5/15/2017 football Edit

SHUTTING IT DOWN: Humble Williams will arrive at Kentucky with no regrets

Justin Rowland • CatsIllustrated

Publisher

Justin Rowland has been CatsIllustrated.com's publisher since 2015. He covered college football recruiting at programs nationwide for 15 years prior to that.

It's 10:30 p.m. and I'm binge-watching a show on Netflix with my wife, a practice common in many a happy marriage.

Feet away my phone buzzed. It was Jarren Williams, telling me that he would have time to talk, after all. Earlier I had asked the now-famous (fame is relative) quarterback if he had some time to chat about his decision.

His first answer was that he had to study for a math final. It was tough to be too upset by that. This time he said he had some time to chat because he was finished with his schoolwork.

I've covered recruiting for close to 16 years (yes, I'm only 31), and when a player says, "I can't talk, I'm doing homework," 99 times out of 100 the player doesn't call back. But Williams did, which I thought was a minor bit of confirmation, just the latest bit, that he's just a different kind of cat.

Jarren Williams' life has probably been a blur for months now, or at least certainly for weeks. His coach at Central Gwinnett in Lawrenceville, Ga., told Rivals.com's Chad Simmons on Monday that there were anywhere between eight and 15 college coaches watching practices throughout the spring. They were there, for the most part, to scout Williams.

From pressure-packed practices in front of the nation's top offensive coordinators to long road trips with stops in college towns and tours through the football offices of the nation's SEC's top head coaches, there hasn't been much time for Williams to rest.

On Monday morning he woke up and went to school. Just another day, right? Only it wasn't. Williams was about to become a bona fide celebrity to the Big Blue Nation. He called into Kentucky Sports Radio. The day before the show's host, Matt Jones, had teased big news. Those who follow Kentucky football recruiting the closest (that is, mostly those who read the premium forum at CatsIllustrated.com) likely knew what was happening, but for the casual Wildcat fan it was that radio appearance that would make Williams a momentary celebrity who would trend on Twitter.

Williams announced his commitment, which had actually been made via a phone call to Mark Stoops days before, and more importantly he announced he would be shutting down his recruitment. That was one, final (or finally, rather), "Thanks but no thanks," to the following men you might have heard of: Nick Saban, Ed Orgeron, Jimbo Fisher, Butch Jones, Hugh Freeze, Jim McElwain and Kirby Smart, just to name a few.

That commitment phone call to Stoops, which happened longer ago than many probably realize, was the second time Williams had committed to Kentucky. Only this time it came with the note that recruiting was completely behind him.

"Oh I mean he was fired up," Williams recalled. "He was excited. He told me he's going to make sure that I'm set for life and everything. He's going to really take care of me and look after me like I'm his son. He's a great coach and a great person and I would love to spend the next five years playing for him."

If ever Mark Stoops' hat held a feather, it was on Monday morning. He had bragging rights with many of the coaches that have long probably considered Kentucky an afterthought.

That commitment was followed by an explosion of social media euphoria, congratulations and the banter equivalent of ball-spiking in the faces of Kentucky's SEC recruiting foes, who have long held unquestioned dominance over the UK football program.

Williams' decision on Monday represents the hope of a program, that it's possible for Kentucky to land a recruit that Alabama and countless others want, even when the player is from the South. There won't be a parade of four- and five-star players from Georgia following in his footsteps, if we're playing the odds, but he represents the hope that many Kentucky fans now believe isn't so far-fetched.

All that's to say Monday was a blur, and Williams - busy studying for finals - still called back to chat about recruiting, even with recruiting finally behind him.

"It's a good day," Williams said with a laugh, exhaling as though demonstrating the end of the stressful process his football talent and hard work had brought upon him. "It's a good feeling getting it over with and just coming home."

He just hasn't had a normal life for a long time.

Most kids Williams' age just don't have very rich, well-known coaches on speed dial, who are ready and willing to drop what they're doing and scamper away from their family's dinner table to take his call or respond to his text.

"At first it got kinda crazy to where it was almost throughout the whole day," Williams said, referring to the recruiting process. "I kind of just started tuning it all out so I could focus on the team and spring game. It came to a point where I just had to set it aside. I had a time period when I would do all that stuff so I could make time for what's really important."

Those closest to Williams insist the process hasn't changed him. That probably has something to do with his parents, who are very involved in his life and were in his recruitment as well. His father, once the manager for boxing champion Evander Holyfield, cares more about Williams' recruiting ranking than Williams himself does, and that's exactly how a good father should feel.

