2020 ATH Nigel Williams Hoping To Earn Notre Dame Offer At Camp

Nigel Williams‍ may not be a true national recruit just yet, but he has an opportunity – or opportunities – to become just that.

The 2020 Virginia athlete picked up his first Power Five offer, from the in-state Cavaliers, earlier this month and has been invited to several camps to compete for more next month, including Notre Dame.

Irish assistant coach Todd Lyght was by Collegiate School in Richmond earlier this week to check in on Williams and they had a chance to speak later on.

“He told me a little bit about Notre Dame,” Williams said of Lyght. “He didn’t really need to, obviously the history with Notre Dame Football speaks for itself. He really likes my film, likes that I can play both sides of the ball, likes that I’ve been a varsity starter since my freshman. He said he felt really good about my transcript. He said I fit the Notre Dame mold both as an athlete and student.

“He just wanted me to be able to get down to camp on June 9th. He said he was going to have a workout with me so I could earn a scholarship to Notre Dame.”

Williams described the feeling of knowing he was on Notre Dame’s radar to that extent as “insane.”

“Like I said before, Notre Dame’s history is super rich,” he added. “They’ve had a bunch of great football players come through that school, so just to be in the consideration of the University of Notre Dame is really special.”

The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder expects to work out at cornerback and safety during Notre Dame’s Irish Invasion Camp. He said he’s been clocked at 4.57 in the 40-yard dash and is hoping to test well during that portion of the event.

“I feel like I have really good ball skills,” he continued. “When the ball is in the air, I’m trying to take everything that’s in the air. I feel like my film really shows that, but when I go to camps and coaches are able to see it firsthand, they’re always really impressed.”

As much as anything, he hopes his playmaking ability stands out.

“I feel like whenever I step on the field, I have the skillset to make a game-changing play, so hopefully they’ll able to see that,” he said.

An offer from Notre Dame would obviously be a huge one.

“I’d really be thankful for the opportunity to play at Notre Dame,” he said of the possibility. “That’s been a dream school of mine for a long time, so that’d definitely be something that’s really special.”

Williams’ first impression of Lyght was extremely positive.

“He seems like a really straightforward guy,” Williams said. “When I got home, I talked to my dad about him. Obviously, he’s a little bit before my time, but my dad was like, ‘Yeah, it’s a big deal if he’s pulling up to your school with how good of a player he was at Notre Dame and with the Rams in the NFL, being able to win a Super Bowl.’

“He seemed like a really straightforward guy, a genuine guy. He told me what I needed to do in order to play there. He told me that he really liked me, but still wanted me to be able to earn that spot. That really meant a lot that he was straight up with me.”

For his part, Williams will also be looking to get a better feel for Notre Dame when he gets to South Bend.

“I’ve never been to Indiana period, let alone Notre Dame, so just kind of get a feel for it,” he said. “Kind of get a feel for how the campus is, how the school is. I just want to be able to work out with Coach Lyght and the rest of the coaching staff and get around the players, see if Notre Dame is somewhere I’d be able to fit in and be able to strive.”

In addition to Notre Dame, Williams has also been invited to camp at UCLA, Michigan, Northwestern, Florida and North Carolina.

“That’s kind of what my summer camp schedule is going to look like,” he said. “They’ve been kind of saying the same thing Coach Lyght was saying.”

He doesn’t have any favorites at this point, but when he completes his camp circuit and figures out all of his options, he plans to come out with a top five in early-July.

Beyond that, he doesn’t have a firm timeline for a commitment.

“Recruiting right now has been really fun for me and my family, but I have a cousin who plays linebacker at Penn State. One thing he told me is that as you get more into the meat of it, it can get really bothersome and get to be a lot. If I start feeling that, then it might be a decision where I want to get this thing over with before the end of the season, but right now, I really don’t know when I’m going to have that decision.”