Why Holding Onto Prized DB Mekhi Williams Could Be a Tall Order For Wisconsin Football

Why Holding Onto Prized DB Mekhi Williams Could Be a Tall Order For Wisconsin Football

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Why Holding Onto Prized DB Mekhi Williams Could Be a Tall Order For Wisconsin Football
Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell.
Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Forget turning the Wisconsin football program around – if head coach Luke Fickell manages to hang onto treasured four-star defensive back recruit Mekhi Williams, he might deserve a statue next to Barry Alvarez outside of Kellner Hall.

That's because Williams, who flipped from Florida State to Wisconsin in early June, is looking increasingly like a potentially generational prospect with the capacity to single-handedly change the Badgers' defensive backfield.

Wisconsin's top-ranked recruit in its 2027 class per 247Sports and their second-highest ranked recruit on On3/Rivals (behind offensive tackle Cole Reiter), Williams was always a national-caliber prospect who would've represented a huge recruiting win for just about 99 percent of the programs in the country.

But since his pledge to Wisconsin, it's felt like he's only blown up even more. That came to a boiling point Thursday, when Williams went viral for a ridiculous, one-handed, Ed Reed-esque interception at a Florida football camp.

If you've been following Williams' recruitment with even moderate interest, you knew the defensive back was certainly capable of plays like this. The 6-foot-3 lockdown defender oozes talent and boasts two dozen offers, including a couple of blue bloods in LSU and Miami.

But as Williams continues to garner national attention – and continues to camp at football programs across the country – there's almost certain to be more blue bloods coming knocking. What then?

Does a school like Wisconsin still look as appealing to Williams if bigger offers begin to flood in? Obviously, the prized defensive back has already spurned LSU, one of the richest programs in the nation that's quite open about its $40 million-plus roster.

But it's also no secret that a program like the Badgers can only offer Williams so much. Not to make the defensive back's recruitment sound so transactional; Williams' relationship with the coaches in Madison and his love for the program itself also clearly had something to do with his pledge.

But richer, more winning, more nationally-visible schools are almost sure to toss their hat in the ring between now and national signing day. Can the Badgers hold on?

Much of it depends on how they perform on the field. Fickell has mentioned that despite recent down seasons, internal optimism still abounds within the program and recruits are able to discern that. Still, we've seen the consequences of it all falling apart on the field, like last fall when the Badgers lost most of their top recruits amidst a dismal 4-8 season.

Essentially, Wisconsin can only sell a program on the rise if it actually turns things around this season. It's critical to win on the field this fall for all of the currently committed recruits, of course, but Williams is the caliber of prospect that has no business committing to a school that went 4-8 the following season. The Badgers need to prove the turnaround is real in a few months.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/wisconsin as Why Holding Onto Prized DB Mekhi Williams Could Be a Tall Order For Wisconsin Football.

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