Texas A&M in the top schools for four-star RB Marquese Williams

Harrisburg (Pa.) Bishop McDevitt four-star running back Marquese Williams is down to seven schools in his recruitment, he announced Thursday afternoon.

The junior, who ranks as the No. 20 running back in the country is considering Iowa, Louisville, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Penn State, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M.

The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder narrowed down to those seven from more than 25 scholarship offers. That list included Arkansas, West Virginia, Michigan State and Cincinnati. 

Texas A&M offered Williams back in April 2021, but the four-star has yet to to visit College Station. Running back is a key position of need for Texas A&M in the 2023 cycle and the Aggies have a loaded board at the position. Isaiah Spiller is already gone to the NFL and offensive weapon Ainias Smith could be headed that way after the 2022 season as well. Devon Achane is entering his junior season and could play himself into the draft as well this season. Behind Achane, the Aggies have a lot of relatively unproven talent in redshirt freshman LJ Johnson Jr, a former four-star out of Cy-Fair, sophomore Amari Daniels, who was third on the team in rushing with 119 yards last season and Earnest Crownover, who has three years of eligibility remaining, one in which he’d have to redshirt. Baton Rouge (La.) Istrouma four-star Le’Veon Moss is the fifth scholarship running back on the roster and is expected to join the team this summer.

The staff is in hot pursuit of Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater four-star Cedric Baxter and El Campo (Tex.) High four-star Rueben Owens, the top two targets at the position as well as Baton Rouge (La.) Liberty Magnet four-star Kaleb Jackson and Saint Louis (Mo.) Christian Brothers College four-star Jeremiyah Love, a very recently offered targeted at the position. The Aggies are in good standing with all four targets, looking to take at least two running backs this cycle.

The Aggies have offered over 15 targets at the position to date, as the Aggies might need to take two in the class.

Minnesota, which is expected to host Williams June 17 for an official visit, is the currently leading his recruitment, according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM). It gives the Golden Gophers a 41.6 percent chance of securing his commitment. 

As a junior last fall, Williams notched 1,697 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns on just 170 attempts. He added 13 catches for 217 yards and five more scores through the air. 

Williams ranks as the No. 305 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He ranks as the nation’s No. 20 running back and the No. 6 junior in the state of Pennsylvania. The four-star currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $14.3k. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.