After signing as part of Nick Saban's first recruiting class at Alabama in 2007, Chavis Williams said he immediately understood his new head coach's attention to detail.

"The thing I learned from Coach Saban is you can't be overwhelmed and you've got to have a plan, whatever you want to call it, The Process, but it's step-by-step and everything is laid out," Williams said. "And it's laid our clearly. Put it up on the walls. Everybody understands the job they've got to do, and they understand they've got to do their job."

Williams is the new head coach at Carbon Hill, where he's served as an assistant coach for the last four seasons.

Williams, 29, played linebacker and special teams at Alabama from 2007-10 and finished his career with 17 tackles and one sack. He appears to be one of the first -- if not the first -- of Saban’s Alabama recruits to become a high school head coach.

"We always say around here, 'We don't look at names.' Every opponent is a nameless opponent," Williams said, sounding a lot like Saban. "We just play the next play. It lets the kids know that it doesn't matter who you play, as long as you're playing to your standard. That's the biggest thing, getting these kids to play to a standard."

Williams takes over a Carbon Hill program that hasn't made the playoffs since 1999. He becomes the school's 10th head coach since that last playoff berth and replaces Scott Curd, who went 9-21 in three seasons.

Williams recently talked to AL.com about his new job and coaching philosophy. Here’s excerpts from that conversation:

Q: How do you feel about becoming a head coach for the first time?

"It's all thanks to the good Lord for blessing me. I've been blessed with a lot of opportunities early on in my life. To get this job, this is testament to people I looked up to --my high school coach Johnnie Wright and Coach Saban. They've made a big impact on me, and I just kind of mold after them.

“The main thing is to get a chance to put a positive influence on these young mens’ lives, to get them to go places they don’t think they can go. This opportunity came from hard work and just (being) lucky. I’m going to make the best of it.”

Q: What makes you feel like you're ready for your first head coaching job?

"I started as a volunteer at Dora for my high school coach, Johnny Wright, and then went to Carbon Hill. I worked every position on the field. When I got to Carbon Hill, I was the defensive line coach, and I had to work directly up under the defensive coordinator.

"To handle those duties like breaking down film and getting water coolers ready -- all the odds and ins of making it easier on the coordinator -- and the next year I got promoted to defensive coordinator and I've been doing that the last three years.

"The biggest thing, Scott Curd who recently retired, he gave me a lot of jobs that really prepared me for this job, as far as paperwork and eligibility and organizing practice schedules, and anything as simple as who's going to go out with water coolers on Friday night. Just the organization part of it, and I feel like I'm pretty organized to be 29 years old."

Q: It seems like the organizational parts of the job can be equally demanding as the Xs and Os, so it sounds like you're prepare for that part of the job, right?

"Everything in the program falls back on me. Previously, win or lose, it fell on the head coach. I go into it understanding that. Everybody is looking to me for answers. What goes unnoticed is the strength of any head coach is his assistants, and you're probably going to do pretty good on the coaching side of it."

Q: The Carbon Hill program has struggled, so what make you feel like you could be successful?

"Overall, the culture has changed the last four years. Nobody faulted the way it was. You know, when you change coaches every two years, no one has time to change the culture around and implement their standards and philosophies. Not just Xs and Os, but it's how we conduct ourselves on a daily basis, how we get involved in the community.

"The guys around here now -- we’ve still got a ways to go and it’s always a work in progress -- but the kids, they look forward to that. "

Q: You’re a Walker County guy. You played your high school football at Dora and grew up there. You’re one of the few African-American head football coaches in Walker County history. What does that mean to you?

"I know Pete Bush was at Cordova, but it's just another thing that will maybe open up doors for others and maybe they will go into the career of coaching and not be afraid to jump out there and work hard and just wait for the opportunity."

(Editor's note: Bush went 34-8 as Cordova's head coach from 2008-10 and took the Blue Devils to two state championship games)

“It’s all a testament to my family growing up, really being behind me and pushing me this far. I’d like to say we get a big storyline because I played a little football or whatever, but I’m just tickled to death to be coaching these kids. I look forward to it to see people come out and support us on this journey.”