SI All-American's No. 1 Recruit is From the Other Washington
Plays for Gonzaga.
Lives in Washington.
Knows who Sam Huard is.
While his connections sound distinctively Northwest, Williams is actually East Coast-produced and Midwest-bound and ranks as SI All-American's No. 1 overall recruit for the 2021 class.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound prospect held off an impressive collection of football talent — including Huard — to earn ultimate SI's top recruiting recognition, which was announced Thursday.
Williams, from Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit school in Washington, D.C., won the prestigious Elite 11 Finals quarterback competition on July 1, an event that Huard had to skip because of inadvertent exposure to someone who later tested positive for novel coronavirus .
On the Fourth of July, Williams made his college commitment to the University of Oklahoma, months after Huard, who's from Seattle, had pledged to the University of Washington.
Could they, same as the Sooners and Huskies of 1984, end up against each other in the Orange Bowl someday?
"It feels really good that people are noticing," Williams said. "I'm grateful and thankful to be No. 1."
What sets Williams apart from Huard and the nation's other top quarterback prospects is his combination of having one of the strongest arms in the country and elite athleticism that make him a dangerous scrambler. He threw 37 touchdown passes as a junior.
You can read the Sports Illustrated story about Williams receiving this honor right here.
In the accompanying video, former NFL and college head coach Jim Mora, a former UW linebacker from the Don James era, sized up Williams with the highest praise.
"He can put his body in kind of unique positions and still throw with accuracy much like a guy named Patrick Mahomes," Mora said. "It's really impressive."
On Friday, July 17, SI All-American will unveil the first (quarterbacks) of its positional top 10 lists that will roll out over the summer. SI will announce its Preseason Top 99 (the SI99) on August 24.
The candidates will be narrowed to 250 finalists in October and 99 finalists in November, and will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.