Four-star wide receiver Taz Williams Jr. commits to Baylor over Penn State
For the second time this week, Penn State has missed out on a priority target at wide receiver. Red Oak, Tex., four-star Taz Williams Jr., picked Baylor over the Nittany Lions on Saturday evening. He did so despite not yet taking an official visit to Waco to see the Bears.
Head coach James Franklin’s program was seen as the leader following the 6-foot, 181-pound senior’s official visit stretch that took him to SMU, Texas A&M, and Michigan in addition to a 48-hour all-expenses-paid stop in State College. Baylor inserted itself into the race after fellow Red Oak native and On3 Industry Rankings four-star edge Kamauryn Morgan picked the program back on July 7.
The Bears have been on a hot streak of late, and NIL deals are believed to be a factor. Head coach Dave Aranda told 365Sports’ Craig Smoak that the program is “paying players” in response to a question about the recent success on the trail.
At Big 12 Media Days, Aranda also said that “having the NIL money to win some of these recruiting battles and close it out” is one difference between this year’s recruiting cycle and the last for Baylor. Aranda was later asked “about the NIL piece and what Baylor has done maybe over the last year to kind of increase that and how that has helped you in recruiting,” and here was his response:
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“In the past, and I mean, this part still holds true today, I’ve always felt really strong about our recruiting visits, our official visits, our visits of any kind, any type of interaction. The feedback from the parents has been, hey, this is authentic, real people. These are people that are going to be mentors to my son, these are people that care about his education. These are going to be people that aren’t going to abandon my boy when things get hard, these are people that are going to see him still and work to get him back up where he needs to be. So that’s always been that, and it still is that now. It’s that in today’s climate, that’s not enough. That hasn’t been enough.
“I think that was really kind of the story of last year in a lot of ways, last year’s recruiting, that it wasn’t enough. Now with the money part of it, and I know it’s still shocking for people to hear it, but there’s certain guys you recruit and the money part is kind of how maybe we as a general consensus kind of — it’s shocking to hear it. There’s some people that recruit that it’s like that. But the higher ranking guy you go, it is not like that at all. It’s like, that’s the expectation to get into the thing. Then once you get into the thing, it’s an escalator to try to win the thing. So I think you have to say yes to that because that’s where it’s at.
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“The balance is to be that and then not lose who you are and to not lose the relationships, not lose the authenticity and being genuine and really caring because we talk about buying players, what you don’t want to do is make it so it’s so transactional that that’s what it is, you’re buying and discarding and off and on. I feel like, yeah, that’s the challenge. As coaches we’re trying to get the best recruiting class, but really what we’re doing is trying to be transformational and transactional all the way act.”
Regardless of the reason for the Lions’ loss, it stings for a program that also lost out on Pa., native and four-star receiver Lex Cyrus back on Thursday. He picked South Carolina over Penn State. Franklin and co., have two Class of 2025 receiver commitments in three-star Lyrick Samuel and four-star Jeff Exinor. South Florida native Koby Howard confirmed with Blue White Illustrated this week that he’ll be back in State College July 27. He also took an official visit at the end of June is now the primary player to focus on. Read more on what’s next for Penn State at wide receiver after missing out on Cyrus and Williams Jr., from BWI’s Ryan Snyder HERE.
