Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei wideout C.J. Williams has set his commitment date for Aug. 8 and will announce where he’ll play his college ball on CBSSports HQ.
Williams recently named a final five of Alabama, Notre Dame, Stanford, Texas and USC. He took official visits to Notre Dame, Stanford and Texas over a 10 day period and also unofficially visited USC back on June 1st, the first day the dead period was lifted.
Williams never made it out to Bama but has strong ties to the school as it’s his father’s alma mater and his former Monarch teammate Bryce Young is slated to be the starting quarterback for the Tide this fall.
Williams is a top 100 player nationally and has been one of state’s best receivers since he was a sophomore. He hit double digit scholarship offers at an early point in his recruitment and is now less then two weeks away from making his decision known.
“The plan was to always commit before my senior year,” Williams said. “I always wanted to go in to my senior year totally focused on just school and football so making my decision prior to our first game was always what I wanted to do. I’m really excited about the opportunity and ready to go.”
Williams has never come out with a leader but the three schools he officially visited always appeared to be the teams to beat.
Texas: “Texas was my first visit and that blew me away. It was a lot of things that stood out, not just football but I really liked coach Sark’s message and what he’s trying to build. I know he’s going to have a great offense because he’s a great offensive mind and you saw what he did at Bama.
“What I liked was how he said they’re trying to bring more high character guys and wants me to be a part of that. I’m seeing it in who they’re recruiting and obviously they have Maalik (Murphy) there now who’s a great guy, a great friend and a great player so I loved that trip.”
Stanford: “Stanford is an amazing school and honestly, that visit was a lot more then I expected. David Shaw is an incredible man, not just a great football coach but such a man of character and he wants to build up men on and off the field.
“With Stanford, you don’t sacrifice football for academics. Everyone knows it’s the top academic school around but you look at their record, wins and losses plus the amount of players they send to the NFL, they’re one of the best in that area too so it’s the best of every world you want.”
Notre Dame- “I said it before but Notre Dame was the one school where I thought that special feeling you get on a visit lasted the whole time. It’s an amazing place and I love the culture, the environment and just how comfortable I felt.
“Football wise, they have a great program already in place. They have a talented roster and are looking for some impact receivers who can make an impact right away. They want to be more balanced in how they play and I think I fit in really well. I love the coaching staff, it’s a great academic fit and the relationships you can make that will carry over to life after football are huge too.”
The hometown Trojans can’t be discounted here either.
“USC is home for me and it will always be a special place,” Williams said. “They have a great receiver tradition, I’m close with the coaching staff and my family likes it there as well and that means a lot to me for sure.”
