Rivals.com – Sting Factor: Dylan Williams’ decommitment from USC

When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.

Dylan Williams committed to USC in April and it was a massive pledge for so many reasons.

The 2024 four-star linebacker from Long Beach (Calif.) Poly is one of the best players at his position. He’s a local prospect at a traditional powerhouse program and that has been an early focus of coach Lincoln Riley’s tenure.

It made a lot of sense and it was a big win for the Trojans.

But in recent days, Williams backed off his pledge and while he’s made it clear USC is still very much in the picture, the 2024 four-star also wants to look at other programs around the country.

Top programs had basically stopped recruiting Williams and he wanted to go through the recruiting process more so the way he felt best about moving forward was opening things up and seeing which schools would get more involved.

Whether it’s USC or especially programs across the SEC, the Long Beach Poly star is open to every team at this point.

This would be a 10 if there wasn’t still plenty of time for USC to try to reel him back into its 2024 class, but yes, this one is the definition of sting for the Trojans. They landed his commitment back in April before his recruitment truly blew up with top programs from coast-to-coast prioritizing him.

It’s another example of why early commitments are always tenuous. But for the Trojans, Williams represented another foundational piece in rebuilding the defense, especially with minimal outside linebacker depth in place at this point for years to come.

Getting a commitment from Rivals100 OLB Braylan Shelby was huge but adding Williams in the class behind him would have had the Trojans seemingly set up for years to come there. Lincoln Riley and staff are also making a priority of keeping the top local talent home and not losing elite SoCal prospects like Williams to the SEC. They’ll stay aggressive in his recruitment for sure but this stings the Trojans. – Ryan Young, TrojanSports.com

Sting factor: 8

This is a big loss because Williams is really talented, he’s local and comes from a USC pipeline school that produced JuJu Smith, Iman Marshall and Willie McGinest and so many others throughout the years so it hurts to lose him. But to see it another way, Williams comes from a USC pipeline school that has produced so many superstars for the Trojans that it’s hard to believe he won’t end up back in the recruiting class.

From talking to Williams, the 2024 four-star linebacker is definitely interested in SEC schools and seeing programs across the country to get a better feel for what’s out there. My sense is when it’s time to come back to a decision – if he’s not completely deadset on playing in the SEC – then the Trojans are going to be a very serious contender for a re-commitment. In that sense, this one doesn’t sting nearly as much. – Adam Gorney, National Recruiting Director

Sting factor: 6

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