Williams, top-rated OLB in ’25, commits to Texas
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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
Jonah Williams, the top outside linebacker in the 2025 class, committed to Texas on Saturday night in a major late-summer recruiting victory for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns.
Williams, a five-star recruit and the No. 8 prospect in the ESPN 300, is Texas’ highest-ranked pledge in the current cycle. One of the nation’s top uncommitted 2025 prospects before Saturday, Williams chose the Longhorns over finalists Texas A&M, USC, LSU and Oregon following visits to all those schools after June 1. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound linebacker from Galveston, Texas, will open his senior season at Ball High School on Thursday as the reigning Texas District 9-5A D-I Defensive Player of the Year.
A talented pitcher and outfielder, Williams is also expected to play baseball at Texas.
“It’s 50-50, baseball and football,” he told ESPN. “The opportunities [at Texas] with life after football were part of my choice. The coaching staff really made me feel comfortable about my decision.”
Williams’ pledge marks a high point for Texas in a summer on the recruiting trail that had previously been defined by misses on some of the state’s leading prospects as top wide receiver Dakorien Moore (Oregon), five-star offensive tackle Michael Fasusi (Oklahoma) and No. 5 outside linebacker Riley Pettijohn (Ohio State) landed outside of the Longhorn State.
The tide began to shift Aug. 7 when four-star in-state wide receiver Kaliq Lockett (No. 23 in the ESPN 300) committed to the Longhorns. With Williams’ pledge, Texas has commitments from two of the top 10 prospects in the state and another piece of August recruiting momentum.
Williams joins nine other ESPN 300 commits bound for Texas in 2025, a group that includes fellow top-100 pledges in Lockett, defensive end Lance Jackson (No. 65) and outside linebacker Elijah Barnes (No. 94). Four-star offensive tackle Nicolai Brooks (No. 129) also committed to Texas on Friday.
According to ESPN rankings, Williams is the Longhorns’ highest-rated commit since quarterback Arch Manning in the 2023 class and their highest-rated linebacker pledge since the program landed Jordan Hicks as the fourth-ranked prospect in 2010. Before Williams’ commitment, Texas’ 2025 class sat at No. 17 in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle.
Williams enters his final high school season as one of the top defenders in the state, returning to Ball High after logging 58 tackles and four interceptions (three pick-sixes) as a junior last fall. If he signs with the Longhorns later this year, Williams will become the latest coveted defender to join a Texas defense that jumped from 95th in points per game allowed in 2021 (31.3 PPG) to 15th in the category last fall under fourth-year defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski on the program’s way to its first College Football Playoff appearance.
Considered the top linebacker in the 2025 class, Williams possesses the versatility to play across the defense. He is expected to begin his career with Texas at safety.
“I feel confident that I’m going to see the field early,” Williams said. “I’m going to work to see the field early because the safety room isn’t really deep.”
Williams began June as one of seven uncommitted recruits among ESPN’s top-10 prospects in 2025.
The Longhorns offered Williams in February 2023 and recruited him heavily through the spring, but his focus remained elsewhere entering the summer before his senior year. Williams scheduled official visits to USC, LSU, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Oregon, with the Tigers, Aggies and Ducks each considered front-runners at different points in a winding recruitment. Williams told ESPN that no program pushed harder in the final week of his recruitment than USC.
While Williams navigated his slate of official visits, Texas turned up the heat in a recruitment led by safeties coach Blake Gideon and Kwiatkowski. Williams received consistent communication from the Longhorns’ staff over that span, including calls with Sarkisian. He later scheduled an unofficial trip to Texas late last month, and Williams and his family left their final of their recruiting process impressed by Sarkisian and his program.
Williams also had multiple conversations with Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, who landed with the Longhorns on June 25 after leading Texas A&M to the Men’s College World Series finals this spring,
“They always recruited me — I just wasn’t really feeling them,” Williams said of Texas. “But then they made a strong campaign during that time, and I built a better relationship with the coaching staff.”
