It’s been a long time coming but Michigan football managed to secure a top-priority target kicking off the month of June.
Recruiting has been a big deal for the maize and blue but the Wolverines haven’t had much to show for it. Sitting at five commitments entering the most pivotal month, the hope for the period where Michigan started hosting a slate of official visitors was that targets would start filling out the class.
Though June 21 kicks off the pivotal ‘victors weekend,’ the second week of visits managed to produce some fruit with the commitment of 2025 Palatine (Ill.) four-star defensive lineman Jaylen Williams.
BREAKING: Four-Star DL Jaylen Williams has Committed to Michigan, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’6 250 DL from Palatine, IL chose the Wolverines over Tennessee, Nebraska, & Texas A&M
“Momma I did it we rocking blue!”https://t.co/cg6BMaDhoW pic.twitter.com/RIiILvzBzj
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) June 10, 2024
Williams chose Michigan football over Nebraska, Purdue and Tennessee. He also had offers from Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas A&M, USC, and others.
The scouting report from 247Sports’ Allen Trieu:
Tall, long frame with athleticism and a basketball background. Gets off the ball with quickness and makes a good number of negative plays in the backfield. Runs by his high school competition quite a bit or wins quickly with his size and strength. Will need to get more technically adept at shedding against more even competition in college. Has a little bit of experience standing up, but we’re likely looking at a 290-300+ pound hand-down college lineman. He fits very well in an odd-front as an end. In a 4-3, he could be a combo guy but will likely grow into more of an interior player in that scheme. Still learning and has rawness to his game, but has clear high-major physical gifts and plays the game hard which is a good foundation.
247Sports has Williams rated as a four-star at No. 153 overall, the 20th-best defensive lineman and No. 5 player in the state of Illinois.