Georgia Football: Dawgs Land 5-Star LB Justin Williams

Georgia football picked up another big recruiting win in their 2024 class on Monday evening as they landed a commitment from five-star linebacker Justin Williams out of Oak Ridge High School in Conroe, TX.

The 6’2, 205 pound Williams is ranked as the No. 11 overall player in the class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He is also the No. 1 linebacker in the class and the No. 3 player in the state of Texas. Williams is a consensus five-star prospect (listed as a five-star on all four major recruiting services (247, On3, ESPN, and Rivals), as well as the 247composite). He ranks in the top 20 overall nationally on all four sites as well.

Williams had an ultra-productive Junior season at Oak Ridge this past year as he had 105 tackles, 18 TFL, and 8.5 sacks on the year while playing Texas 6A ball.

Georgia football lands 5-star LB Justin Williams

The Conroe native is an athletic and speedy backer. He is one of the fastest linebackers in the class and plays really well as an off-ball LB who can fly all over the field. He’s also a former DB who covers well from the LB position. As you can see, he also has productive pass-rushing numbers as a blitzer even though he mainly plays off the ball. Williams also competes in track & field.

Williams chose Georgia over Oregon. Oregon was once believed to be the leader for Williams, but Kirby Smart, Glenn Schumann, and the Dawgs made a big push over the last few months to land his commitment.

Williams joins an already loaded Georgia 2024 class that already ranked as the No. 1 class in the nation, and now gets even stronger. Williams is now the fourth five-star of the group (joining QB Dylan Raiola, CB Ellis Robinson IV, and LB Demarcus Riddick). He is also the third commitment out of the state of Texas for Georgia in 2024, joining four-stars Joseph Jonah-Ajonye and Michal Uini. He is the 26th commitment currently in the class.

Williams joins the just-mentioned fellow five-star Riddick as the two linebackers in Georgia’s class, which now features two of the top three LB’s in the class. Georgia has recruited linebacker very well recently, as they just brought in three of the top six LB’s in the 2023 class (No. 3 ranked LB Raylen Wilson, No. 5 CJ Allen, and No. 6 Troy Bowles). Georgia also signed the No. 4 LB in the 2022 class in Jalon Walker. The year before that in 2021, Georgia landed their current top three off-ball LB’s in Smael Mondon, Jamon Dumas-Johnson, and Xavian Sorey.

Georgia also has a recent history under Kirby Smart of strong off-ball LB play which includes the likes of Roquan Smith, Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker, Channing Tindall, Tae Crowder, and Monty Rice who are all now in the NFL, plus now the current starting duo of Dumas-Johnson and Mondon.

While Georgia is currently loaded at linebacker, it is very possible that Georgia loses both of Dumas-Johnson and Mondon to the draft this year which means that Williams and Riddick could have an opportunity to make an impact as Freshman in 2024 (potentially similar to Dumas-Johnson making 21 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 2 sacks, and 1 INT as a Freshman in 2021).

It’s still yet to be seen whether Williams can follow in the footsteps of the Georgia LB’s who preceded him, but he comes in as arguably the top LB in the class and one of the most talented LB’s out of HS that Georgia has landed. This is a big recruiting win for Georgia football (going into to Texas to land a five-star), and feels like a good landing spot for Williams.