Mario Williams is a two-sport star at Plant City High School, and he’s now one school year away from possibly becoming the University of Oklahoma’s next two-sport star.
Williams made his college choice official shortly after noon Friday, when he broadcast his choice live on Instagram shortly after noon and chose the Sooners over the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs and the 2019 national champion LSU Tigers.
“I’d like to take my talents to the University of Oklahoma,” Williams said on an Instagram story video, unzipping a jacket to reveal his OU t-shirt. “I’ll be a Boomer Sooner.”
The choice was expected by virtually everyone on the national recruiting beat, from 247 Sports to rivals.com, as Oklahoma seemed to be the most natural landing spot for Williams. He’s a perfect match for Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley’s offense. If you’ve seen Williams play, it’s not hard to picture him working his way into the same role recent OU star wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown had: they’ve all won matchups and beaten defenses with their quickness, elite separation skills and the knack for making big plays after the catch. Brown and Lamb both went on to become first-round NFL draft picks in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Williams has totaled 120 catches for 2,448 yards and 33 touchdowns in his three seasons as a starter for the Raiders. His best season came in 2018 when he and Braxton Plunk linked up for 950 passing yards and 14 touchdowns with Williams’ 51 catches. His skills have also been a boon for the Raiders’ special teams unit as a return man, and Williams also matched up against other wideouts on the other side of the ball as a cornerback as a sophomore and junior. Williams hasn’t missed a game in three seasons with the team, either.
As an added bonus, the Sooners seem to have no problems whatsoever with letting their players swing a bat. Kyler Murray, who won the Heisman Trophy at quarterback, played in the OU outfield from 2017 to 2018 and became the first athlete ever to get selected in the first round of both the NFL and MLB drafts in 2019.
Williams’ speed has always made him a threat on the base paths and a dangerous outfielder to try and get a base hit on, as he can cover more ground in center field more quickly than most. Despite a .167 batting average in his freshman season, he still managed to score 18 runs for the Raiders. Williams’ bat got a lot better in his sophomore and junior seasons — he finished at .280 through 29 games in his sophomore season and hit .316 through seven games in 2020 — and his improvement helped make him an important part of Plant City’s 2019 state championship win, offensively and defensively.
The Plant City wideout is one of three Florida-based receivers in the ESPN Top 100 for the Class of 2021 and was the last to commit: Booker T. Washington’s Jacorey Brooks and Bloomingdale’s Agiye Hall both picked Alabama over the last few weeks. Williams joins another Top 100 receiver, No. 21 Cody Jackson of Richmond, Texas’ Foster High School, who committed to the Sooners on April 14, 2019.