Kennesaw State QB, who has Big Ten experience, balances football and dad duty
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The day is hardly complete when Dexter Williams II has completed his classes and finished football practice. He very likely will have diaper duty when he gets home.
Williams, the heir apparent to start at quarterback this season at Kennesaw State, has the added responsibility of being a father. When he gets back to his apartment, his partner Isabel usually is there to hand him their 6-month-old daughter Delaney.
“The balance is a thing that took some time to get used to,” Williams said. “I kind of just had to tell myself to be where my feet are. If I’m in the building, I have my mind in the building. I’m at home, have my mind on my daughter and Isabel.”
Williams acknowledged that it isn’t always easy to compartmentalize his life into individual segments.
“Man, it’s hard, but you know, if you care about something, you’ll always find time to do it,” Williams said. “That’s my family and football, and my faith as well.”
These days it’s football that takes up a larger portion of his day. Williams, a 6-foot-1, 218-pound senior, won the job as starting quarterback in the spring and is expected to start under center when the Owls open the season Aug. 29 at Wake Forest.
“This is probably Dexter’s sixth camp that he’s been through,” Kennesaw State coach Jerry Mack said. “He’s kind of that guy who understands what this is all supposed to look like and what our standard is now. He still has to continue to grow in what we want him to do, but so far so good as far as the way he’s trending.”
Williams grew up in Macon and graduated from Mount de Sales, where he threw for 1,524 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 984 yards and 14 touchdowns as a senior when he was named Middle Georgia Player of the Year by the Macon Telegraph.
He played at Indiana from 2020-23 (where for a while he was a teammate of the Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr.) but missed 2021 because of a season-ending ACL injury that occurred in the spring. He transferred to Georgia Southern in 2024 and played in five games and brought the Eagles back from a 23-3 deficit to beat Marshall.
Now Williams finally has an opportunity to take a job and run with it. When Mack took the job in December, he needed an experienced quarterback that could quickly grasp the new spread offense that the Owls will be using. Williams surged to the front of the pack with a solid spring camp.
“It feels like a long time coming, but every experience I’ve had before this has prepared me for now,” Williams said. “The mistakes I’ve made in the past in games and in practice, I kind of keep those in the memory bank and remember them. I think that’s the biggest thing since I got here, just carrying all those experiences.”
The experience — taking meaningful snaps against big-time competition — will come in handy as Kennesaw State goes through a complete rebuild.
“Dexter has what we call an ‘old soul’ now,” Mack said. “He’s been in college before he’s been at the Power Four level. He’s led teams to victories at the (Group of Five) level. He has a lot of experience being on the field. He knows how to go about his business throughout the week.”
In an odd scheduling quirk, Kennesaw State’s second game is at Indiana.
“It’s circled, but I’m not going to give it too much thought,” he said. “It’s a powerful team, and that’s my alma mater, but I’m going to treat it like any other game. I still have some friends up there so it’s going to be fun to back and do it, but at the end of the day when the clock turns on and the first quarter starts, it’s just another game.”
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
