UIW, Lamar lead Texas FCS recruiting push with offers to Wesley Williams

Texas FCS programs are not waiting for summer to chase the state’s next wave of talent, and Wesley Williams became the latest proof when Incarnate Word and Lamar delivered back-to-back offers to the Davenport High School offensive lineman from San Antonio.

Williams, a Class of 2027 prospect, said the UIW push felt real after coach Nick Young came through campus and followed up with a conversation that carried weight. Young has been at UIW since 2022 and serves as co-offensive coordinator and run game coordinator, a résumé that matters in a program that won the Southland Conference in 2024 and reached the FCS quarterfinals while ranking eighth nationally in total yards. Lamar moved quickly the next day, showing how aggressively in-state staffs are trying to lock down Texas linemen before the bigger brands fully enter the race. Williams also said Baylor and Sam Houston State are expected to visit soon, a sign that the recruitment is only beginning to widen.

The same pressure is building in the secondary. Liberty Christian School defensive back Zyel Thornton, another Class of 2027 prospect, picked up an offer from Houston Christian after talking with offensive line coach Nick Franey. Thornton said Franey told him he liked the way he plays and called him “a baller,” the kind of direct evaluation that can matter as much as the offer itself. Thornton already had an Idaho offer and is hearing from Texas State, North Dakota State and South Dakota, which suggests a recruitment that has moved well beyond the regional level.

Thornton’s tape backs up the attention. MaxPreps lists him with 23 tackles, five pass breakups and two interceptions during the 2025 season, production that helps explain why his phone has started ringing from multiple directions. Liberty Christian’s run also kept his profile active late into the fall, including a 49-34 playoff loss to Prestonwood Christian on Nov. 21, 2025, giving evaluators a fresh look at a defender who was still adding to his résumé deep into the season.

Taken together, the offers show how Texas FCS programs are trying to win the state’s talent war by moving early and building relationships in the state’s strongest markets. UIW in San Antonio, Lamar in Beaumont, and Houston Christian and Texas Southern in Houston are all recruiting in a landscape crowded with FBS power, which makes each early offer a statement about roster ambition as much as player evaluation. In a cycle that runs through the NCAA’s official recruiting calendar, the schools that land first often get the longest look, and that can shape entire classes before the next wave of attention arrives.