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His recruitment became more dramatic than expected over the final two weeks of the process, but in the end, OLB Bryson Allen-Williams affirmed his longtime verbal commitment by signing to play for South Carolina. Considered the jewel of this class from both a talent and a character standpoint, Allen-Williams is rated the 96th-best prospect in the nation by 247Sports as a four-star prospect.
Allen-Williams played with his hand in the dirt quite a bit in high school and could be considered an OLB/DE tweener, much like Eric Norwood. While he projects to play OLB principally in college, his blend of size and athleticism give the coaches some options as to where to line him up, much as you saw with Norwood over the course of his career. Again like Norwood, Allen-Williams is one of those players who flies around the field, attacks the ball with abandon, and makes disruptive plays. The main thing he'll need to work on will be coverage skills, given that he played a lot of end during high school.
Allen-Williams projects to shine not only through raw talent but also through character and commitment. Much like players such as Marcus Lattimore and Connor Shaw before him, Allen-Williams is considered a hard worker who treats football as a craft and who will also be a model to his teammates off the field. Not coincidentally, he helped the Gamecocks recruit other Georgia prospects and may have had an impact on the decision of Wesley Green, in particular.
With Skai Moore entering the spring as the starter at WILL linebacker and Marquis Roberts and Cedrick Cooper looking like good options as backups, Allen-Williams has his work cut out for him to crack the staring lineup as a true freshman. If he's as good as advertised, though, I wouldn't count him out to give the coaches something to think about.
