Second-year freshman safety Avantae Williams has been dismissed from the Miami Hurricanes football program after a domestic abuse arrest, UM announced early Thursday evening.
Williams was charged with “battery/aggravated/of a pregnant victim” after being booked at 10:17 p.m. EST on Wednesday night.
The Miami Hurricanes football program released the following statement following the arrest on Thursday morning: “We are aware that football student-athlete Avantae Williams has been arrested by the Miami-Dade Police Department. He was immediately suspended from all team activities.”
Later in the day, the program decided to dismiss the second-year safety.
Going into the 2021 season, Williams projected to be a part of Miami’s rotation at the safety position after an impressive showing during the month of spring football.
Williams was held out of action during the 2020 season due to an undisclosed medical condition. He was cleared to participate during the spring.
It didn’t take long for Williams to impress UM head coach Manny Diaz with his talent during the spring, comparing him to a Jaelan Phillips-like talent.
“You think about him being two practices into his college career and when you ask the question about him, I think about Jaelan Phillips a year ago,” Diaz said early during the month of spring football. “We barely saw anything in four days and he of course had the season that he had. I am not saying Avantae is going to do the same thing Jaelan did because it is really early for Avantae.
“He plays 100 miles per hour. When Avantae is on the field, the pedal is pushed down through the floorboard. That is encouraging, because he goes full speed. Now he might not be always going the right direction when going full speed, but that is why they call us coach and we will get him turning the right way.”
Williams was working with the first team defense during Miami’s spring game. The Hurricanes return a starting trio of safeties in Bubba Bolden, Gurvan Hall, and Amari Carter. Former five-star recruit, James Williams, is also on the roster.
Williams, a native of Deland, Florida, was UM’s top signee as a recruit out of the 2020 class. He ranked as the No. 45 overall player in the country.