Zion Williams now has five to choose from

FAYETTEVILLE — Lufkin (Texas) Class of 2025 defensive tackle Zion Williams had originally planned to choose from four schools, but Arkansas complicated that this weekend.

Williams, 6-5, 340, decided to take an official visit to Arkansas and following it he was glad he did. He was originally slated to choose from Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and TCU on July 4. Credit Deke Adams for the visit.

“Because when I went out to other schools, Coach Adams’ name pops up so often that other coaches have nothing negative to say about that man,” Williams said. “I was really just genuinely interested in what he had to offer, because anytime his name was brought up, it was ‘He’s a great person, one of my greatest mentors I’ve ever had.’ I was like ‘Oh, okay. Let me see what he has to offer for me in my career as an athlete-student.’ But, yeah, I came out here, I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t know anything about Arkansas in general, but it exceeded any expectation I had, blew it out of the water. This is one of the nicest towns I’ve been in, nicest fields, some of the coolest people I’ve been around. It’s a genuinely nice area.”

Williams was asked what the visit did for Arkansas’ chances to land him?

“Before I came here, Coach Adams said ‘Can one visit change everything?’,” Williams said. “I told him yes, it can, because the same thing happened with me and LSU. I’d never been out to Louisiana, even though I’m about an hour-and-a-half away. Never thought ‘let me go out here’ until one of the coaches that I was really good with decided to go out there. It was like a weird feeling, it just felt nice being there, and I’m getting the same feeling from this area. I can genuinely see myself going here. Yeah, I can see myself playing at TCU or A&M, but I’m not as comfortable as I am down here, which is weird. I haven’t felt anything like this before. It’s nice to be out here.”

Williams then went into more detail on what it is about Adams he likes so much.

“Coach Adams really did live up to the expectation of these other coaches’ (comments),” Willaims said. “When I posted my top four, the schools I was thinking about committing to, he called me and told me he didn’t want me just coming out here to take a trip. Can one trip change everything, my whole view on the school? I thought that would kind of put a hindrance on our time out here, that there’d be disdain between us for that reason, but no, that’s really been away from the conversations we’ve had all weekend. We brought it up that one time on the phone call, that was it. He’s been nothing but a good person, a fun time, and a little goofy when it came to the photo shoots. You’ll see the pictures, it’s a little goofy. But, no, Coach Adams and Coach Green are two of the greatest coach combos I’ve seen. They just radiate this energy that you want to be around. That’s a weird feeling.”

With Arkansas being his visit this weekend, Williams then talked about what is next for him on the recruiting trail.

“I’m committing July 4, I’m giving myself a little more extra time to really just think about it,” Williams said. “But the next two visits I have coming up are to A&M and then UT, then I’m going to call it a day, really sit down and think about where I want to go. Who has the best offers with the best facilities, who can further my career as a person and not just as an athlete, who can make me a better man. So far, Coach Adams has really checked off a lot of these boxes. It’s really nice to be down here.”

Williams admitted he was confused when he started talking to coaches about what his grade-point average was.

“I got checked on my GPA because I didn’t know how colleges did it,” Williams said. “My accumulative GPA, like all of my classes, I have a 3.4, which isn’t bad. But yeah, apparently all of my core classes are a 2.6 and that did not sit right with me. I’m not the best when it comes to English, and I know that’s what’s dropping that specifically. But yeah, I checked on that and got a little butt-hurt. I was like, what, a 2.6? I swear I had a 3.4.”

As far as what he will study at the next level, Williams had another interesting answer.

“I’m probably going to do mass comm, because I want to do what Shaq does with the sports commentary and TV shows at the same time,” Williams said of O’Neal. “I’m trying to figure out what that really entails, so I’ve been sitting down figuring out which schools have this type of sports analysis and all that good stuff. But as of right now, I’m probably going to have to major in comms for that.”