Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry is about the latest with 5-star DL Mykel Williams of Hardaway High in Columbus.
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Mykel Williams is rehabbing a nasty hip pointer he suffered at some point in preseason camp. He wasn’t even sure how that even happened. It sounds like he is almost all the way back for that.
The 5-star DL from Hardaway High in Columbus also remains committed to USC.
He is hopeful of what life will be like in a few more months when he joins his half-brother in Clay Helton’s program. Michael Trigg, a former 4-star TE, signed with USC during the 2021 recruiting cycle.
What does Williams first think of when USC comes to mind?
“It is split,” Williams said. “It is a lot of stuff. I see the palm trees and then the great school at USC. Then on the other side, I just see straight football. Well, I really am not going to lie. It is really all football.”
And yet, Williams also candidly shared a few thoughts that leave the door cracked about the chances of a school coming in for the flip. Most notably Georgia.
Let’s tally those as quickly as Williams came crashing off the edge for 17 sacks as a junior.
- Williams isn’t sure when he will get back out to Southern Cal. That’s a pretty long trip and he’s already used his official visit to see USC back in June. “I’ve got to see,” he said. “It is kind of a hassle to go out there frequently because of all the costs. But I’ve got to get back because I’ve got to get out there to see my brother play in a game.”
- That said, he’s planning other official visits. “I know Georgia is probably going to get one,” Williams said. “Alabama may get one and probably maybe like Florida for the last one.”
- Williams said he had been a silent commitment to UGA for some time earlier this year.
- He plans to take his official to UGA with fellow in-state UGA target Christen Miller. “Christen and I are still going to go to the same school,” Williams said.
- What level of contact is he receiving from Georgia? “They are still keeping in contact,” Williams said. “Heavy, too. I talk to them just about every day. Well, I don’t talk to them every day but they call or reach out to me every day.”
- What does USC have to do to hold on to his commitment? “The same stuff they have been giving me,” Williams said. “The same feelings they’ve been giving me. They’ve just been showing love. Making sure I feel wanted there. Making sure I feel like I can still come in and play early and succeed there.”
- What is the pitch he’s hearing from Georgia? “Stay home,” he said. “I will be closer to my family. My family can come to watch me play. They are telling me I can come to play early at Georgia. They want me to play at the ‘Jack’ position instead of at the defensive end spot.”
- What position does he prefer? “Either or,” he said. “But I’d really like to be a defensive end. ‘Jack’ is cool, too. With the ‘Jack’ the only difference is you are just standing up. They may drop you like two or three times a game.”
- USC plans to deploy him as a straight defensive end, he said. He reports he’s been measured at well over the 6-foot-5 mark and is right at 252 pounds. He aims to play at 257 pounds this fall.
- He even played a lot at TE and WR during 7-on-7 action this summer. He said caught five touchdowns. Williams said he’s grown a lot as a player. That’s saying something after those 17 sacks. “I’ve grown a lot mentally since then,” he said. “I know more and I see it develop. The game is so much slower to me now. When we practice now, I get into a two-point stance now. Because I see the field better.”
What keeps him committed to USC? What did Georgia and Kirby Smart do when they were tipped off early about to commit to the Trojans?
We’ve never really heard a recruit go into detail about what happens when the Bulldogs still try to get their guy at the 11th-hour before a decision.
That all follows below.
Mykel Williams: An interesting rewind of all things UGA
Running backs coach Dell McGee is still his co-primary recruiter for the Bulldogs. That’s a nod to McGee’s connections with the city of Columbus that stretch back for decades and his prowess as one of the top recruiters in college football.
Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning is the other primary recruiter for UGA.
“They still tell me how they want me there and how they need me there and how I will come in and be a factor and be able to play early immediately if I work hard,” Williams said.
Lanning still uses Zoom to recruit Williams. The 5-star from Hardaway High in Columbus said that’s what he appreciates the most now about the opportunity in Athens.
“He showed me actual clips from my game film and the clips of what they do at practice and how he can improve it from what I was doing in the game,” Williams said. “He can make it better by what they do in practice. He was just showing me how easy he could put it all together. Just exactly what I need to do to get better at this and this and this.”
“I was like ‘Yeah I really like that, too’ because he showed me the plan about how I was going to get better by doing what they do in practice at Georgia’ with all of that.”
He wasn’t sure which school would be the runner-up to USC right now. It would either be Georgia, Florida or Alabama, he said. He phrased it as a three-way tie at this time.
How did USC earn the commitment from Mykel Williams?
Trigg plays for USC. That’s a big pull for the Trojans. Yet Williams said having his half-brother playing for USC the biggest reason he fell in love with that program.
“The main reason ‘SC’ really had a chance was the staff they have over there,” Williams said. “The recruiting staff. That’s [quality control analyst] Dane Stevens, [defensive line coach] Vic So’oto, [assistant athletic director for player developmet] Gavin Morris, [director of high school relations] Armond Hawkins Jr. and all those guys. Those four really. They really got me really intrigued with SC.”
“Then what I have seen Vic can do with the defensive line when we watched all the film together I was like ‘Wow’ when it came to all things USC. They really got me.”
He said the USC official visit really caught him off-guard.
“When I woke up the next day after I was already on my official visit, all I could really think about was USC,” he said.
Since he made that pledge, he has yet to go check out any other schools.
“I had no idea I was going to commit so soon when I went out there for my official,” he said. “I knew it was going to be fire when I went out there because it is Cali. I didn’t really think it was going to be where I wanted to come to and where I saw myself at. I didn’t really expect it when I saw all of that.”
