This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star Seth Williams at Lakeside High. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 37 S and the No. 409 overall prospect for 2027 on the 247Sports Composite. The Rivals Industry Ranking has him at No. 35 S and No. 369 overall.
Seth Williams celebrates his commitment eve today. At least publicly.
The newly-minted 4-star safety from Lakeside High in Atlanta was originally set to make his college decision on July 3. If that had been the case, he likely would have recommitted to the Clemson program he was initially pledged to earlier this year.
Now? This race has gotten tighter. He will share his decision tomorrow via a 6 PM streaming ceremony from his aunt’s house in Lithonia.
Clemson or Georgia. That’s the way he’s looked at his decision since the late spring. Those were his only two official visits.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Williams projects to be a free safety in college. He has rare skills for that frame. That’s why the next round of 2027 evals should push him well within the nation’s top 300 prospects for this cycle.
He’s an interesting prospect. Michigan actually offered him earlier this year to play linebacker. But he’s more than fast enough to play DB.
“Here’s the deal with Seth,” Lakeside coach Morris Starr said. “That’s what I kept telling all those college coaches and they didn’t believe me until they came and worked him out. They see him and ask, ‘You don’t think he is a 4.5 (in the 40), maybe?”
Starr had a stock answer ready.
“He flirts with 4.4,” Starr will say. “He flirts with 4.4 and his burst is a 4.3 burst. When he wants to run, he can fly and he’s long now so it doesn’t look like he is going fast, but he’s flying now. When he runs by those guys on the field, he just goes by them.”
Williams told DawgNation this week that he has his decision in his back pocket for maybe 10 days now. What did it come down to?
“Simple,” he said. It was where I would go and thrive the most. Where would I go and be the best player I could be? Where would I go and get coached the hardest? A lot of kids don’t like to get coached hard, but just for me, I feel like that’s what you need to be to be a great player."
“I get coached hard here [at Lakeside] and a lot of people might not know that, but I got coached hard here. I feel like if I get coached hard somewhere else, then this will be me at the next level when I am going to the NFL.”
He arrived there after some reflection.
“Really just praying,” he said. “Praying did a lot for me in this situation. It was like, how am I going to come into this week knowing that I’ve got to commit now? Or the week before, knowing I’m committing soon. I set my date and was like, we’re not pushing it back anymore or into August. Because that’s just football time. That’s what got me here.”
He didn’t want to go into August and have that be a distraction from the upcoming season at Lakeside.
“I didn’t want that attention to be on me and to separate me from my teammates because at the end of the day it is all about football. It’s always going to be about football.”
Check out his junior highlight film below. Don’t be surprised to see a greater volume of “wow” plays with him lined up on the offensive side at receiver. That’s just how he was featured last year on both sides of the ball.
Per MaxPreps.com, he had 10 catches for 222 yards and three touchdowns last season as a junior. He had 73 tackles, one INT and one forced fumble on defense.
The weekly DawgNation.com “Before the Hedges” program is available as an Apple podcast.
Seth Williams breaks down Clemson and Georgia
Williams will be a December graduate. He will enroll as a mid-year signee in either Athens or Clemson.
Why would he come back to the 2027 class at Clemson?
“Just the relationships,” he told DawgNation this month. “If you go there, it really feels like family. I feel like being there, it is a home away from home. Because [the state of] Georgia is literally home. So when you go somewhere, and it feels like a home away from home, it feels weird because you’ve never really been to a place that feels like home unless you’re with family.”
“When you go to Las Vegas, and you’re from Georgia, you’re like, this is not my place to be. Or I feel out of character here. But when you go somewhere, and you say ‘I can see myself here,’ it is just a different feeling.”
Why would he choose the Dawgs? He rattled off three members of the Georgia staff, beginning with safeties coach Travaris “TRob” Robinson.
“The top three for me are ‘TRob’ and Kirby Smart and coach Andrew Thacker,” Williams said earlier this month. “Those three guys are just like great in their respective fields. Coach Smart was a safety. I feel like if there were a coach I needed to play for, it would be Coach Smart because, you know, he did it. He’s coached the best. He’s produced the best and you’ve got ‘TRob’ who’s produced some of the best, too. He’s produced and had Caleb Downs at Alabama. He had Jaycee Horn at South Carolina. He has KJ Bolden at Georgia.”
“Then Thacker, he’s just a football head. When you see Coach Thacker, you’re like ‘Man, what’s up with this guy?’ but when you really get to meet Coach Thacker, he’s like really, really intelligent. Like really really intelligent. He’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. He’s really really really smart. A lot of people are just football smart, but Coach Thacker is smart in life. He’s smart in all aspects.”
