Louisville football: Cards trending for familar name in class of 2021

Louisville football has picked up two commitments in the last few days, could they soon land another from a familar player in the class of 2021?

Sometimes recruiting works in mysterious ways. For Louisville football, the recruitment of four-star outside linebacker, Jaraye Williams, has been a story of two worlds colliding.

I think we are all extremely familar with former Louisville basketball star Terrence Williams who was one of the most notorious stars in program history, known for his freak athleticism and dunk ability, playing on some of my favorite teams from 2006-2009.

We are also familar with Cort Dennison, Louisville football’s co-defensive coordinator, who is a former football star at Washington and one of the nation’s top young recruiters.

Those are two names you probably would never expect to be mentioned in the same paragraph, let alone the same article, but with Dennison serving as the lead recruiter for the son of T-Will, here we are.

Back in February, I wrote about the Burien, Washington product after the Cards extended the scholarship offer and seriously began pursuing the 6’3, 197-pound outside linebacker/safety. The Cards were late to get into a recruitment that included multiple power programs including USC, Washington, Nebraska, among others, but thanks to their family ties it elevated their status quickly.

Read more: Cards land commitment from rising local offensive tackle

To be honest with you, at the time I wrote the article I thought there was no chance that Louisville was going to be able to land Williams, despite his father being one of the biggest stars in program history. Even with quotes like “I got the offer from Coach Dennison and he reminded me on how much I love Louisville. My dad was more excited than I was…I’m definitely going out there in March. As a kid, I went to Louisville to watch my dad play but those were the only times. So I can’t wait to go back,” I doubted the pull that the program would have on the Williams family.

Thankfully, it appears I was way wrong.

Over the last 24 hours, crystal ball projections have begun to come in for Louisville to land the services of one of the nation’s 22nd best outside linebacker, one of which comes from Brandon Huffman 247 Sports National Recruiting Editor.

Even in the midst of the pandemic which has completely shutdown in-person recruiting,  the Cards have made headway in their relationship with Williams and now look primed to land a commitment whenever he should announce.

In a defense that values speed, athleticism, and playmaking, Williams is a great fit for either the CARD outside linebacker position or even potentially playing at safety.

Huffman described Williams as:

"“Explosive and quick off the edge with ability to move in space and show fluidity in coverage. Needs to improve his strength and ability to shed blockers- uses his speed and quickness to get past blockers but if blocker engages, needs to work on disengaging. Needs to bulk up in upper body and develop moves. High-level athleticism, former basketball player (father was NBA lottery pick) but still inexperienced. Projects as multi-year Power 5 starter and projects as third day pick.”"

With the coaching and development abilities of Cort Dennison along with the wizard-like work of Strength Coach Mike Sirignano, Williams is a guy who could easily develop into a star for Bryan Brown’s defense. His instincts and athleticism flash when you watch his tape, and when you combine that with his ability to diagnose plays and use his speed to play sideline to sideline, he’ll be a great fit.

Should Williams commit, he’d join a young linebacking core with a ton of potential and would likely compete with guys like Marvin Dallas, Trenell Troutman, amongst others at the outside linebacker spot.

Williams would be quite the addition at linebacker for the staff, following his breakout season that saw him total 30 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, two pass deflections, an interception, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery playing for Kennedy Catholic.

I can’t begin to describe how exciting it is to think about one of my favorite childhood players back around the program once again (I can’t remember one time he’s been back) but what makes it even better is he’d be doing so with his son set to play a major role for his alma mater.