For the second time in the last three recruiting cycles, No. 24 quarterback recruit in the Top247 is engaged to Oklahoma, as five-star caller from Washington (DC) Gonzaga Caleb Williams announced his college plans to play at Norman on Saturday night. He did it live with 247Sports on CBS Sports HQ.
“I felt like that was the place for me overall,” Williams said.
Lincoln Riley and the Sooners beat LSU and Maryland by the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Williams who also strongly considered Georgia, Penn State and Clemson earlier in the process.
“Their record with their last three quarterbacks they had,” Williams recently said of OU. “Second round, support for two years for the first team (Kyler Murray) and you have Baker mayfieldHe won a Heisman and they were all great passers-by. Look at the statistics.
“That is directly to Coach Riley. He is an offensive type of intellectual type and I love that he is a quarterback. His last three boys have been in the last four Heisman seats. “
Regarded by the 247Sports Composite as the nation’s No. 4 prospect overall, Williams will join a quarterback room that also includes Spencer Rattler, who was number one in the class of 2019.
Williams has been to Norman multiple times, including a trip in the spring, and the bond with Riley was the difference in this recruitment.
“Riley is a super smart man,” said Carl Williams, Caleb’s father. “He is doing skull sessions with Caleb weekly. They talk all the time. He is really good at it. And it’s also nice. Many of these places try to develop relationships, but he is better than many others.
“They are meticulous, the attention to detail was outstanding. I shared our spreadsheet with them, the template and they had an idea of how we thought about the process and what was important to us, and they were successful in each category. And the willingness to be open with us about his process, how things worked and it was really good. ”
As a junior, Williams threw 19 touchdowns and ran for 18 more playing against some of the best competition in the country. He will crown his prep career by playing in the All-American Bowl. Like Rattler two years ago, Williams was crowned the Elite 11 Finals Most Valuable Player last week. 247 National sports analyst Charles Power compares Williams’ game to Russell Wilson’s.
“It has a thick, developed structure,” Power wrote in his assessment. “Tested as a top athlete before his junior season with strong grades across the board, including a 4.6 second for the second time in the 40-yard dash. He combines that athleticism with one of the strongest arms in the 2021 cycle. He is highly Creative with the ability to make tough individual plays in unscripted situations. Has unique arm prowess and can punch from multiple platforms. As comfortable shooting on the move as in the pocket and you don’t need to put your feet up to launch a well-thrown ball. Extremely difficult for defenders to corner in both pocket and open field. Runs with a natural body tilt and escapes from tackle at high speed. Has the ability to get away from defenders once in open field. Offers versatile layout with experience playing under center, but the ability to be a powerful player in an uptempo and extended offense Battle-tested c against stiff competition. He is the most talented quarterback prospect coming from the Mid-Atlantic region in a decade. He projects himself as a multi-year impact initiator at the Power Five level with the advantage of the first round, if not the top ten in the NFL Draft. “
Williams’ promise makes him the gem of this 2021 Oklahoma recruiting class that went from number 32 to number 14 with Top247 cornerback Latrell McCutchin, who also announced for the Sooners earlier in the day.
