Miami Hurricanes safety Avantae Williams asserted himself this spring

Avantae Williams was the second-ranked safety per the 247 Sports consensus rankings when he signed with the Miami Hurricanes in the Class of 2020. Williams missed the 2020 season due to an unspecified medical condition. Williams made up for lost time this spring and shown the ability to deserve playing time in 2021.

Williams started in the Spring Game in place of Bubba Bolden who was out with an injury. With five tackles and two pass breakups while looking comfortable on the back end of the Miami Hurricanes defense. Gurvan Hall who played all 24 games the last two seasons and started 14 was next to Williams to begin the spring game.

Safety is the deepest position on the Miami roster. It will be difficult for the young safeties to earn playing time, but they might have too much talent to keep them off the field. Brian Balom played well as a freshman in 2020, Kamren Kinchens a 2021 signee played well this spring and 2021 signee James Williams arrives this summer.

Playing with the first-team defense is both a sign of how the Miami staff feels about Williams and good experience for him as he gets reacclimated to football. Williams showed the ability to tackle and be adept in pass coverage. The competition for snaps at safety will be fierce when Miami starts training camp in August.

As Miami heads into workouts the remainder of the spring and into summer, Bolden and Hall are the favorites to start. Amari Carter who started nine of the 10 games he played last season seems likely to move to striker this season. The talent both Williams bring at safety will likely challenge Hall for snaps.

With a full year on the roster and in college to learn the defense, Avantae Williams will have an edge on James. Avantae Williams has an edge on Hall in pure talent. Coming out of high school, Hall received a grade of 0.9265 from 247Sports.Com and Williams 0.9766. Avantae Williams will get on the field, it’s a matter of when.