Miami Hurricanes mulling whether to reinstate Avantae Williams after charges dropped
The University of Miami football program is deciding whether to allow safety Avantae Williams to rejoin the program, coach Manny Diaz indicated Monday after practice.
Williams was dismissed from the team July 22 after allegations of domestic violence, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him and the case was closed. Court records show the case was dropped Friday by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
“Right now, we’re trying to get all the official documents to find out where everything’s at so we can explore all the alternatives that are available,’’ Diaz told the Miami Herald. “Right now, we’re trying to get the documents in so we can have all the information so that the decision-makers can make the best decision with all the information available.”
Williams’ attorney, Michael Etienne, told the Herald on Saturday night that Williams wants to return to the Hurricanes and “our priority is to get Avantae back into school playing the sport that he loves.’’
On Monday afternoon, Etienne said he was still awaiting a decision. “That’s exactly what we were told yesterday, that they’re basically waiting for the decision-makers to make the decision,” Etienne said. “We’re not entirely sure who the decision-makers are, but we’re still waiting for an official response.”
Police had originally charged Williams with three counts of aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, which is a felony.
Initially, Miami-Dade police said Williams got into an argument with his former girlfriend and ordered her to leave their apartment. According to a police report, Williams later in the day grabbed the woman many times, throwing her outside and causing her to hit her head on the ground. Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue paramedics took her to West Kendall Hospital and noted “multiple bruises to her arms,” a minor bruise on her neck and two broken fingernails, an arrest report said.
But according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the woman told prosecutors she didn’t want to press charges. “The victim stated that she is not a victim and does not feel the defendant will harm her or her unborn child,” according to a final memo on the case. “The victim advised she was in ‘emotional distress’ when she spoke to police, and that the police were trying to make the situation more than what it was.”
She claimed the bruises and injuries were “from when she moved into her apartment, and not from the defendant battering her,” the memo said. With the woman’s recantation, the state declined to file charges because there were no independent witnesses and Williams “made no admissions to law enforcement.”
Williams, 20, was rated the nation’s No. 1 safety by Rivals.com in the 2020 recruiting class out of DeLand. He sat out his first season in 2020 because of an undisclosed medical issue but was set to play this season.
After he was dismissed from the team, Williams entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal. A source said at least 15 programs have contacted the safety about playing for them.
Earlier Monday, Diaz spoke on WQAM. Some highlights:
▪ On announcing the depth chart, which is not expected until game week: “The way we’ve sort of arranged our structure through camp and into the game prep is, after the scrimmage this past weekend, we basically [used] an NFL model. ... Some guys have to go into scout team, that’s their role. So we’re at that point now. Now, this week, when we introduce Alabama prep, now we find out who can succeed based off of what we’re doing game-planning wise to best win this football game.
“So, that’ll be another week of evaluation with, in essence, the guys who were competing for starting jobs or whatnot. And that’s what we’ll evaluate going into next weekend.”
▪ On the backup quarterback battle between second-year freshman Tyler Van Dyke and true freshman Jake Garcia: “It’s been a great competition. They’ve really been pushing each other. Both guys make a lot of plays. Both guys had to sort of negotiate a pocket that was breaking down at times [during the last scrimmage], which is good. That’s sort of the game real heat you want to put them under. I think that competition will continue on throughout the course of the year. We want to keep that mentality between the two of them where they’re constantly trying to seek improvement through the year and nose one in front of the other and that can only make us better.’’
Van Dyke, who has a year more experience learning the playbook, has been the No. 2 quarterback almost all of fall camp.
▪ On who will start at running back among incumbent starter Cam’Ron Harris and younger backs Don Chaney Jr. and Jaylan Knighton: “Still not ready to name that yet. … As you normally have in training camp, there have been some bumps and bruises along the way that sometimes take guys out, so you feel like you don’t really have a full camp of evaluation to make the call. Hopefully, we’ll get everybody back and rolling and then we can decide how to go from there.”
▪ On the defense’s front-seven rotation: “The best defenses I’ve ever been a part of always have eight guys up front that can roll. Because in the era now of the tempo offenses, not just the offense you’re defending, by the way, but the offense that you have. We want to go fast on offense.
“We don’t play a nine-inning baseball game anymore. With tempo offense you play 12 innings because you’re defending more snaps. The guys who log snaps the most are those interior defensive linemen and defensive ends, because that’s really the most physically taxing thing to do on the field.
“If we can be unselfish there and just go almost like a hockey team, four guys hop over the boards and get out there and empty the tank and four new guys come back after that. That goes back to the ‘90s. That’s the way we played great defense and we’ve got that recipe now.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
