Good News:Four Star DeLand DB Avantae Williams Announces his commitment to Miami Hurricanes over Florida
DELAND — Avantae Williams has been in the spotlight for what seems like an eternity. Before he ever donned a DeLand High School uniform, Williams began receiving offers from college football’s best players, who ranked him as the top safety in the 2020 recruiting class by ESPN.
Across the nation, his name appeared on message boards and recruitment radars. As of Tuesday night, a 0.35-second Google search for “Avantae Williams” yielded 22,900 hits.
In the corridors, several students pause to ask him for photos. He gets cursed by people he calls “Twitter thugs” for not picking their preferred teams. And minute after minute, day after day, year after year, almost everyone he knows asks some variation of the same question.
“Everyone treats me like a celebrity, but I just feel like I’m a regular person,” Williams said. “It’s cool to finally have (the recruiting process) over because I can’t go anywhere without somebody staring at me or wanting to take a picture. “I never cared about fame or all of that. I just want to play football.”
On Wednesday, at seven minutes before seven in the morning, Williams experienced that elusive epiphany. In his heart, he knew where he wanted to be. Williams pulled off one more surprise during a highly unpredictable four-year recruiting process when he picked up a white Miami hat in front of friends, family, and the media gathered around a table in the gymnasium at DeLand High.
Despite allegedly long odds, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound safety decided to sign with the Hurricanes on National Signing Day, choosing them over in-state rival Florida. Twelve 247Sports recruiting gurus predict that Williams would sign with the Gators.
Williams was finally pulled south by long-standing links, especially with co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Ephraim Banda. Williams remarked, “They have always been my boys.” It was instinctive. I had to have faith in it.
Williams committed to Miami in February 2017 during his first year at DeLand. But in May 2018, five months after former head coach Mark Richt retired, he reopened his hiring.
According to 247Sports, Williams received 27 Division I offers, including offers from Southern California, Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, and Penn State.
Despite missing over a month of action because of a knee injury sustained during DeLand’s second offensive play from scrimmage, Williams was nominated to the All-Area first team for the second straight year in 2019. On August 23, he caught a screen pass against rival Mainland and walked off the field in pain.
