DeJuan Williams from Baltimore, a four-star running back and a top-300 national prospect in the 2024 class, has verbally committed to Maryland after having Syracuse football in his top eight.
The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Williams revealed his college choice via Twitter. It’s not a surprise that he has verbally committed to the Terrapins, given this Big Ten Conference squad is his hometown team.
The Orange also has verbal commitments from two running backs in its top-40 nationally ranked 2024 cycle, so I didn’t expect the ‘Cuse to prevail in Williams’ recruitment.
https://twitter.com/D1Juan2/status/1675582119794417666
His top eight, announced in late May, consisted of Syracuse football, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Maryland, Oregon and Stanford.
Syracuse football didn’t win out for 2024 four-star running back DeJuan Williams.
On May 3 of this year, Williams said that he had received a scholarship offer from the Orange. According to his bio on Rivals.com, throughout his recruiting process, Williams has landed close to 40 offers.
Besides those in his top eight from late May, his offer sheet has included Arizona, California, two-time defending national champion Georgia, Duke, Florida, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Rutgers, Tennessee, Wake Forest and Wisconsin, among others.
Leading up to his commitment announcement on July 2, multiple predictions were logged in the direction of Maryland for Williams on several recruiting Web sites.
He suits up for one of the top football programs around the country, the Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore. Saint Frances was a top-10 national team a season ago and is forecast by high-school football experts as a top-10 squad ahead of the upcoming 2023 campaign.
A few days ago, ESPN updated its top 300 for the 2024 class, and in that refresh, Williams arrived at No. 261 overall, No. 18 at running back and No. 6 in Maryland.
At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite had him at No. 329 nationally, No. 27 at running back and No. 9 in Maryland.
The industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking, meanwhile, placed Williams at No. 320 nationwide, No. 29 at running back and No. 8 in Maryland.
To date, Syracuse football has scored 16 verbal commitments in its 2024 class, a cycle that ranks around No. 40 nationwide at this juncture, per multiple recruiting services. The Orange’s rising-senior class includes three-star running backs Trashon Dye and Jaden Hart.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Dye, out of the Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne, N.J., verbally committed to the ‘Cuse in early March of this year. More recently, last month, Hart pledged to the Orange.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Hart goes to Michigan City High School in Michigan City, Ind. When I wrote this piece, the 247Sports Composite had Hart as the No. 66 running back in the 2024 cycle, while Dye was rated the No. 75 RB in this class.