He committed just a few days after he got back from his official visit.
“I had visited everywhere else already before that,” Williams said. “So I was like ‘Dang, I’ve already seen everything that I needed to see’ with that. So what was I waiting for?”
Williams doesn’t feel like he made his commitment too early. When asked if he felt USC prioritized him more than Georgia or any other school did, he initially said yes.
“But no I guess I can’t say that,” he said. “Georgia showed me that they wanted me. I wouldn’t say that. It was really just coach Vic and when we broke down the film and he was showing me how he trained those guys. How they work out. The mental piece of it. I was like ‘Yeah, that’s what I want. I want that’ when it came down to my commitment.”
Simply put, that is what still keeps him committed to USC.
“Everybody keeps saying I am going to flip,” Williams said. “That is kind of funny. Where do all of ya’ll and everybody get that from? It is kind of funny, though.”
Perhaps that might be because he still plans to visit other schools?
“Yeah, I do see that,” Williams said. “I do see what everyone is saying.”
A few thoughts for down the road from Mykel Williams
When the subject came up, he said he would like to use his next official to check out Alabama vs. Florida That game is set for Sept. 18.
When he thinks about Georgia, he repeats something he told DawgNation after his visit this summer. It is the people in Athens that make it a special place to play.
Williams mentioned the entire recruiting staff in Athens, including all the support and off-the-field positions. He singled out assistant recruiting coordinator Logan Reed specifically.
He said Georgia was tipped off that he was about to commit to USC early.
“I don’t know how but they found out early,” Williams said. “Before I was fixing to do it and commit. It was really like the day before. They would not stop calling me.”
Everyone hit him up. Williams said there “might have been some tears” from some of the “ladies on the recruiting staff” at UGA.
He had to take some of those calls, including one from Smart
“I had to take that one from Kirby,” Williams said. “That’s coach Smart.”
What did the head coach say?
“He was like ‘Mykel don’t do it to me man’ and I was trying to play dumb that I was about to commit,” Williams said. “I was like ‘What are you talking about coach?’ when he said that. He was like there’s no place for you better than Georgia and I really need you to come to be a ‘Dawg and play for me.”
When Williams camped at UGA this summer, he said Smart was impressed by what he saw.
“He saw me working out and I guess he didn’t know I was that quick,” Williams said. “He said to me then that he was ready for me to commit. Ever since then, he’s been on me recruiting me like extremely hard.”
When he was set to commit at 11 AM on June 15, he said the Bulldogs began to reach out to him early that morning.
Williams had to break it to Smart.
“I was like ‘Coach I just feel like this is the best fit for me right now’ when I told him,” Williams said. “I was like ‘I will still give y’all an official visit’ because I really was supposed to take my official visit to Georgia first. Yeah, but then they didn’t want me to take it. They wanted me to wait.”
That plan didn’t work out as intended.
“That’s what they said,” Williams said. “Georgia said that backfired on them. They were like they hate that they even said for me to wait and take my official visit later or last. They said that was one of their biggest regrets of my recruitment so far.”
That pointed to that earlier silent commitment.
“I was really going to commit to Georgia back in March on my Dad’s birthday,” Mykel Williams said.
USC was in the picture back then a little bit. It led to him making the decision to back off that March commitment timetable.
His recruitment has been quite unique up to this point.
“Wild,” Williams said. “Whenever you think you are done, you are not done. When I committed I thought it would be over with. Now I had picked my school. Then everyone came harder. Worse. I’m like wow at all of it. Dang.”
Whenever you think you are done, it is not done. That seems like a phrase to keep in mind with this recruitment.
“That applies to the game of football on the field, too,” Williams said.
He’s not sure which staff will be the harder one to ultimately say no to. Williams said it would be either be to USC or to Georgia.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent recruiting reads on DawgNation.com)
- Big Bear Alexander lists UGA among his final 2 schools
- BREAKING: In-state speedster Cole Speer commits to UGA
- Nation’s No. 3 TE Oscar Delp is down to four schools
- AJ Harris: 5-star junior CB sounds locked on a final five, eyes decision timeframe
- Justice Haynes: Dell McGee told the legacy RB just how important he is for 2023
- Bradyn Joiner: Elite 2023 OL “felt like Nick Saban in shoulder pads” at UGA
- Jake Pope: Why he’s slowing down the pace of his decision
- Christen Miller breaks down all the love he got recently from UGA
- WATCH: New Georgia commit Griffin Scroggs breaks down why he had to be a Bulldog
- BREAKING: State champion OL Griffin Scroggs commits to UGA
- BREAKING: 3-star Texas WR Dillion Bell commits to UGA
- Georgia recruiting: Recapping the Dawg Days of Summer that ended the on-campus summer visits
- Cole Speer: “If I had a dream school growing up, it would be Georgia.”
- 5-star junior safety Joenel Aguero is already very high on Georgia
- Priority 2023 in-state CB target Kayin Lee dishes on his best trip yet to UGA
- BREAKING: Elite RB target Branson Robinson chooses UGA
- Kayin Lee: Georgia and Ohio State made two very big impacts on this 2023 priority DB
- Carlton Madden Jr: Fast-rising prospect says “it just feels like it is right” about UGA
- 2022 RB commit Jordan James says “It’s the ‘Dawg Way or no way’ for a RB
- Pearce Spurlin III: 2023 TE commits dishes on the scavenger and Arch Manning hunts
- AJ Harris: Bulldogs appear locked into a big-time battle for the 5-star CB
