Orlando First Academy TE Garrett Williams earns rare scholarship offer from Stanford</p>
<p>Orlando First Academy tight end/defensive end Garrett Williams</p>
<p>Scholarship offers to play football at Stanford University are rare. They don’t hand them out to just anyone.
That’s why Thursday’s offer from the Cardinal staff was met with such surprise and a certain amount of pride from Orlando First Academy tight end Garrett Williams.</p>
<p>He’s had a lot of excitement with his recruiting process over the past eight months, with offers from schools like Florida State and Florida and Clemson, and even Alabama last week. But an offer from Stanford gave Williams that extra feeling of accomplishment.</p>
<p>Sure, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Williams is a gifted athlete, but this latest offer validates his work in the classroom and Williams, who carries a 4.9 GPA on a five-point scale and a 4.35 on a four-point scale, was not lost on the stature of such an offer.And of course, Williams had done his homework on the Pac-12 school.</p>
<p>“It’s an incredible opportunity. They are the No. 1 academic school in the country according to Forbes Magazine and they are top 10 in football about every year,” Williams said. “I had talked to them before but it was definitely a big surprise.”</p>
<p>The Orlando metro area has had only two players offered scholarships by Stanford since 2000, and none of them signed with the Cardinal.</p>
<p>“Garrett’s going to attract both ends from the football side, obviously and then from the academic side,” said Bill Buchalter, one Orlando Sentinel recruiting expert who is now retired but still dabbles in the business. “We’ve had kids from around here go to Stanford for other sports, but I can’t remember any from football.”</p>
<p>Central Florida has representation on the current Stanford roster in reserve linebacker/special teams player Noor Davis, who was at The Villages and Leesburg High and is in his second year in Palo Alto, Calif. Florida has one other player on the Stanford roster in starting corner Wayne Lyons of Fort Lauderdale Dillard High.</p>
<p>According to the Rivals.com prospect database, Lo Wood of Apopka was the last Orange County player to be offered by Stanford in 2010. Wood, who played three seasons at Notre Dame before graduating, has transferred to Miami-Ohio for his this, is final season of eligibility.</p>
<p>Before that, the only other Orange County player offered by Stanford according to Rivals was Brandon Deska, a two-way tight end/defensive end from Orlando Olympia who signed with Boston College in 2006. Deska played in all 13 games as a senior for the Eagles in 2009.</p>
<p>The lone Seminole County player on record by Rivals is Lake Brantley center Jordy Lipsey was offered a scholarship by Stanford for the 2003 recruiting class. Lipsey ended up at Virginia, where he started all 12 games during his 2006 senior season.</p>
<p>Daytona Beach Mainland’s 2004 receiver Abner Brown was offered by Stanford, and he is the only Volusia County player of record, according to Rivals, but he did not sign with a college, according to the database.</p>
<p>Before Davis, the last Lake County player to be offered by the Cardinal was Nick Waisome of Groveland South Lake in the 2011 class. Waisome is in his third year at Florida State. </p>
<p>The Stanford offer is No. 24 for Williams, who plays fullback and defensive end for First Academy. His potential as a college tight end has colleges flocking to see Williams, who is the son of one-time Florida State fullback Dayne Williams.</p>
<p>Williams’ offer came from Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren.