WVU Adds Justin Williams
Over the last couple of days, West Virginia fans received plenty of good news. Yesterday, South Florida cornerback Jacolby Spells committed to the Mountaineers. This afternoon, the momentum we wrote about last month continued. We provide our thoughts on the news that WVU adds Justin Williams to its 2021 recruiting class here.
Adding Depth to the RB Room
This past season, Head Coach Neal Brown added a pair of four-star running backs to his running back room. Jaylen Anderson and Justin Johnson made it official last Winter. This season, Brown seemed set on adding at least one more, and he got his wish. Williams is a running back from East Paulding, Georgia. Standing at 6-0 and weighing in at 205 pounds, Williams offers good size to the group. Rivals ranks Williams in its top 250 recruits in the nation for the Class of 2022, good for a four-star rating. Presumably, Leddie Brown will graduate after this season, so Williams will have early opportunities to split carriers with Anderson and Johnson in a talented backfield.
Adding More Talent To The Class Of 2022
With the addition of Spells, Williams represents the second top-250 recruit in as many days for the Mountaineers. Including Nicco Marchiol, he represents the third such recruit in the class so far. While we anticipate several more blue chips to the class, Marchiol, Spells, and Williams form a solid nucleus. Williams also joins Mumu Bin-Wahad and Zion Young as Georgia athletes to commit to West Virginia.
Williams’ Junior Year Performance
Last season, Williams ran for nearly 1,500 yards. He added nearly 300 yards through the air. All told, he reached the end zone 19 times. We anticipate him to exceed those numbers this coming season, too.
Williams junior-season highlight reel offers a glimpse into what fans might see from him in the near future. Even watching the first six runs shows Williams’ strengths. Outside of the result (he makes long-yardage touchdown runs look effortless), he is not flashy. His 40-yard dash speed is not elite. But his patience and instinct show at a five-star level. In the first run on his film, he moves forward for the duration of his run. Watch, however, as he subtly adjusts his speed once the zone blockers ahead of him open the hole. As soon as he clears it, he kicks into a higher gear and flashes elite-level open-field speed (a la Shelton Gibson, WVU fans).
On the third run, Williams again demonstrates patience as he waits for engagement by the tackle. As soon as he sees it, he bounces outside and scampers to the house. On the fourth, we see another of Williams’ talents. He understands angles well. Very subtle adjustments to his forward-moving direction gives him a perfect angle here to evade would-be tacklers. Simply, there’s a level of poise and instinct that many others at his position lack.
On the very next run, Williams breaks a tackle, manages a small lane, and swings back to the inside. Finally, on his sixth run, we see something evident. Williams is always moving forward. But watch his patience as he slows, shifts his body weight ever so slightly, and burst forward. He shows us a lot, and we think Mountaineer fans will enjoy watching Williams for the next several years.
Main image courtesy 247Sports
