Texas Football: 3-Star LB target Jaydon Williams trending to Arizona State

One of the anticipated targets of the 2021Texas football recruiting class that is announcing his decision soon is 3-Star outside linebacker Jaydon Williams.

A target of the 2021 Texas football recruiting class that seemed like more of a lock a couple weeks ago might be getting away from the coaching staff just prior to his expected announcement date. Three-star South Oak Cliff outside linebacker Jaydon Williams recently received his Texas offer on April 8. But he’s received a number of scholarship offers since Texas sent him one earlier this month.

And one of those offers that Williams received before his from the Texas Longhorns football program came from head coach Herm Edwards and the Arizona State Sun Devils out of the PAC-12. The other offers he’s received since April 8 came from the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, Wyoming Cowboys, North Texas Mean Green, Arkansas Razorbacks, and Oklahoma Sooners.

With so much attention coming the Dallas, TX, native Williams’ way of late, there was bound to be an uphill battle facing head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns in pursuit of his commitment. But it appears that Arizona State might be leapfrogging the Longhorns as the front runner in pursuit of Williams right now.

All nine of the expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions favor Arizona State to land the commitment of Williams over the Longhorns and the rest of the field. Even the Rivals FutureCast has 78 percent of their analysts and publishers giving their predictions picking Arizona State.

A teammate of Williams’ at South Oak Cliff High School, unranked 2021 defensive tackle Vernon Henderson Jr. That could be one of the major reasons why Williams is starting to have his interests sway to Arizona State of late.

The only three offers Henderson Jr. carries at the moment came from FCS programs Morgan State and Alabama A&M, and from Arizona State.

Williams ranks as the nation’s No. 858 2021 high school prospect, No. 62 outside linebacker, and No. 121 prospect out of Texas. If he were to land with the Longhorns, he would be the first true linebacker commit in the 2021 recruiting class.

Why it is so important that the Longhorns got the interests of Williams firmly toward them within the last couple weeks was the fact that he’s announcing his commitment decision on May 1. Texas might have already lost him heading into the weekend, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens on Friday.

During his junior season at South Oak Cliff, the 6-foot-1 and 195 pound Williams registered 32 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, and five sacks. He just had a knack for blowing up opposing ball carriers in the backfield often last season.

Other significant offers that Williams holds came from the Kansas Jayhawks, SMU Mustangs, Colorado Buffaloes, Kansas State Wildcats, Ole Miss Rebels, Tennessee Volunteers, and Texas Tech Red Raiders. But this should be a two horse race at this point between what appears to be the Longhorns and Sun Devils.