Kentucky exceeds Drew Williams' expectations on his second visit

If you’ve been paying attention to Kentucky’s football recruiting efforts closely over the first few weeks of the 2027 recruiting cycle you know that linebacker Drew Williams is a major target for the Wildcats.

Williams visited Kentucky in January and that trip went very well. He was in town again this weekend and this time it was a two-day visit, lasting Friday and into Saturday.

“I was just talking to everybody seeing all that Kentucky has to offer, totally,” Williams said. “Last time I didn’t get to see a practice. I didn’t get to see what they were like. I didn’t get to tour the campus. This time I had meetings with everyone … Coach Bateman, Coach Stein, Coach (Chad) Wilt, all of them. I had meetings with the player personnel guys, meetings with them. That was cool. I even went to the business school and had a meeting there and a tour around campus to look at the building. It was the whole, complete tour.

“Honestly, they overachieved. They overachieved my expectations,” Williams said.

The coaching staff had a clear message for Williams while he was on campus: This is the place to be to maximize his potential.

“They can get me better and make me a better football player,” Williams said. “When I was with Coach Bateman that was probably the best meetings I had. He showed clips of me and clips of his guys at the college level and the NFL level, which was really cool. He told me things I need to work on, which was cool. People usually just tell me I’m good but don’t tell me what I need to work on, so when he told me that I really liked it.”

Kentucky’s coaches have been talking to prospects about their desire to field an aggressive, attacking defense that causes problems and forces turnovers. That helps explain why Kentucky is so interested in Williams.

“It’s really my whole game, sideline to sideline, getting to the line of scrimmage quickly and my ability to blitz,” Williams said. “I think I’m one of the best blitzers in the country. I’m really good at getting after the quarterback and going sideline to sideline. Coach Bateman lines up his ‘backers everywhere and he likes to get them after the quarterback.”

The only official visit that Williams formally has on the calendar is to Miami on June 5 but he knows of at least one more he will be scheduling.

“The next thing I do will probably be official visits so I’m going to sit down and figure that out, but I’m going to take one to Kentucky. That’s really like set. I’m going to be back up to UK for an official visit and I’ll be at Miami. Those are the two I know for now.”

Williams’ recruitment is still very much in motion. He took a trip to Florida recently and added an offer from the Gators, and the next day LSU offered.