On Wednesday night Notre Dame grabbed its 5th commit of the 2024 cycle as Glenbard South High School receiver Cam Williams gave a verbal to the Fighting Irish. Williams came on to Notre Dame’s radar this spring with a big visit in April that was followed up with an offer about a month later in May. Things progressed quickly for the Chicago-area product as the Irish quickly became the favorite to land his services culminating in his announcement tonight.
There was some competition from the likes of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan but ultimately Notre Dame prevailed.
Recruiting Service Rankings
Rivals — 4Â star (5.9 rating), #104 overall, #11 WR, #3 in IL
ESPN —Â Not Yet Rated
On3 — 4 star (91 rating), #136 overall, #17 WR, #3 in IL
On3 Composite — 4 star (91.50), #75 overall, #12 WR, #2 IL
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #178 overall, #31 WR, #3 in IL
247Sports Composite —Â 4 star (.9475), #111 overall, #19 WR, #2 in IL
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (93 rating)
If things weren’t trending well enough, Williams flashed outstanding potential at the Irish Invasion camp earlier in June. Since then, it felt like just a matter of time for Notre Dame to close things out for a wideout likely to push towards a Composite top 100 ranking nationally.
Cohort
In addition to the Irish, Hawkeyes, Badgers, and Wolverines he was offered by Cincinnati, Arizona State, Duke, Indiana, Iowa State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and several other programs.
Highlights
Williams is listed at 6’2″ and 185 pounds. I rarely say this, but he looks bigger than that on tape and in candid shots off the field. He certainly has good height and length. While certainly far from a hulking receiver he has a nice muscular frame and will probably settle in somewhere around 195 to 200 pounds in college.
First thing that jumps out is Williams’ quick first step. For someone likely to be a “W” big receiver for the Irish he possesses really good speed. With this size and speed combination I don’t know how he won’t he get a significant bump in the 247Sports ratings in the coming months.
He’ll run by some people in college. It’s tough to get a grasp on some his finer skills as he plays with a weaker offense around him, relatively speaking. He’s a big target and shows pretty good hands. I’ll be curious to see how he handles running through traffic at Notre Dame. I’d like to see a little more wiggle with the ball in his hands–but he’s probably a pure speed-type of pass catcher.
Impact
Recruiting is hitting different right now for 2023-24 and if we assume Williams either redshirts or plays sparingly as a true freshman the roster–and quarterback situation–could look awfully different in 2025 compared to what we’re experiencing today. Most notably, Williams could be part of a big receiving threat linking up with CJ Carr at quarterback.
I like Williams to be a future no. 1 receiver and there’s potential for him to be pretty special. With 2 more years of high school left to play he’s already bringing an exciting amount of size, speed, and athleticism to the table. We’ll see how he grows in the coming years.
Welcome to the Irish family, Cam!
Odd how his offer list doesn’t seem to mirror his rankings.
Ronan will make up for it
Early in the game, strong academic kid, great family, all indications of him being the most interested in the likes of Michigan or ND. I could see why FSU, LSU, etc. wouldn’t even bother at this point of the process. Although, OSU is one that sticks out.
According to 247, OSU has only offered 6 WRs in ’24 (ND has offered 16). All but Mylan Graham (not yet rated) are in the top 80 overall. On3 has them with 90% chance to land 2 WRs in the top 10.
OSU WR recruiting seems to have reached absurd levels. Being a lowly top 100 player doesn’t warrant their attention.
Good points. For as well-rated and impressive as Williams is, he’s still on a “yeah, that’s nice but we can do even better” spot for tOSU. Scary indeed.
Also relates to why ND will get Flores, tOSU is getting three 5-stars in the 2023 cycle. Even though they offered and recruited him somewhat, they probably don’t have the room to accept him now. (And for him obviously it doesn’t make sense to join that group at the very bottom anyways).
I guess for now this is ND’s place in the WR market: can get the run off that tOSU can’t fit. Williams and Flores are mighty good, so that’s not a bad spot to be, but they are just operating at such an unreal level at that position.
Yeah. We’re gonna need to ship out some first rounders to get up to that level. Fortunately, we have otherwise mostly closed the ‘crootin’ gap.
For now we have to follow Oregon and Michigan’s game plan last year of outrecruiting them on the defensive front 7 so those receivers don’t have time to get down the field.
Yea thankfully OSU’s scraps is still an improvement for us. I’m pretty sure Styles was one of those too and pretty sure – like you said – Flores wanted to go to OSU but they don’t have any room for him.
Yep, you’re right, I believe they were only interested in him as a DB if memory serves and that was always going to be his first choice if they would have taken him for a WR.
Live look at Ohio State after we show them our latest WR commit.
Mads autorec
His Hannibal is the best Hannibal
lol yea for OSU it’s top 50 players only at WR this year I think. They are close to basically getting whatever 5 star WR they want and then being done. Yikes.
Notre Dame can compete with top 30 WRs. The thing is they need 3 of them each cycle not one. Add Greathouse, Flores and Hanafin along with James and you have a very good group. They need hauls like this 3 out of 4 years, not one out of 4.
Yes, exactly. This is definitely an improvement for us. And if you get this kind of haul every year then you can expect 1 out of those 4 to turn into a legit #1 WR from every class and have a really good WR core (with enough of the other receivers to run out a legit #2 and #3 every year). And by really good I mean even like top 10 in the country. Yes, it’s not OSU or Bama (when healthy) but it’d be darn good.