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  Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff WriterAug 24, 2024, 08:11 PM ET

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  Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

Jonah Williams, the top outside linebacker in the 2025 class, committed to Texas on Saturday night in a major late-summer recruiting victory for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns.

Williams, a five-star recruit and the No. 8 prospect in the ESPN 300, is Texas’ highest-ranked pledge in the current cycle. One of the nation’s top uncommitted 2025 prospects before Saturday, Williams chose the Longhorns over finalists Texas A&M, USC, LSU and Oregon following visits to all those schools after June 1. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound linebacker from Galveston, Texas, will open his senior season at Ball High School on Thursday as the reigning Texas District 9-5A D-I Defensive Player of the Year.

A talented pitcher and outfielder, Williams is also expected to play baseball at Texas.

“It’s 50-50, baseball and football,” he told ESPN. “The opportunities [at Texas] with life after football were part of my choice. The coaching staff really made me feel comfortable about my decision.”

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Williams’ pledge marks a high point for Texas in a summer on the recruiting trail that had previously been defined by misses on some of the state’s leading prospects as top wide receiver Dakorien Moore (Oregon), five-star offensive tackle Michael Fasusi (Oklahoma) and No. 5 outside linebacker Riley Pettijohn (Ohio State) landed outside of the Longhorn State.

The tide began to shift Aug. 7 when four-star in-state wide receiver Kaliq Lockett (No. 23 in the ESPN 300) committed to the Longhorns. With Williams’ pledge, Texas has commitments from two of the top 10 prospects in the state and another piece of August recruiting momentum.

Williams joins nine other ESPN 300 commits bound for Texas in 2025, a group that includes fellow top-100 pledges in Lockett, defensive end Lance Jackson (No. 65) and outside linebacker Elijah Barnes (No. 94). Four-star offensive tackle Nicolai Brooks (No. 129) also committed to Texas on Friday.

According to ESPN rankings, Williams is the Longhorns’ highest-rated commit since quarterback Arch Manning in the 2023 class and their highest-rated linebacker pledge since the program landed Jordan Hicks as the fourth-ranked prospect in 2010. Before Williams’ commitment, Texas’ 2025 class sat at No. 17 in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle.

Williams enters his final high school season as one of the top defenders in the state, returning to Ball High after logging 58 tackles and four interceptions (three pick-sixes) as a junior last fall. If he signs with the Longhorns later this year, Williams will become the latest coveted defender to join a Texas defense that jumped from 95th in points per game allowed in 2021 (31.3 PPG) to 15th in the category last fall under fourth-year defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski on the program’s way to its first College Football Playoff appearance.

Considered the top linebacker in the 2025 class, Williams possesses the versatility to play across the defense. He is expected to begin his career with Texas at safety.

“I feel confident that I’m going to see the field early,” Williams said. “I’m going to work to see the field early because the safety room isn’t really deep.”

Williams began June as one of seven uncommitted recruits among ESPN’s top-10 prospects in 2025.

The Longhorns offered Williams in February 2023 and recruited him heavily through the spring, but his focus remained elsewhere entering the summer before his senior year. Williams scheduled official visits to USC, LSU, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Oregon, with the Tigers, Aggies and Ducks each considered front-runners at different points in a winding recruitment. Williams told ESPN that no program pushed harder in the final week of his recruitment than USC.

While Williams navigated his slate of official visits, Texas turned up the heat in a recruitment led by safeties coach Blake Gideon and Kwiatkowski. Williams received consistent communication from the Longhorns’ staff over that span, including calls with Sarkisian. He later scheduled an unofficial trip to Texas late last month, and Williams and his family left their final of their recruiting process impressed by Sarkisian and his program.

Williams also had multiple conversations with Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, who landed with the Longhorns on June 25 after leading Texas A&M to the Men’s College World Series finals this spring,

“They always recruited me — I just wasn’t really feeling them,” Williams said of Texas. “But then they made a strong campaign during that time, and I built a better relationship with the coaching staff.”

Williams now stands as the headliner in a top-heavy defensive class headed to Texas in 2025, set to join the Longhorns alongside Jackson, Barnes and top-300 defensive end Smith Orogbo. Texas could hit big again in the cycle with four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, No. 17 in the ESPN 300, expected to announce his commitment Friday.

Williams’ pledge leaves only two remaining uncommitted prospects among ESPN’s top-10 recruits in the 2025 class. Top defensive tackles Elijah Griffin (No. 5 in the ESPN 300) and Justus Terry (No. 7) are each expected to take their recruitments into the fall.