Williams now stands as the headliner in a top-heavy defensive class headed to Texas in 2025, set to join the Longhorns alongside Jackson, Barnes and top-300 defensive end Smith Orogbo. Texas could hit big again in the cycle with four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, No. 17 in the ESPN 300, expected to announce his commitment Friday.
Williams’ pledge leaves only two remaining uncommitted prospects among ESPN’s top-10 recruits in the 2025 class. Top defensive tackles Elijah Griffin (No. 5 in the ESPN 300) and Justus Terry (No. 7) are each expected to take their recruitments into the fall.
LAS VEGAS — Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox won Major League Baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday.
Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second AL Reliever of the Year award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the NL honor.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter awards. Ohtani and the New York Yankees‘ Aaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.
Major League Baseball made the announcements at its All-MLB Awards Show.
Sale, 35, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177⅔ innings for the NL’s first pitching triple crown since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and first since 2018.
Sale helped Boston to the 2018 World Series title but made just 56 starts from 2020-23, going 17-18 with a 4.86 ERA, 400 strikeouts and 79 walks over 298⅓ innings. He was acquired by Boston from the White Sox in December 2016 and made nine trips to the injured list with the Red Sox, mostly with shoulder and elbow ailments. He had Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, and returned to a big league mound on Aug. 14, 2021.
Sale fractured a rib while pitching in batting practice in February 2022 during the management lockout. On July 17, in his second start back, he broke his left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks. Sale broke his right wrist while riding a bicycle en route to lunch on Aug. 6, ending his season.
Crochet, 25, was 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts for a White Sox team that set a post-1900 record of 121 losses, becoming a first-time All-Star. He struck out 209 and walked 33 in 146 innings.
He had Tommy John surgery on April 5, 2022, and returned to the major leagues on May 18, 2023. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in 13 relief appearances in 2023, and then joined the rotation this year.
Sale and Crochet were chosen in voting by MLB.com beat writers.
Clase and Helsley were unanimous picks by a panel that included Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, along with John Franco and Billy Wagner. The AL award is named after Rivera and the NL honor after Hoffman.
A three-time All-Star, Clase was 4-2 with a 0.61 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 10 walks in 74⅓ innings, holding batters to a .154 average. The 26-year-old converted 47 of 50 save chances, including his last 47.
Voting was based on the regular season. Clase was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the playoffs, allowing three home runs, one more than his regular-season total.
Helsley, a two-time All-Star, was 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA and 49 saves in 53 chances. He struck out 79 and walked 23 in 66⅓ innings.
Ohtani became the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. A two-way star limited to hitting following elbow surgery, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs while stealing 59 bases.
Ortiz won the DH award five years in a row from 2003-07.
The DH award, named after Edgar Martinez, is picked in voting by team beat writers, broadcasters and public relations departments. MLB.com writers determined the finalists for the Aaron awards, and a fan vote was combined with picks from a panel of Hall of Famers and former winners to determine the selections.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322.
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who lost his starting job earlier this week, will not be returning to the team, he announced Thursday night.
Castellanos, who started 12 games last season and retained the top job under new coach Bill O’Brien, wrote on X that “unfortunately, all good things come to an end, even though it’s sooner than I would like.” He did not mention the transfer portal in his departing message and has not officially entered it. The junior from Waycross, Georgia, started his career at UCF and appeared in five games in 2022.
O’Brien said Tuesday that Grayson James, who replaced Castellanos in last week’s win against Syracuse, will start Saturday when Boston College visits No. 14 SMU. Castellanos “wasn’t real thrilled” with the decision, O’Brien said, adding that the quarterback decided to step away from the team for several days.
Castellanos had 2,248 passing yards and 1,113 rushing yards last season under coach Jeff Hafley, passing for 15 touchdowns and adding 13 on the ground. He had 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season, but his accuracy dipped in recent weeks, and he completed only 2 of 7 passes against Syracuse before being replaced.
In his statement, Castellanos thanked both coaching staffs he played for at Boston College and wrote that he had “some of the best experiences of my life in the Eagles Nest and I will truly cherish these memories forever.”
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.
Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.
Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.
The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.
Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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