As teams begin hosting recruits during spring events and getting more earnest about focusing on top prospects, one of Texas’ top defensive tackle prospects, Carl Williams, will be a name to keep an especially close eye on.

After last week, the Lufkin lineman has seen a renewed interest from teams, and has picked up offers from Arkansas and Oklahoma State, among others. While he’s soft-spoken and still pretty early in his relationships with many teams, he’s hopeful that he can carve out some time to make some visits to some of the programs that have gotten involved with him.

What is clear, is that Oklahoma has made an impression with him since becoming one of his early offers going back to spring of last year. Not only has the success of the program kept the Sooners at the front of his mind, a local connection on the staff has also gone a long way in laying a foundation with him.

On Arkansas

“That’s a great offer - my first sec offer,” he said. “I was very excited, I’ll be trying to get down there soon to check out the facilities and everything else … Them being in the SEC does factor into things just a little bit. It’s a great conference, one of the best in the country.”

On Oklahoma

“A lot of great players go there, like (graduate assistant) Jamarkus McFarland,” he said. “You could say that I would have someone that I could get close to that’s from the same area that I am. He’s very, very cool, and I’ve talked to him a lot on the phone, so I guess you could say that I have a closer relationship with him.”

“That’s a defense that I would definitely want to be a part of,” he said. “They’re a dominant defense; fast, quick, and just something I would probably want to be a part of.”

On Oklahoma State

“The program is awesome; I’ve heard a lot about them,” he said. “I went through to check on a lot of their educational stuff and it seems like a pretty great school. Offensively they really dominate and defensively they can be very dominant also. They’re a great team and they play together.”

For the most part, it doesn’t seem as though Williams has really started getting serious about making any conclusions about any of the teams that have thrown their name into his hat. Even though the current Arkansas staff offered him initially while at SMU, he didn’t overplay the fact that there is theoretically some inherent familiarity there with those coaches. Teams looking to win his favor should make the effort to stay on top of him.