The most successful people in business, sports or anything else have good habits and organize their lives well, and Williams has clearly done that. They also have a way of tuning out the chaos as it's swirling around them; either that or they thrive in it.

"I would tell someone..." Williams said, when asked what advice he'd give a young recruit with rising popularity, "I would tell them that the coaches are always going to be there. They actually respect you more when you tell them you want to focus on work, that you're focused on your schoolwork and the team. I'd tell them when coaches come out to spring practice not to be ignorant, just to focus on the task at hand. I think, giving advice to someone else, I'd just say don't really let it get to your head."

Easier said than done, but in 16 years of following recruiting I can tell you that most in Williams' shoes don't take the time to reach back out at 10:30 p.m. as a favor to a reporter -- not on one of the most hectic days of his life.

Williams' teammates at Central Gwinnett would give him grief and "cracked some jokes" when they saw the parade of college coaches watching on at each and every spring practice. It was surely good-natured fun, but there was also, surely, an understanding that each and every teammate would have loved to be in Williams' shoes, at least in that regard.

But he did stay grounded.

Those coaches might have been big names to a lot of the guys on that Central Gwinnett football team, but to Williams they became close personal acquaintances he could view in a very different light. They were stripped down of their celebrity status in the coaching world and they became advisers and potential coaches to whom Williams would entrust with his future.

"I enjoyed the process," Williams said. "I enjoyed the process, getting to know the coaches. They're great coaches. Getting to learn from them, hearing about their offenses, hearing about what they do offensively and how they game plan. I think I benefited from it a lot, just hearing about all that and the different schemes they run. I think it was pretty fun if you take out the stressful part of being pulled in all those different directions. I would just say to learn from it and hear what coaches have to say."

For most top recruits it's tough to say no. It was for Williams, especially when it came to a few coaches.

"I would say it was tough to say no to Coach (Doug) Nussmeier from Florida," Williams said. "Me and him have a really good relationship, and Coach Mac (Jim McElwain) and Coach (Charlie) Frye. Me and him, we talked for a long time, a lot. He played in the NFL and he's had a lot of experience. He's helped me out through the process, with his experience.

"I would say Coach (Matt) Canada (at LSU), too. We built a good relationship. I think he was a little bummed out when I told them I was shutting it down. It was good getting to know him. He's a great coach. Also Coach (Jimbo) Fisher. He's also a great coach. His offense is very, very dynamic and what he does with quarterbacks is really good."

So it wasn't easy for Williams to say no to all of those coaches.

If you put yourself in Williams shoes, it might be easy to understand how a player might feel a tinge of sadness saying no to Bryant-Denny or Doak Campbell, two of the most revered stadiums in the sport, or turning down Death Valley, Rocky Top or that field Between the Hedges, especially as a Georgia native.

But for Williams, there seems to be a peace of mind that comes with Kentucky, and it's not balanced out by any regret. There's no sadness.

"Honestly, I don't feel that at all," he said. "With me, I'm the kind of guy, I don't really care about the name, the big school or that. I just want to be somewhere I'm going to be happy. Somewhere I feel good and I'm comfortable around people I can trust. I don't care about being around a big-time program. Yeah, it's cool. It has it's pluses. But that's not what I'm looking for."

There was a time when it looked like Goliath, or one of them, might slay David. So many Kentucky fans had seen the story before, when CatsIllustrated.com first reported that Williams was still saying Kentucky was his favorite, even after his decommitment, that the response was, "Yeah right. We'll believe it when we see it." But he wasn't exaggerating. Monday proves that.

Goliath might have won if it weren't for Vince Marrow. That's not to diminish the work done by Darin Hinshaw, who built the early relationship with Williams, who still has Williams' respect, and who will coach Williams in college.

But Marrow, UK's recruiting ace whose reputation is growing still yet, as he charts out a course across a greater share of the map than ever before, had a huge role in getting Williams back on board.

Anthony Williams, Jarren's father, told CatsIllustrated.com that Marrow was "the X-Factor."

Jarren agreed.

"He played a big factor," the quarterback said. "He started talking to me a lot and he made it his business to get on me, basically telling me that I'm a priority. Me and him already had a good relationship but over these past weeks we got really tight. I just got to really know him better. My dad and him have a really good relationship. Coach Marrow just keeps it real. I respect that. I can trust him. He's never lied to me."

UK's coaches could say the same thing about Williams.