Prized Badgers Commit Clears Up Intentions After Camping With Florida State

When Wisconsin football landed four-star defensive back Mekhi Williams on June, 3, flipping him from Florida State, it became the Badgers' defining commitment thus far in the class of 2027.

Williams, a consensus top-170 player in the entire country and a consensus top-12 safety (though Wisconsin sees him as a cornerback), picked the Badgers over LSU and Nebraska, giving Wisconsin its highest-rated player in the cycle.

The Badgers went all in on the tall, lanky and supremely talented defensive back from Florida, and managed to earn his commitment before he took his officials to Baton Rouge and Lincoln.

However, some concern began to arise over Williams' commitment almost immediately. Just a week after pledging to the Badgers, the defensive back returned to Tallahassee to camp with Florida State:

Four-star WR and Clemson Commit Jamarin Simmons vs Four-star S and Wisconsin Commit Mekhi Williams:https://t.co/saGvePU0xF pic.twitter.com/5x6ilsvLHW
— Warchant.com (@Warchant) June 10, 2026

Those fears were then seemingly legitimized by Williams' proceeding interview with Florida State's On3 site, in which he told Seminoles' writer Matt LaSerre: "I don't want to close that door."

That portion of the interview, which unsurprisingly made its way into the article's headline, ommitted a key detail, however. The first part of Williams' response was as follows: "Well, as of right now, my recruitment is shut down."

Williams then proceeded to double-down on that notion, responding to a Florida State fan on X who replied to him "At least the door isn't closed on Florida State" with a graphic of him in the Cardinal and White with text that reads "Recruitment shut down."

https://t.co/9LZ75vNZIX pic.twitter.com/MePa1VbXAH
— Mekhi Williams 4⭐️ Defensive back (@Mekhiwilliams__) June 12, 2026

Things can change of course, and we have a long way to go until national signing day for the 2027 cycle. As we saw last fall, classes can fall apart even amongst the strongest commits as poor on-field performance can change everything.

Still, it's safe to say that at the moment, Williams is extremely locked in with Wisconsin.

Why Williams camped at Florida State

Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

There's all sorts of reasons Williams would've returned to Tallahassee after pledging to Wisconsin, most of which shouldn't concern Badgers fans in the slightest.

First of all, it was an elite camp with plenty of blue-chip prospects — you can only keep a competitor off the field for so long.

What's more, even if Williams is fully committed to Wisconsin and not thinking about any other schools, the idea of not wanting to "close that door" makes sense in a world where the transfer portal is so prevelant.

Williams may be fully committed to coming to Madison out of high school, but what if he needs to hit the portal at some point? What if there's a regime change at Wisconsin? He may not have phrased it in the way Badger fans want to hear, but the star defensive back is right to not burn bridges with other college programs/coaches, even if he's completely committed to the Badgers.

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