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I traveled up to Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South on Thursday and spoke with 2024 wide receiver Cam Williams for close to an hour. I also had the opportunity to speak to his head coach, Ryan Crissey, and his quarterback,
Michael Champagne, separately.
We spoke on various topics including Williams' senior season, Notre Dame’s 2024 recruiting class, his relationship with quarterback commit
CJ Carr, excitement for January and more.
I enjoyed learning more about Williams and look forward to telling multiple stores about him this weekend. On Friday evening, I plan on attending Glenbard South’s final regular season game at Elign to shoot video of Williams.
Per Rivals, Williams is a four-star recruit and the No. 48 overall player in the 2024 class. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound recruit slots in as the No. 10 wide receiver in the class.
As
@Tyler James mentioned in
Inside ND Sports'
Trail Tracks, Williams told me he expects to see head coach Marcus Freeman and wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey at school on Friday afternoon.
On the Irish 2024 class:
"The class has definitely bonded, I'll say that," Williams said. "Definitely a group of guys where it's like we see each other every day when we come together, it's all goofiness. It's all buddy-buddy but in a good way. I'm surprised, you know, it's often hard when you got dudes coming from all over the place to become a total unit right away, but I feel like we've done that and we're not even together yet. We won't all be together for like another, I don't know, nine, eight months. I think just as a class, on visits, we seem like we're best friends already."
On what his time committed to Notre Dame has been like:
"You've just been committed for so long, I've seen it all technically. Seeing how the class has grown has been great, doing the recruiting and doing this to make sure we get the right guys has been nice and then also the Notre Dame culture and families are a good one. There's support on social media and we just know that we're excited to play for them but they're also excited for us to come here and kind of just pave a new path in this program."
On relationship with Freeman, Stuckey and coaching staff:
"I've been committed so long with like [the] recruiting staff and coaches ... I don't know, it feels like yes, that's my coach and yes, those are the people that recruited me, but it's just family now."
On wide receiver trio of him,
Micah Gilbert and
Logan Saldate:
"Stuckey did an amazing job of finding us three. I mean, he's definitely got speed in that room with us three coming in. He's also got different types of guys. You got Logan here, [a] smaller, quicker guy that can come out the slot and most likely you'll lose him. And then you got Micah. one of the bigger guys maybe on the outside who is physical and [can] go up and get the ball. And Logan's a freak athlete, not to say he won't go up and get the ball but I think when you bring in different types of guys that makes it harder for defenses. Are you going to key on the smaller dude on the slide or go to the outside and kind of shut that down?"
"We'll still have threats everywhere on the field."
On Notre Dame's season:
"I'm pretty sure most people felt kind of how I felt, we come out here, we whoop the crap out of USC and we're like, 'Dang, what happened those last two weeks?'"
"But I think that kind of shows some adversity because every game we've walked into the last four weeks, there was some sort of target on our back. We actually have this hard four-week span of games and for everyone to expect them to come out and perform at a high level is a lot. Obviously, the losses had happened but to come out and win against your rival and say like, 'Screw this, that's in the past.'"
"I talked to coach Freeman, coach Stuckey [and] it's just kind of like you live and you learn but you gotta move on. And that's exactly what they did. I mean, putting up almost 50 points on USC, and having the Heisman winner throw three picks to you is definitely saying screw this, let's go out there and just ball."
On his goals when he arrives on campus in January:
"Football-wise, I just want to go in with the mindset that I’m here to get better, get stronger, faster and all those things because I’d love to be a contributor as a freshman. I think the coaches know that’s definitely a goal of mine and I know that’s not gonna be handed to me ... it's gonna be like let’s see, let’s work and we’ll see where we’re at. I know Coach Stuckey, we’ve talked and he’s gonna push me to the best kind of person off the field and on the field as well.
A couple more notes:
- Williams has visited the Irish 15 times in his recruitment, including trips for games against Tennessee Stae, Ohio State and USC this season. He said the recruiting office has become his second home and he feels at home every time he's inside The Gug or around members of Notre Dame football's program, whether its current players or staff members.
- Before he broke onto the scene as a football recruit, Williams said his plan was actually to pursue basketball as his primary sport. Williams is the No. 8 leading rebounder in Glenbard South's boys basketball history but won't play his senior season due to enrolling at Notre Dame. Said it's been a special sport because he's played with the same group of guys since middle school.
- Williams has met every commit in Notre Dame's 2024 class except offensive tackle
Guerby Lambert. Williams grinned when I asked him about trying to flip Nebraska 2024 TE commit Carter Nelson:
"Still working on that."
- Williams plans to major in Economics. Also said sports management is an interest of his down the road.
- According to Williams, Carr underrates himself as a runner and won't talk up himself as much as he should as a scrambler. He believes Carr receives attention for his arm but his legs can really make a difference. Also said the dual-threat skillset is needed with quarterbacks today.
- Williams met Joe Montana and Urban Meyer last week at the USC game. Said he's also met Chase Claypool and Cole Kmet previously. Williams said the opportunity to meet people and see the Notre Dame network has been cool and something he knows not every recruit experiences.
Link to full story:
Notre Dame 2024 WR commit Cam Williams explains how the Irish class is so tightly knit and close with one another.
notredame.rivals.com
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