September 28, 2025
A pair of Eagle Champions, Wimbush and Williams hoist IFL hardware
It had been a wild game even by Indoor Football League standards. A shootout from the opening whistle, the IFL National Championship would come down to the final play. The Las Vegas Knight Hawks held a three-point lead, but the Green Bay Blizzard had one final play, lined up at the one-yard-line.
By Adam Greene, for Carson-Newman Athletics
It had been a wild game even by Indoor Football League standards. A shootout from the opening whistle, the IFL National Championship would come down to the final play. The Las Vegas Knight Hawks held a three-point lead, but the Green Bay Blizzard had one final play, lined up at the one-yard-line.
Darius Williams, playing for the Knight Hawks, stepped up to play close to the line from his safety position. When the ball was snapped to Blizzard quarterback Maxwell Maylor on a sneak, Williams was part of the defensive scrum that denied him the end zone. The horn sounded and the Knight Hawks won 64-61.
And Williams got to celebrate it with his friend and Carson-Newman brother, Antonio Wimbush.
"It came down to the last play," Williams said. "We stopped them and everybody was going crazy. They reviewed the play and we're all just sitting there waiting to see what the future holds. The ref comes out and says the decision is upheld. We won the championship. It's been a long time coming."
For Wimbush, the victory was the culmination of years of hard work and belief in himself, even when the phone wasn't ringing with offers. He remained faithful and now had a championship to show for it.
"After the game, we (Williams and Wimbush) talked about it," Wimbush said.
We talked about how far we've come from Carson-Newman. We're not done yet. There's so many obstacles we've both overcome. To see all that hard work paying off, it's huge."
Williams had been in situations like that before, but never with a championship on the line. At Carson-Newman, he was a highly decorated safety, earning an All-American nod, as well as multiple All-Region and All-South Atlantic Conference selections. What he hadn't done, is get to play for a championship.
During Carson-Newman's 2019 postseason run in head coach Mike Turner's final season, Williams was sidelined, tearing his ACL late in the year and missing out not only on the NCAA Division II playoff victory over Bowie State, but an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl, where he could have shown his skills to potential professional teams.
"There was an interview list before the ACL and not too many after the ACL," Williams said. "That's what happens when you have an injury. I had to recover, get my ACL right. And after the NFL Draft, I didn't get the outcome that I wanted so I had to think about the future. I sat down and prayed about it."
Wimbush's story was not so dissimilar. After his own storied career with the Eagles where he was a two-time All-American as well as a multiple All-Region and All-SAC selection, the star running back was denied a chance to continue his career due to the Covid-19 shutdowns.
He kept in shape, working with Darius Khan at Vengeance Fitness, he found his way to the IFL, joining the Iowa Barnstormers in 2022, three full years after he'd taken his final snap in Carson-Newman's playoff loss to Lenoir-Rhyne.
"It's just a part of my faith," Wimbush said. "It's another testament to my story. Even during that time, I had to reinvent myself."
While Wimbush had to watch that final play in the IFL title game from the sidelines, he'd done plenty of work in the game. He finished with 14 carries for 70 yards rushing and three touchdowns while hauling in four passes for 45 yards in a game where every inch and score was needed.
"It flowed that way, but we needed to get the run game going," Wimbush said. "All through the playoffs, we'd been throwing the ball a lot. I'm cool with that too. As a player, you do what you have to do. I've had players (from the other team) come up to me after the games and say they had to gameplan against me all week. I take that with pride. They kept feeding me. The line did a great job and the receivers blocked downfield. (Knight Hawks quarterback) Jayden (De Laura) made great reads and was killing them with his legs."
While Wimbush was an IFL veteran, Williams had taken a more circuitous route to Las Vegas. Once he'd rehabbed his ACL, he signed with the Edmonton Elks in the Canadian Football League in 2021. The next season, he was with the Montreal Alouettes, then the Ottawa Redblacks before finally returning to the United States to join the Massachusetts Pirates in the IFL in 2024. Williams found himself out of work for a day, released by the Pirates, before he got a call to join his former C-N teammate in Vegas. He was immediately sold.
