4-star DT Mike Williams signs with Stanford over Texas, SMU

Fort Worth All Saints defensive tackle Mike Williams has elected to stick by his longtime pledge, signing with the Stanford Cardinal on Wednesday over the Texas Longhorns and SMU Mustangs.

The 6'2, 305-pounder didn't take an official visit to SMU, so it was hard to consider the Mustangs a serious contender in the days since he announced his three finalists. Stanford received an official visit from Williams on January 15 after securing his pledge last July following an unofficial visit to The Farm in May.

Prior to making that commitment, Williams was thought to be on the Longhorns continued to express some interest in Texas, as evidenced by his official visit on January 22 and an unofficial visit back in November.

Pulling the Metroplex product away from Stanford was always going to be a difficult task, however, as Williams made the decision largely for academic reasons -- as highly regarded as Texas is as an academic institution, overcoming Stanford's advantage there is not easy. The recent loss of Southlake Carroll cornerback Obi Eboh proved that once again.

The hope from the Longhorns perspective was that Williams would decide at the last minute that he wanted to remain closer to home, much as former Oregon commit PJ Locke did after picking up his offer just before National Signing Day early this year. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Fortunately, Texas is in a strong position to close with at least three uncommitted defensive tackles on Wednesday, so as long as nothing unexpected happens, the Longhorns will be able to address the serious depth concerns at that premium position.

Williams is a consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 335 player overall, the No. 35 defensive tackle, and the No. 52 player in Texas, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. During his recruitment, he accumulated more than 40 offers.