2020 CB Nigel Williams Excited To Hear Back After Invasion Performance

Nigel Williams‍ came to Notre Dame for Sunday’s Irish Invasion looking to prove himself.

The 2020 Virginia defensive back did just that and now he’ll wait to hear if it was enough to earn an offer.

He won’t have to wait very long.

“I think I did really well,” Williams told Irish Sports Daily after the camp. “We started off with some combine testing type of thing. I improved my 40 time. I ran a 4.53 and my shuttle was a 4.12. Those were two of my best scores, so I was really excited about that.

“They broke us up into positions. I did really well in the drills. I was with Coach (Todd) Lyght, Coach (Terry) Joseph and Coach (Chris) O’Leary for most of the time. I thought I did really well and they told me I did really well, especially in the one-on-ones. I had a couple of nice plays and I think two interceptions, so I was really, really happy about that.”

Afterward, Williams had the chance to speak with O’Leary about the next steps.

“He was basically telling me, ‘We’re going to break everything down tomorrow,’” Williams recalled. “They said they’re going to get back to me either tomorrow or Tuesday. It’s all positive feedback. I’m just really looking forward to that phone call.”

The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder isn’t nervous or anxious.

“Notre Dame is such a high-quality football school with everything they do,” he said. “They’re super thorough with who they’re recruiting and everything. I kind of expected they would want to take more time after this camp. I’m not frustrated about that or anything. I’m just really excited to get back on the phone with them.”

The Collegiate School standout was really impressed with the way the coaches interacted with the campers as well as the current players.

“I could just really tell it was a family type of atmosphere there, so I’m just really excited for that phone call,” said Williams.

Coming to South Bend for the camp wasn’t a tough decision.

“Coach Lyght was at my school on May 15th and he talked with me later,” Williams remembered. “He said, ‘Hey man, I just want you to be able to come June 9th and try to earn your spot at Notre Dame.’ That was a no-brainer for me with how successful he was in the NFL and how successful of a program Notre Dame is. This was definitely a top school on my list.

“I also wanted to see Indiana. I’d never been to Indiana. I’d never been to Notre Dame, so we got here a little bit early to check out the campus. It’s a beautiful campus, so I was just really excited to get down here.”

Williams has seen his recruitment take off in recent weeks, scoring his first Power Five offers from Virginia and Wake Forest. He said an offer from the Irish “would mean a lot.”  

“I really feel as though I’m the type of player who could play at a Notre Dame-type of school, so if they offered me, it would definitely mean a lot,” he said.

He’s hoping to have things narrowed down within the next month or so.

“We’re going to have a really strong team this year,” he said. “At the midpoint of July, I really want to be able to focus on high school. That doesn’t mean I’m going to have a decision made by mid-July. It just means I want to have things concise and have a clear picture of where I’m going to be going with recruiting.”

He’s set to camp at Michigan on Monday and Northwestern on Friday after camping at UCLA last weekend.

“I’m going to be done camping at the end of this week,” he said. “I don’t really know how the timeline is going to look, but at the end of June, I kind of want to have a clear picture of the schools I’m going to focus on.”

Academics will be a “huge factor” in his final decision.

“I come from a family with two parents who own their own businesses,” said Williams. “They really impress upon me how important academics are. I go to a private school in Richmond, Virginia that is extremely competitive both academically and athletically. That really grooms kids in our high school to be able to go to top schools.

“Our coach always tells us that football is going to end at the end of the day, so we’re going to need a backup plan. Notre Dame and Stanford and Northwestern and UCLA are schools that are able to give me that.”

Those schools could jump into the mix with offers, but for now, Williams is honored to have the offers he has.

“I’m really grateful to those schools that have given me the opportunity to play. As recruiting goes on, obviously things can change. Right now, I’m sitting with those two Power-Five offers because I don’t know how things are going to change.”