After losing playing time as a sophomore, a former top Miami recruit announces transfer
Another Miami Hurricane is headed into the transfer portal and this time it’s a player who once seemed to be on a star trajectory.
After falling out of favor and seeing a shrunken role as a sophomore, Avantae Williams is transferring from Miami, he announced on Twitter. Williams had a tumultous career with the Hurricanes — including a health issue, a domestic-violence accusation and, ultimately, an impressive freshman season in 2021 — and is now planning to head elsewhere to wrap up his college career.
The safety will have three years of eligibility left after a medical issue kept him off the field for the entire 2020 season.
Williams is the seventh Miami to announce his intentions to transfer this month and the fourth defensive back. The others so far are running back Thaddius Franklin Jr., defensive lineman Allan Haye and Elijah Roberts, and defensive backs Gilbert Frierson, Jalen Harrell and Keshawn Washington.
Williams is also maybe the Hurricanes’ highest profile entrant so far. The 6-foot, 198-pound defensive back was Miami’s top-ranked addition in the Class of 2020, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, and the No. 2 safety in the nation when he was coming out of DeLand. After an unspecified medical issue forced him to miss the entire 2020 college football season and a later-dropped offseason domestic-violence charge led to a six-game suspension at the start of 2021 college football season, Williams eventually took the field for the final six games last year, started once, made 18 tackles and grabbed one interception.
As a sophomore, his role shrunk behind fellow safeties James Williams and Kamren Kinchens, and he recorded only nine tackles with one fumble recovery.
Players can officially enter their name into the transfer portal Monday once conference championship games are finished. Miami expects a fairly significant exodus of players after Mario Cristobal’s debut season.
“Not every player is asked to return,” the coach said Saturday. “The portal ... is a two-way street.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 6:06 PM.
