Gabriel Williams spent about 12 hours visiting Pitt during the spring session, hanging out at Acrisure Stadium for a scrimmage before spending another five or six hours back at the facility just talking to Ryan Manalac, Pat Narduzzi and even Damar Hamlin.
Williams — a 6-foot-4, 190-pound four-star linebacker from St. Vincent Pallotti in Laurel, Maryland — was the first one in and the last one to leave back in April, and it’s safe to say it was his best visit to date. So, it only makes sense he’s coming back.
Williams told PSN that he will be taking his first official visit at Pitt from June 1-3.
He boasts offers from Boston College, Buffalo, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Memphis, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, Pitt, Tennessee, USC, Virginia and Virginia Tech, and he’s already scheduled three official visits.
After an official visit at Pitt, he will head to Virginia Tech on June 9 and Duke on June 23, but Pitt is firmly in the mix.
“I think seeing the practice helped a lot because you can see how the coaches coach, and just sitting down with the coaches, talking with them, getting on the board, talking about the defense, watching my film and watching what they think I can be in their defense definitely just made it better,” Williams said. “And their people, they talked to me like they already know me, just showed a lot of love.”
Ryan Manalac told him that he already knows how to be a linebacker in Pitt’s system — and how to do it well. There’s different terminology, but it’s a similar style of play.
“In this defense, he allows me to do everything,” Williams said. “Play in space, come off the edge and blitz, even play a little bit of man. That defense is just amazing, six-man pressures, it just allows me to do things I do on my defense now at the school I’m at now.”
Williams was an All-Conference linebacker as a junior at St. Vincent Pallotti, flashing the ability to be a playmaker across the defense. It’s a style of play that would fit either outside linebacker slot well. He could play all three positions if needed.
The scheme is a fit, but it’s about more than just football. Powell has been in touch every single day since he was offered back in October, hitting him up with a text or a phone call, and Narduzzi himself made it clear that Williams is a major priority.
247Sports rates Williams as the 214th-ranked recruit in the class (20th-ranked linebacker and the sixth-ranked recruit from Maryland) while On3 rates him as the 107th-ranked recruit in the class (eighth-ranked linebacker and the second-ranked recruit from Maryland).
Rivals rates him as the 27th-ranked outside linebacker and the 12th-ranked recruit from Maryland — holding a 5.8 Rivals Rating.
Williams is the kind of linebacker that Pitt’s coaching staff covets, and as he makes an official visit over the first weekend of June, it will be one of the bigger decisions — from himself and the coaching staff — of the weekend.
