Top 10 cornerback Jamyest Williams commits to South Carolina football

The Gamecocks landed one of their most significant recruits in several years on Saturday afternoon. Jamyest Williams, a senior cornerback at Grayson High School in Georgia, has committed to play for Will Muschamp and South Carolina.

Williams, the highest rated recruit since Mike Davis in 2012 and the program’s highest-ranked defensive back since Stephon Gilmore in 2009, is ranked as the #8 cornerback in the country and the #55 player overall, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. He is a consensus four-star recruit on all major databases - placing 52nd nationally at Scout, 148th on Rivals (but ranked 10th as an athlete), and 37th in the ESPN300 rankings (#4 among all cornerbacks). He selected the Gamecocks over Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and Tennessee.

The 5’9”, 172-pound Williams is expected to make an immediate impact on the Gamecocks’ defensive backfield. South Carolina will graduate Rico McWilliams at the end of this year, which would mean that Williams could potentially join Mark King, Chris Lammons, and Rashad Fenton in the team’s rotation at cornerback in 2017 - and could also see some time at nickel as mentioned by ESPN’s Tom Luginbill. As SBN’s recruiting guru Bud Elliott’s pointed out, the likelihood of seeing more time here than with the Tigers or the Bulldogs may have turned the tide in Carolina’s favor.

South Carolina’s 2017 class now sits at 21. Williams joins Tavyn Jackson, Jaylin Dickerson, Zay Brown and Damarri Mathis as the other backfield players on the list.