Big Ten pick for Williams
When Walker Williams visited Wisconsin last week the Tacoma (Wash.) Tacoma Baptist offensive tackle didn't think about committing but after his trip it was clear the Badgers were the team for him and Williams decided to end things in the last few days.
"I didn't really go to Wisconsin thinking if it goes well I'm going to commit but after going out there and hanging out with the guys and going through the academic thing I really enjoyed myself and I knew in the end I was going to Wisconsin no matter what the other schools said," Williams said.
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The 6-foot-7, 320-pound three-star prospect said he really hit it off with the coaching staff and players and what also sold him on Wisconsin was its nuclear engineering program, one of the best in the country.
"It wasn't just one single thing," Williams said. "I really love the coaching staff and the players are awesome guys and just the way they operate. They work hard but they have a good time. They work very hard.
"On the academic side, I'm thinking about going into nuclear engineering and they have the No. 2 nuclear engineering school in the nation behind MIT and they're a great football school. I love the campus. It wasn't really one single thing. It had the best blend of academics, athletics and social life."
Colorado, Oregon State, UCLA, Utah and Washington had also offered Williams, who said he could have taken other official visits but knew Wisconsin was the place for him and didn't want to give the wrong impression to other schools.
Williams' trip to Madison went so well that he believed no other program had a shot at changing his mind.
"I could have stretched it out a little bit more and done official visits to other places but I thought that would be leading the other schools on and I'm not like that," Williams said. "I decided to go ahead and commit to Wisconsin."
Rivals.com rates Williams as the No. 55 offensive tackle in the 2012 class and sixth in the Washington state rankings.