Patrick Surtain on five-star Miami safety commit James Williams: ‘He is the real deal’
James Williams had only been practicing with Plantation American Heritage for about two weeks in the summer of 2018 when Patrick Surtain noticed an issue for his offense.
Williams, at the time a highly coveted sophomore safety, seemed to know everything that was coming. Before every snap in full-team action, Williams would glance over at the offense’s sidelines, watch the assistant coaches signal in the call and then place himself perfectly to break up the play.
For the rest of the year, the offense would have to huddle up to make sure the defensive back couldn’t just single-handedly erase whatever American Heritage was trying to one. In just a few weeks, Williams had learned the Patriots’ entire offensive playbook.
“What people don’t know about him,” said Surtain, Williams’ coach at American Heritage, “is he’s a really cerebral football player — really, really smart football player.”
Surtain knows what a future NFL player looks like. He was a two-time All-Pro cornerback for the Miami Dolphins and now runs one of the best programs in all of Florida. In the Class of 2018, Surtain coached two five-star cornerbacks: Patrick Surtain II and Tyson Campbell, who are now starters for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs, respectively.
Like those two, Williams is also a five-star defensive back slated to play his senior season for the Patriots. Although Williams is an entirely different sort of player, there are certain attributes Surtain can see as a common thread connecting the three five-star defensive backs he has coached.
Williams, who orally committed to the Miami Hurricanes last Tuesday, is “the real deal,” Surtain said.
“The great ones have a common denominator about them and you can see many, many similarities with those three,” Surtain said. “It’s their work ethic, it’s their loving the game of football, and really studying and staying after it, doing extra stuff.”
Everywhere he has gone, Williams has garnered comparisons to legendary Hurricanes safety Sean Taylor because of his ball-hawking instincts, his hard-hitting tendencies, and the stunning way he can move at 6-5 and 218 pounds.
Based on his physical gifts alone, Williams would be one of the top recruits in the Class of 2021 and he had scholarship offers from every Power 5 Conference team in the state before the end of his freshman year at Miami Gardens Monsignor Pace.
He first committed to the Hurricanes way back in 2018, then joined the Patriots as a sophomore, where he got to learn from Surtain and defensive coordinator Daryl Porter, who played five seasons as a safety in the NFL.
For his junior season, Williams transferred to Davie Western to play for his guardian, who’s an assistant coach at Western, before he returned to American Heritage in January as one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation.
He backed off his initial Hurricanes pledge in 2019, then announced a top two of Georgia and the Hurricanes in June. Last Tuesday, he shocked the recruiting world by recommitting to the hometown team.
“I was like, ‘What made you?’ He was like, ‘Coach, I was just laying in the bed and it just hit me,’ and sometimes that’s how it happens,” Surtain said. “He wanted to stay at the crib and play for UM. ... I think it’s a great thing that he’s staying home and playing, and trying to bring the U back to prominence that we all are used to.”
Those Taylor comparisons have always mattered to Williams, who grew up such a big Hurricanes fan he committed to them almost immediately after he pulled in the offer. He also has an important community support system in South Florida.
When Williams was young, he witnessed his father murder his mother. He lived with his grandmother for a time, and with other friends and family at others. Now the community he leaned on will always be close by.
“I felt like God ain’t want that to affect me in life,” Williams told WTVJ last year.
He’s now the No. 9 overall prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the 2021 recruiting class and the No. 1 athlete — a versatile player, who has been pegged as having a future everywhere from safety to defensive end.
Surtain agrees: Versatility is probably Williams’ greatest asset and the senior will likely play multiple safety spots, outside linebacker and maybe even some cornerback for the Patriots this year. While Surtain understands why some scouts believe Williams is a linebacker at the next level, he thinks Williams is a safety.
American Heritage has been holding workouts for about five weeks now and Surtain will occasionally have players running on the track. Williams is keeping up with the corners after slimming down and speeding up.
“He’s really serious about his craft, man,” Surtain said. “He wants to get better and you can see it in just his leadership out there. Kids tend to gravitate toward him, so he is the real deal.”
