Four-star wide receiver makes repeat visit to Purdue
More: Purdue 2020 offers | Peny Boone update
Fresh off landing blue-chip safety Marvin Grant from Detroit's Martin Luther King High School, Purdue hopes to have similar success at the talent-rich school in 2020, with one of its prime targets being Rivals.com four-star wide receiver Rashawn Williams.
Williams, along with teammates and fellow Purdue targets Deondre Buford and Peny Boone (update), was in West Lafayette this weekend for a visit, as Purdue hosted a slew of Detroit's top players.
Ranked 39th in the Rivals100 in the Class of 2020, Williams was the highest-rated of the visitors.
"It was fun and I liked it a lot. My mom liked it, and my aunt, and they know that if I were to go to Purdue, I'd be in safe hands, no trouble or anything like that," Williams said. "I'd have a teammate there in Marvin Grant and I know they've been recruiting up in Michigan a lot heavier, so if I went there, it would be more like home, because there would be players from the same area as me."
Grant, the four-star safety signee who'll arrive at Purdue in the summer, is doing his part.
"We've talked about (Purdue) plenty of times, during the season and again just the other day, actually," Williams said. "He said, 'Why not come to Purdue?' He talked about changing the culture, being around a winning program and being around people who'll help you and make you a better man at the end of the day."
Purdue's coaches, meanwhile, have tried to punctuate opportunity and their receiver-friendly style of play.
"They told me all the leading receivers in the Big Ten all come from Purdue," Williams said, "and that I have a chance to be one of those types of players if I went there, too, that I could come in and make an immediate impact.
"It was basically that if I were to go there, it would just be up to me whether I play soon."
The 6-foot, 180ish-pound wide receiver is ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 2 prospect in Michigan.
"It's my knack for going up to get the ball and the type of playmaker that I am," Williams said of Purdue's impression of him. "They like a lot about me, I think, and they think I'm an all-around player, but there's still little things I can tweak and get better and be a great receiver."
Williams has fielded scores of early verbal offers, including Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and many others, but cited Purdue, Indiana, Syracuse and Washington State as four schools recruiting him particularly hard. He plans to commit before his senior season at King.
"My mom, seeing who connects best with her," Williams said of his criteria for an eventual decision. "If she's comfortable, I'm comfortable."
This was Williams' second visit to Purdue. Last spring, King coach Ty Spencer brought a group of players through for a visit, Williams and Boone both said.
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