By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Editor
Sophomore wide receiver Taz Williams Jr. caught people’s attention as a standout football player early in his time at Red Oak High School. He impressed with his athletic ability and his strong character.
“In the process of meeting him, I met an intelligent young man,” Red Oak head coach Melvin Robinson said. “The man had ambition. He has a great family life.”
Williams soon drew eyes beyond his school. He started gaining traction across social media as he documented his recruiting journey, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers and being dubbed as having “the most social media followers in the class of 2025.”
“As a kid or young teenager, you’ll post on social media, and I wasn’t really doing it to really blow up,” Williams said. “But I just started posting videos, being persistent. And after a while, I just noticed the views start growing, the followers start growing.”
Williams didn’t let his newfound popularity change him. He wanted to use his platform to let people know that they are not alone through life’s struggles.
“I started to get a little buzz, and I just wanted people to know that everybody is still a regular person,” Williams said. “I just want to show people that everybody goes through similar things, and everybody actually has problems, that life isn’t perfect.”
As more eyes turned to him on social media, more people started to take notice of him as a player and his team. He received over 50 offers as a highly-touted recruit, including top programs like Texas, Alabama, Michigan and Penn State.
Williams and his father made sure his social media presence reflected him well.
“Him and his pops did a good job of pushing him, promoting himself,” Red Oak head coach Melvin Robinson said. “He blew up, Red Oak blew up and social media blew up in Red Oak. He had 49 or 50 offers, but he kept it all clean. He kept it all positive.”
Williams was a leader while at Red Oak. He quickly earned the respect of his coaches and teammates, who vote on the team captains each year and saw Williams as the right choice.
“His sophomore year, he was chosen to be one of the team captains,” Robinson said. “He was a three-year captain. The guys looked up to him as a good football player and a good human being.”
He took that leadership from the field to the screen. He grew in popularity because of his posts surrounding his recruitment, and he wanted his teammates to reap some of those benefits.
“Some of the kids that were not really involved in social media, I think Taz took them under his wing and showed them how to do it,” Robinson said. “If they got an offer, [he showed them] how to put it out there and let everybody see what they’re doing.”
With his talent and notable leadership, Williams could have gone to any major program across the country, but his decision became more than just a team’s record. He searched for a program that matched his values.
That is what led him to Baylor, being mainly recruited by associate head coach Khenon Hall.
“I’m very big on trust and loyalty,” Williams said. “I trust all the coaches and I got a great relationship with them throughout the process.”
Now standing at about 450,000 Instagram followers, social media has become a way Williams bonds with his college teammates.
“If we’re recording somewhere … we’re like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s do this. Let’s make this,’” Williams said. “Or they’ll send me something like, ‘What do you think about this? Let’s do this.‘ And I’m like, ‘All right, let’s do it.‘”
His social media popularity also provides him NIL opportunities that many other athletes are not able to tap into. He has become an athlete multiple equipment and merchandise companies want to partner with, including Christian apparel brands.
“I actually have a team that represents me and handles everything for me, so I get to focus on football,” Williams said. ” Having social media and everything that I have going on helps a lot.”
Williams looks to make more of an impact on the field after redshirting as a freshman. He will get his first look against rival TCU at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at McLane Stadium.
