Cedar Falls O-lineman picks the Hawkeyes

Cedar Falls offensive lineman Spencer Williams waited 0.0 days to commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa held a camp Sunday for high schoolers and ended up offering four Iowans, including Williams a 6-3, 275-pound guard. Williams was an early commit to Western Michigan. He decommitted from the Broncos soon after Iowa's offer on Sunday.

And then on Monday, less than 24 hours after receiving his offer, Williams picked the Hawkeyes.

'I just went there (Iowa's camp) and performed as best as I could,” Williams told HawkeyeReport.com. 'It was awesome being coached by (O-line) coach Brian Ferentz and (head coach) coach Kirk Ferentz and everyone. Afterwards, they asked to talk to me and they offered.”

Williams collected offers from Western Michigan, Colorado State, Marshall, Florida Atlantic, Harvard and Yale.

'Iowa is a dream offer for me,” Williams said. 'It has been my dream school since I was a kid, so this is awesome.”

Williams is Iowa's fifth commitment for the class of 2016. He's the first from the state of Iowa, and, going by the offers that went out post-camp, he likely won't be the last.

Receiving offers along with Williams were Algona offensive lineman Cole Banwart (6-4, 275), Chariton tight end T.J. Hockenson and Pella defensive end Austin Schulte.

Proximity, obviously, plays a huge role in recruiting. The closer the school is to the prospect, the better its chances, at least that's usually how it works. Another advantage is the ability to have prospects attend camp. Kirk Ferentz talked about this last winter.

'The closer proximity you have to prospects, the better opportunity you have to get them on campus and get them in camp and that's another realm of evaluation where you actually get to work with the players,” Ferentz said. 'The closest thing I can think of in the NFL is if you get to coach the Senior Bowl, you get to spend a week with guys and really learn more about their work habits. We really feel like we know the players who have come to camp a little bit better than some of the others.”

Ferentz's next thought on this topic is the answer to your question about why Iowa offers recruits from the state of Iowa and who don't have a lot of Power 5 offers (of the four prospects offered last weekend only Hockenson has an offer from a Power 5 and that's from Iowa State).

'We've never worried too much about what other folks think about prospects,” Ferentz said during February's signing day news conference. 'We try to make our own evaluations, and we obviously had a lot of good feelings about all those guys. That one really weighs heavily into the evaluation process, and it can go the other way, too. We've had guys that have been offered by a lot of places that we just have a hard time warming up to them once we get to work with them a little bit. That is one advantage about camp. Certainly, it's another opportunity just to get a little different perspective on a prospect.”

So, it sounds as though a strong camp showing does mean something in Iowa's process and, thus, you have four offers coming out of Iowa's camp. Again, Iowa is betting it can develop players from the state.

In Williams, it appears they have someone who really wants to be here.

'I called and decommitted from Western Michigan tonight,” Williams told HawkeyeReport. '(WMU head P.J.) Coach Fleck is such an awesome guy. I love him and his football program. They're going to do great things there. He wished me the best of luck and said they'd love to have me, but gave me his full support.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com