This is the tenth and final feature of a series leading into fall camp focusing on the new Panther football coaching staff.

A funny thing happened on the way to pursuing his courtroom dreams: J.D. Williams fell into football and has yet to pull away.

Williams attended Fresno State in the late 1980s, studying criminology. He originally walked on with the football team under coach Jim Sweeney. Determination and grit put him in the right places at the right times and he eventually earned a scholarship before his junior season.

That scholarship money was paving the way toward his ultimate goal: attending law school. It was always the path he wanted to pursue as he saw himself as an attorney someday. He finished his degree, but then his hard work forced him to take the opportunity in front of him.

“Football just got in the way,” he said with a chuckle.

So he rolled with it. A 5-foot-10, 185-pound defensive back for the Bulldogs, Williams worked his way up to become a first-round selection in the 1990 NFL Draft. He was taken as the 16th overall pick by the 9-7 Buffalo Bills, marking a long move away from his California roots. Still, it was more of being in the right place at the right time.

J.D. Williams played six seasons in the NFL and made four Super Bowl appearances before turning to coaching.

Williams ended up starting 28 games and collected seven interceptions in his four years with the Bills. It came during an incredible run as Buffalo reached the Super Bowl all four years Williams was on roster. He went on to play one season each with Arizona and San Francisco before trading in his cleats for a whistle.

Since then, his path has wound mostly around the West Coast. Coaching stops included his alma mater twice (1997 as a graduate assistant; 2000-01 as an assistant coach), San Jose State (1998), Cal Poly (1999), California (2002-05), Washington (2006-08), Utah (2009) and UNLV (2010-12).

Despite spending most of his coaching career in the Pacific time zone, Williams had expectations of a smooth transition for his family -- inlcuding his wife Jamie and four kids -- to Georgia State, his eighth NCAA coaching stop. So far so good, but why was he confident? For one, he will not have to deal with the same issues he had the first time around living in the East.

“I had never seen the snow before,” Williams recalled. “I moved to Buffalo and I remember we were playing the Arizona Cardinals and a big, dark cloud came over the stadium and it began snowing. Everyone started cheering because it was the first snow of the year.

“I was cheering right with them, but then when the game was over, I started thinking about it: I had never driven in snow before. That's an experience in itself.”

Now he's taking all of his experiences, even the bittersweet disappointments despite winning four AFC Championship rings, and translating it for his eager students. That is the part of the job he loves the most, dealing with different backgrounds, different personalities and getting to pull away something from each player. Williams combines each of those attributes to help form a cohesive unit, something he did well as a player. During his run with Buffalo, the Bills went 49-15 with .766 winning percentage over four years while winning nine postseason games.

Now as the Panthers' special teams coordinator, Williams has a larger number of players he can affect. And more who can affect him.

“You're coaching 17 kids and you take something from each of them,” Williams said. “They're each different and they have to get what you're teaching to work together as one unit. We want to teach them to take pride in that. In the end, you learn more from the kids than they learn from you. There is only one of you sharing your experience, but there are 17 different people with 17 different angles for you to absorb.”

As an example: Williams notes that at any given practice, he may coach the offensive linemen and the defensive line during special teams work before handling his primary task with the defensive backs. He has made it his specialty by being able to meld so many personalities and talent levels into a cohesive unit. Juggling those perspectives could be difficult considering some players are only on the field a handful of plays each game. Williams helps them keep it in perspective, convincing everyone on special teams to act like a starter.

“If you're the starter on special teams, I expect the same level of participation and preparation as that of a starter at defensive back who is in for 60 plays,” Williams said. “The kids, they get pretty amped up and give it their all on special teams. That's what I like about it.

“You just have to put players in positions to match their skill set. If it's new, the kids are fired up about it, so keep it simple and let the athletic ability show.”

Recruiting in a talent-rich state like Georgia, Williams believes it will only be a matter of time before the Panthers have plenty of players with that athletic ability. He compares Atlanta to Los Angeles in terms of talent in the high school ranks, and thinks Georgia registers up near the top of the list in best states to recruit. It was part of the reason he was drawn to the Panthers when head coach Trent Miles, who coached at Fresno State when Williams was a graduate assistant, offered him the position.

“At Georgia State, you get a great education at a great research institution, and there are so many good people in this wonderful city, and I haven't even talked about football yet,” Williams said. “This is a program where kids have a chance to build history every day. It's a great opportunity joining the Sun Belt Conference where there will be some good football played. It's just a matter of time before this place takes off.”

And when it does, maybe one of those Panthers will be lucky enough to enjoy “falling into the game” like Williams has after pushing aside his judicial dreams. He has made his case for how football should be played. Now it's the Panthers' turn.