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# Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #94 DE Brooks Williams Jr.
- URL: https://www.bayareaexaminer.com/stampeding-through-the-2025-usf-football-8e5/
- Published: 2025-05-26T13:02:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T15:47:15.000Z
- Description: Our countdown reaches our first incoming freshman.
- Author: Collin Sherwin
- Tags: #Migrated-1792597384348, #Import 2026-10-21 15:44

**PLAYER:** Brooks Williams Jr.

**POSITION:** Defensive end

**YEAR:** Freshman

**HEIGHT/WEIGHT:** 6'6", 220 lbs.

**HOW DID HE GET HERE?** Another Bull from Port St. Lucie. Williams went to St. Lucie West Centennial High, where he played both basketball and football. When he committed to USF in April 2024, he had just two other FBS offers - Troy and Western Kentucky - but his commitment put him in the spotlight a bit. The recruiting services gave him a solid mid-three star rating and he scored a Power 5/4/Something offer from Syracuse over the summer. Nonetheless, he stuck to his pledge and signed with the Bulls on early signing day. He’s one of a number of freshmen who enrolled early and practiced with the team in the spring.

**WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025?** Williams’ profile on paper - a tall, slightly undersized defensive lineman who started off playing basketball, and a late bloomer on the recruiting trail - might suggest that he’s a bit of a project. But he’s already turned heads in spring ball, with Alex Golesh shouting him out by name as one of a few true freshmen who were already impressing. That’s about the best endorsement you can get.

If you’d like to try to read tea leaves: the staff seems to see Williams as more of a true defensive end than the hybrid “b-backer” position\*, which would suggest he probably needs to put on some weight before seeing any significant playing time, especially with the sheer number of experienced bodies USF has portaled in this offseason. Williams is currently listed at 220 pounds, and the Bulls’ starter at DE last season, Michael Williams II, played at 260\. But at any rate, Brooks is clearly a player to keep an eye on for the future.

\* *For those unfamiliar with USF’s defensive lexicon, USF’s “base” defense, to the extent such a thing exists, consists of three “true”, hand-in-the-dirt, defensive linemen - a nose tackle, a defensive tackle, and a defensive end - plus a “b-backer” that plays a hybrid DE/LB role, similar to an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. For context, in the picture below, Rashad Cheney (6’2”, 290) is playing nose tackle, Bernard Gooden (6’1”, 280) is playing defensive tackle, Michael Williams II (6’3”, 260) is playing defensive end, and Rico Watson (6’0”, 234) is playing b-backer. Jalen Milroe is also pictured.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/a9/77a9bb8f-d0f1-45b5-8fed-5feacd465ef5/content/images/2026/10/e76fb3d6-264e-47ee-ac41-81369127f345_2856x1274.png)