Two months and one day since Ohio State’s last commitment, the 2019 recruiting class got the jolt it needed Friday when St. Louis Cardinal Ritter College Prep four-star wide receiver announced in favor of the Buckeyes. The 6-1 1/2, 169-pound wideout took to Twitter at 3:39 p.m. ET when he shared his OSU decision.
Committed! pic.twitter.com/KEf34wcjwQ
— juiceman (@juicedupjameson) September 28, 2018
Williams is the 247Sports composite’s No. 130 overall prospect, No. 24 wide receiver and No. 2 player in Missouri. His pledge provides Ohio State with its 15th member and second wideout for the current cycle, bolstering the group with Austin (Texas) Lake Travis five-star wide receiver Garrett Wilson.
Thirteen months ago, the Buckeyes extended Williams an offer Aug. 30 of last year. He followed up with unofficial visits Nov. 11 for OSU’s 48-3 rout of Michigan State and April 8 during spring camp.
On June 14, Williams included the Buckeyes in his final five with Nebraska, Oregon, Alabama and UCLA. He officially visited Columbus the weekend of June 22-24, the first of his five available trips, putting OSU in early command after Williams unofficially visited Alabama from June 19 into the weekend.
“When I talked to him (about the official visit) he loved it,” Cardinal Ritter head coach Brandon Gregory told BSB. “He talked about how they went bowling. I’m like, ‘Jameson, bowling is bowling.’ But it was just something about it. Then he got to visit (head coach Urban Meyer‘s) house and go swimming and just do non-football related stuff where he said it just felt more like a family atmosphere. That’s what we preach here at Cardinal Ritter. So for him to leave one family atmosphere into another one I think would be great for him. Just talking to him a little bit about (the official visit), he enjoyed it a lot.”
Former wide receivers coach Zach Smith, whom Ohio State fired July 23, first recruited Williams. Meyer tabbed Brian Hartline, a former Buckeyes wideout (2006-08) who was entering his second season back at OSU after serving as a quality control coach with the position in 2017, as interim wide receivers coach July 26. Williams marks Meyer’s first commitment back from the head coach’s three-game suspension.
After unofficial visits to Oregon (June 27) and Nebraska (June 31), he was set to take four more of his available official visits in the fall. Williams made his planned trip Sept. 15 at UCLA for the Bruins’ 38-14 loss to Fresno State, but then announced Sept. 18 that he canceled his subsequent trip Sept. 22 to Oregon for the Ducks’ prime-time game against Stanford. Nebraska (Sept. 29 vs. Purdue) and Alabama (Oct. 13 vs. Missouri) were his other scheduled official visits before he committed to Ohio State.
