Five-star quarterback Isaiah Williams committed Friday to play his college football at Illinois. That’s cool, because the Illini almost never get players like him.
Illinois got a 5-star commit in football (!), and did it by playing the NCAA rulebook just right
The Illini hired the recruit’s high school coach, but it’s fine.
Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Williams is the class of 2019’s No. 28 overall player and No. 3 “athlete,” according to the 247Sports Composite. The St. Louis prospect is Illinois’ highest-rated commitment in years.
The Illini have signed two five-stars in the recruiting rankings era, which began around the turn of the millennium. Those were receiver Arrelious Benn and defensive end Martez Wilson, both in 2007. Williams’ Composite rating is just a hair behind them, though player ratings can and will change as the 2019 cycle moves along. (Another one of Illinois’ highest-rated recruits ever was four-star QB Isiah “Juice” Williams, in 2006.)
The Illini have been lackluster recruiters in general. They haven’t signed a class better than eighth in the 14-team Big Ten since 2015. But two of their three-commits for 2019 are blue-chips, with Williams joining four-star ATH Marquez Beason. It’s early in the cycle, but Lovie Smith’s making more headway in the ‘19 class than he has yet in Champaign.
Illinois got some help in Williams’ recruitment from his former high school coach, carefully staying within NCAA rules.
Williams’ high school team is Trinity Catholic in Missouri. His old coach there was Cory Patterson, whom Illinois hired for this season as tight ends coach. Patterson is listed as Williams’ primary recruiter and likely had a lot to do with getting his commitment.
The NCAA has strict rules about colleges hiring high school coaches or relatives of recruits. Teams can’t hire them to non-coaching jobs (like as “analysts,” for example) for a two-year period before or after the recruit’s enrollment on campus. Because Patterson counts as one of Illinois’ 10 on-field assistants, his program’s recruitment of Williams is allowed. The rule is targeted at big programs that have legions and legions of support staffers.
This dynamic has popped up more and more in high-profile recruitments over the last few years. Jim Harbaugh was an early pioneer at Michigan, where he hired the head coach of a New Jersey powerhouse to an off-field job and later moved him to a field assistant role. Alabama interviewed five-star cornerback recruit Patrick Surtain Jr.’s dad for a defensive backs coaching job earlier this year, didn’t hire him, and then got Surtain Jr. anyway.
The NCAA’s rules on this subject are double-edged. They’re supposed to promote fair play, but they can prevent qualified high school coaches from advancing in the profession. It’s good that Illinois found a role for Patterson where he was able to get a great job and Illinois wasn’t forced to ignore one of the best players in the country because of it.
This is a huge deal for Illinois, which, again, doesn’t get players like this.
Here’s Illini blog The Champaign Room on what Williams brings:
Williams is an elite athlete. He has great speed and tremendous agility. His superb ability to make would-be-tacklers miss is truly special.
But Williams isn’t just a great athlete. He also has everything you want in a quarterback. He has a solid arm — good, not great — and shows plus downfield vision and decision making for a player his age. He has great touch on his medium to deep passes. He threw for 1,898 yards in eight games in his junior season, averaging 22.1 yards per completion and completing 61 percent of his passes.
He is on the smaller size for a QB listed at only 5’11 and 170 pounds, but there have been several recent examples of shorter QBs being successful in college football — Russell Wilson, Troy Smith, Chase Daniel, Pat White, Denard Robinson, and even though they’re not recent, Doug Flutie and Drew Brees.
It’s not hyperbole to say that this can be a program-changing recruit.
Williams can’t sign with Illinois until December. In the meantime, he’ll keep drawing interest from most of the top schools in the sport. But this is huge news for the Illini anyway.
