2022 In-State Athlete Michael Williams Talks Michigan Offer

West Bloomfield (Mich.) High athlete Michael Williams was one of the first 2022 in-state prospects to receive an offer from Michigan.

Michael Williams / submitted

While the state of Michigan is flush with talented prospects in the 2021 class, the 2022 cycle is shaping up to contain quite a few top flight in-state recruits as well. One of those players is West Bloomfield (Mich.) High four-star athlete Michael Williams, and Michigan is one of his 16 offers at the moment.

Williams picked up his Michigan offer last April and out of all his scholarships, receiving one from the Wolverines caused a visceral reaction with the 6-3, 220-pound player.

“When it happened, I was actually very surprised,” Williams told Wolverine Digest. “I was not expecting it at all. It came as a very big surprise. I actually shed a couple tears. I was pretty happy for myself. To know that my hard work is paying off and that a team like Michigan is noticing me, it’s amazing.”

At the time, Michigan was the second school to enter Williams’ recruitment with an offer, so the Wolverines got in early on the 2022 recruit. Since then, Williams has picked up offers from Michigan State, Indiana, Arizona State, Maryland, Ole Miss and Tennessee among others.

Williams went on to have a productive sophomore season at both outside linebacker and H-Back for West Bloomfield, and the team turned in a postseason run that ended in Regionals. Over that time period, Williams has continued to hear from U-M, and the Wolverines programs has solidified itself as an appealing destination for the in-state prospect.

“Everything actually stands out because they run their program at Michigan pretty much exactly how we run ours” Williams said. “We run the same defense mostly. I think we even run some of the same offensive plays, maybe just a few, so even if anything happened I would be pretty used to being around the atmosphere at Michigan since I grew up with it and it’s in my high school every single day.”

West Bloomfield is not too far from Michigan Stadium, so Williams took in multiple games at The Big House last season.

“I have taken a few visits up to Michigan for games and stuff like that, but I haven’t completely seen everything though,” Williams said. “Probably more classroom stuff, more what the classroom sizes are and things like that. I already know about the athletics and all that stuff. I would rather know more about the academics.”

Moving forward, Williams would like to visit each school that has offered him up to this point, but that will be difficult to achieve as more scholarships continue to roll in. Just in the past several weeks, both Syracuse and Kentucky have offered as well.

In terms of what position he would play at the next level, Williams left that door open as schools are interested in his talent on both sides of the ball.

“Most teams are saying offense and defense, like H-Back and tight end and defensive end or outside linebacker, even at the size I’m at right now,” Williams said. “I actually don’t have a preference, but I think I would do really well at outside linebacker, defensive end and maybe a little bit of offense too.”

Over the offseason, Williams has committed himself to working on his agility and speed. While at lot of colleges have identified a quick-twitch burst as one of his strengths, Williams knows that he can always be quicker, so he is aiming to improve his strength and conditioning before the 2022 season begins.

Michigan is getting an early start in the 2022 class. Which prospects would you like for the Wolverines to push for the most? Let us know!