Hoosiers Grab Jaylin Williams, the Top-Rated Corner in Tennessee
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Jaylin Williams and his family with Tom Allen at Memorial Stadium. Image: Williams' Twitter Account
Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
There are about 24 hours until the current Hoosier players and coaches are running around the practice fields in Bloomington, but today there is reason to celebrate as Indiana landed Jaylin Williams, the top-rated cornerback out of Tennessee.
Williams, a 5-foot-11 170-pound corner out of Germantown, Tennessee, was committed to play for Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss until Freeze stepped down in mid-July. Williams re-opened his recruitment on July 22nd and visited Indiana on July 30th. He is rated a three-star prospect on 247 Sports Composite rankings and gives the Hoosiers their sixth top-1000 player in the 2018 class. Indiana has five in the entire 2017 class.
Williams made his decision on a video he posted on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon. He choose the Hoosiers over Power Five schools Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest and Washington State. He held 16 offers overall.
After he made his announcement on Twitter several writers tweeted their thoughts about the prospect. Herb Smith, a digital media manager out of Arkansas said, "I've covered prep football for nearly 40 years. Indiana is getting one of the top five playmakers I've ever seen."
Chris Smith, Williams' head coach at Germantown said on Twitter that he doesn't "care about the stars they rate, Indiana is getting one heck of a football player."
Williams plays both sides of the ball in high school, but projects as a corner at the next level. As a junior he made 62 tackles and had eight passes defense while giving up just three catches all year on defense. On the offensive side of the ball Williams used his elite speed and elusiveness to score 10 touchdowns and rack up 856 yards on just 36 receptions.
Williams is Indiana's 13th member of the 2018 class and his addition has propelled them over Iowa to 12th in the conference in the early 2018 class rankings.