“I’d never been up there. I really liked it,” said Williams, who’s ranked by 247Sports as the No. 73 overall prospect and No. 3 safety in the 2021 class. “I’ll be back there. I’m going to a game there. I’ll probably go back to another camp next year.” The 6-foot-1, 186-pound Williams said he was particularly impressed by the “weight room” inside Tennessee’s Anderson Training Center and “how their lifting program is” under strength and conditioning coach
Craig Fitzgerald.
While Tennessee already had extended an offer to Williams on Feb. 1, he said
Derrick Ansley, the Vols’ first-year defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, liked what he saw from Williams during Friday’s camp. “I worked out with some of the top prospects at the camp. We did (defensive-back) drills, and we had 2-on-2s and 7-on-7,” said Williams, who holds early offers from more than 15 schools. “I had the offer. But (Ansley), he said he liked the way that I play, how I cover ground.”
Williams, who’s being recruited for Tennessee by running backs coach
David Johnson, said “the coaching staff” there is one of the reasons he’s interested in the Vols. “I was talking to the DC, and I was talking to ‘Coach YAC,’” Williams said, referring to Johnson. “He’s been keeping it real. He’s just telling me to go to a school where you feel like your future’s better. He was just keeping it real.”
The visit to Tennessee was the first of a handful of stops Williams has scheduled over the next few weeks. He said he’s planning to attend camps at LSU on Sunday and Alabama on June 16, and he will travel to Miami on June 21 for its Paradise Camp. He already has visited Florida, Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M in addition to Tennessee. With the list of teams pursuing Williams still growing, he said he currently views “all of them the same” and has yet to identify any early favorites.
Williams said he was “born and raised” in Louisiana but didn’t necessarily grow up dreaming of playing at LSU. “I really wasn’t watching (LSU),” he said. "It's just our home state. A lot of coaches ask me that, though.” With the early signing period for the 2021 class still more than 18 months away, Williams said he doesn’t expect to announce his college decision until sometime next year. “Probably next year around this time,” he said.