"I got the chance to talk to Wimbo about it, how he liked Vegas and Coach Mike (Davis), Williams said. "I had a couple of offers from other teams, but once I heard from Coach Mike, I felt Vegas was the best option for me."
Getting the chance to reunite with Wimbush was something Williams couldn't pass up.
"It was great," Williams said. "Wimbo is like a brother to me. He's a great guy and even better football player, so it's fun to be around him. We always ramp each other's game up."
Wimbush knew his former teammate would make an immediate impact on the Knight Hawks.
"I knew he (Williams) could bring something good to the defense," Wimbush said. "That pop and energy that we needed. That spark. It meant everything."
Like Wimbush, Williams showed up big in the championship game, finishing with seven tackles in the shootout.
"You have to approach every game the same," Williams said. "Obviously, it was a championship game, it was on TV and everything, but once you get on the field, you're just playing football. It's a kid's game. You know what you're doing and need to make the plays you're supposed to make."
It was the first time that Williams had some stability, being with a team for more than a single season. It's something he hadn't experienced since he played at Mossy Creek, and it was the foundation built there, in the creek where he and so many of his teammates were baptized, that has helped him hang on to his dreams as a pro.
"After practice, you walk down to the creek," Williams said. "You see the guys who weren't Christians before, it's a great moment of brotherhood. You make your profession of faith in front of your teammates. I couldn't do any of this without God. I pray a lot. I couldn't do anything inside or outside of football without God. Keeping my faith in the wavering times keeps me on the right path and focused on what I need to get done."
The relationships Williams formed at C-N continue on, not just with Wimbush, his teammate, but with his fellow players, now moved on to other chapters of their lives.
"The best thing about Carson-Newman is the brotherhood," Williams said. "The men I played with at Carson-Newman, we're all friends to this day. We all talk, play the Playstation together. That brotherhood is priceless."
For Wimbush, his time as an Eagle only strengthened his faith, something that hasn't let him down as he's battled to continue his playing career.
"To be in that program and come across the guys that I did, to work with Coach (Ken) Sparks and Coach (Mike) Tuner and all them, I'm forever grateful for it," Wimbush said. "The relationships I built there was the biggest thing. I grew up in a religious household, but I can definitely say my faith grew stronger at Carson-Newman."
There was faith that needed to be kept as Vegas' season began. The Knight Hawks opened their campaign with a 48-41 victory over the San Diego Strike Force, but by midseason they were sitting at 4-4. A 52-37 win over the Arizona Rattlers, one of the old Arena Football League franchises, changed their fortunes. Wimbush combined for 93 yards rushing and receiving and two touchdowns. Williams finished with eight tackles, half a tackle for a loss, a pass break up and a block in the game.
"It was a rocky start to begin the season," Williams said. "We had to figure out a way to finish games. When you start slow, you're playing the chase game. We had to learn how to put four quarters together. We started to get hot in the middle of the season and at the end, we got really hot. Professional football is about who's going into the playoffs hot."
The Knight Hawks did just that, winning six of their last eight games to secure a spot in a postseason. Las Vegas, as a franchise, had never won a playoff game. They changed that with a 36-31 victory over the Bay Area Panthers in what would be an historic playoff run filled with all three games settled by a single score.
Wimbush felt vindicated, holding the trophy, about the choices that led him to Las Vegas.
"I didn't want any regrets," Wimbush said. "I talked to the Vegas coach and ended up coming out here. There's more exposure, a bigger stage. I thought I'd at least have some eyes on me out here because I know at the end of the day, I'll do my part."
Williams and Wimbush did their part to help Carson-Newman end a three-year playoff drought in 2019. In 2025, they did the same for Las Vegas, helping the Knight Hawks not only win their first playoff game in team history, but hoist the IFL National Championship Trophy.
"It means a lot to me," Williams said. "Especially thinking about the times we had last year. Praying about this year. Praying that we can get to the championship and win it, it's a blessing for sure."
