dokie Williams? I’ve dissected Dokie Williams.

“A fact that opposing defensive backs don’t know about Dokie is that he’s left-handed. From a defensive back’s standpoint, he’s used to seeing things from a right angle.

“I think, in time, Dokie will be one of the best receivers in the NFL because he does everything well. Dokie runs short patterns well. And everything off the short patterns is setting you up for the inevitable goal.”

So be it.

Branch said: “Take away his last game and he’s having a Pro Bowl season. If he keeps progressing the way he has, he’ll have a 1,000-yard season. (Branch, who has played in four Pro Bowls, has had two of those in 13 seasons.) If he does that, he should be one of the four receivers selected.”

Williams, asked about that, could have died of embarrassment.

“‘I don’t even think about that,” he said. “The only thing on my mind is next week’s game. There are an awful lot of good receivers in this league, as you know.

“I think every receiver would want to reach that status at one point. That’s my only comment on that.”

He’s not a long way from that point right now. There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Dokie Williams.