A running back named Williams from Missouri, you say? On Friday evening, Notre Dame added its 7th member of the 2024 recruiting class as running back Aneyas Williams committed to Marcus Freeman and the Irish program following multiple visits to campus throughout 2022.
Hailing from Hannibal High School in northeast Missouri just across the Mississippi River from Illinois, Williams was offered by Notre Dame back in early June with the Irish remaining the favorite right through until today.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9256 rating), #185 overall, #22 ATH, #5 in MO
On3 Consensus — 4 star (91.90), #140 overall, #13 RB, #4 in MO
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), #240 overall, #35 ATH, #6 in MO
On3 — 4 star (91 rating), #185 overall, #16 RB, #5 in MO
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #106 overall, #1 APB, #3 in MO
ESPN — 4 star (80 grade), #292 overall, #27 RB, #7 in MO
Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (91 rating)
Aneyas seems to be suffering from the athlete label which can sometimes affect a recruit’s rankings across all of these different websites. Many do expect him to settle in as running back in the rankings and move up much higher than his ESPN and 247 grades.
Cohort
Williams had a big summer picking up offers. In addition to Notre Dame, he was offered by Alabama, Florida, and Ohio State. Additionally, he holds offers from Oregon, Penn State, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn, and several others.
Highlights
Williams totaled 1,999 all-purpose yards and 34 total touchdowns in 2022 but as a sophomore in 2021 he destroyed Hannibal High School records left and right to put himself on the national scene, as follows:
105 rushing attempts
1,001 rushing yards
9.53 rushing average
20 rushing touchdowns
63 receptions
1,297 receiving yards
20.5 receiving average
24 receiving touchdowns
9 punt returns
360 punt return yards
2 punt return touchdowns
4 kickoff returns
98 kickoff return yards
2,756 all-purpose yards
46 total touchdowns
All of that production inside of 14 games from Missouri Class IV football.
There isn’t the same type of suddenness and burst like we saw from Kyren Williams in college, but people are going to make the comparison for Aneyas in many other areas of his game. They share a very stocky frame with a larger lower body and a lot of shiftiness.
Obviously, the pass-catching abilities stand out. Williams shows really good power and strength when in a crowd and coupled with his vision and cutting ability he’s able to navigate through traffic for extra yards extremely well at the high school level.
Listed at 5’10” he’s not real tall but already looks college-ready at nearly 200 pounds.
Overall speed will be something to focus on once Williams gets to college. Will he be fast enough to become a big-time star and home run threat like in high school?
Impact
I’ll be curious to see how Williams handles the step up to Notre Dame and a different level of athleticism. On the one hand, he’ll be ready physically at his size and brings with him a versatile game and plenty of opportunity to flex out in the slot or take jet sweeps. On the other hand, some of the competition in his highlights from Missouri high school leave a lot to be desired with extremely poor tackling and weak defensive play.
It feels like Williams will have a very high floor but there’s also an element of boom or bust, too. He could come in and struggle against the size and speed, or maybe he truly is sneaky fast and follows in the footsteps of Show Me State brethren Kyren Williams and turns into a potent weapon for the Irish.
Currently, the the running back room for Notre Dame looks quite congested. By the time Williams arrives on campus there should be plenty of turn over and space available for playing time. Both Audric Estime and Logan Diggs would be entering their senior seasons, although with this position it’s possible one of them has moved on to the next level by that point.
Welcome to the Irish family, Aneyas!
Seems like we’re losing Limar, but also kind of seems like he’s a better version of Limar? I’ll take it.
Agreed. Also, even if Tyree is slot WR or gone or not a factor; Estime, Diggs and the return of Price means there’s not much of a need for a new RB anytime soon. And Love is sick too.
Happy to see Williams in the fold, but also feels less meaningful than ever to pick up a verbal 12+ months out from signing day.
Very true. ND might be particularly poorly positioned in terms of early commits: for somebody who commits early when ND is their best offer, the really good ones who fly up the rankings might go chase NIL money when that comes available (a la Keeley), and otherwise we’re stuck with the commitments of guys who aren’t as good come senior year as they looked when they were committed. (Not to mention some might use an ND commitment as a placeholder in case they get hurt and still want to go to a good school.)
I guess the way to fix NIL issues is pretty straightforward but ND seems mostly uninterested thus far; the way to fix the other problem is be willing to not-so-subtly tell underperforming recruits they’ll never play here. Seems like they are starting to do some of that (eg Irvin).
Yep, that TE who I think ended up at Michigan St got recruited over and nudged along too, I think they’ll do that more as situations present.
The rest is true, kinda a bleak perspective but not false. Notre Dame has like an 82% blue chip ratio this year, no? I don’t think they’re too “stuck” in the big picture with too many falling or unimpressive players. They still can get talent.
Losing guys like Keeley sucks, but even without NIL, his profile took off and I think he would have had family pressure to go somewhere closer and creates a lot more first round picks than Notre Dame. I can’t really fault him for that, sorta like a WR thinking twice about it and realizing they should probably go to Ohio State. NIL does change and color a lot though.
It might be difficult (if not impossible) to build a championship caliber team when fighting from behind on top-50 kids, but under Freeman I think we can expect — and we have started to see — him involved in a lot more chases and probably a lot of improvement from like 75-175 type prospects (which he has 10 commits of this year, not even counting Bowen).
Might lead to more broken hearts when losing the big game battles, but I guess the silver lining is at least they’re putting in the work to get in the picture for more of those kids. And shoot enough and maybe sometimes it will go in.
He cuts laterally very well, not 1-2 yds but 3-4. That’s rare.