And the seasonal beat goes on.
The time of year when early defections begin to come en masse continued this afternoon as Texas announced that cornerback Aaron Williams will leave the Longhorns and make himself available for the 2011 NFL draft.
“I want to thank everyone at The University of Texas, especially Coach (Mack) Brown and Coach (Duane) Akina for getting me ready for this opportunity,” Williams said in s statement. “It was a really hard decision. I’m going miss to all of my teammates and coaches, and I’ll always be a Longhorn, but I felt it was the best decision for me and my family. It’s time to start working on my dream that I’ve been preparing for all my life.”
Williams’ father Anthony told the Austin American-Statesman that his son is at peace with his decision.
“He feels good about his decision,” the father said. “One of the things I told him as a father is that there are a lot of moving parts to this and he’s got to live with his decision and not look back. He prayed about it and is at peace with it.”
Anthony Williams told the American-Statesman that Aaron had received a first- or second-round grade from the NFL’s draft advisory board.
Williams played in 37 games (23 starts) during his UT career, and finished with 106 tackles (64 solo), three sacks, 12 TFL, three pressures, four INTs, 24 PBU, six forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and five blocked punts.