Florida Football: What does 4-star ATH Joel Williams bring to the table?

Dan Mullen and Florida football landed four-star athlete Joel Williams on Sunday who could ease the pain of losing Chris Steele down the line.

There’s no doubt about it, losing Chris Steele hurt. He was the Gators’ highest-ranked signee in the 2019 class and he had already spent the entire spring moving his way up the depth chart, putting himself in position to contend for a starting job this fall.

And then he entered the transfer portal, eventually picking Oregon.

That left a void in the secondary in 2019, and beyond, but the Gators may have found a decent replacement candidate in four-star athlete Joel Williams of the 2020 class. He committed on Sunday, giving the Gators their 12th pledge and seventh four-star prospect.

Williams may not be nearly as highly-touted as Steele was, ranked No. 234 in the class and he’s the ninth-best prospect from Louisiana, but he’s just barely scratched the surface. His potential is through the roof.

The four-star athlete can play a little wide receiver as well, but he should be tabbed as a cornerback for the Gators. He has plus size for the position at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds and has impressive concentration and hands for a corner. He should be able to come in right away and compete for early action, but he won’t quite have the fanfare of Steele — at least not right away.

Steele was a special talent and could do a little of everything, but Williams is cut from the same cloth. He held 47 offers and could have had his pick of where to play college ball and chose Dan Mullen and the Gators.

Williams can be that player that eases the pain of losing Steele next season, but for 2019, the Gators will have to look elsewhere.