A lot of reasons... under Wilcox, Cal has been most successful recruiting specific personality types and Williams fits the profile to a T. There has been a long time, strong mutual interest and Williams committed when the Cal coaches weren't even pushing him hard. He has HS teammates on the team who have confirmed his impressions of the team culture as well. He shut down, SC, Washington and Michigan early and has been all Cal for quite a while. So is it possible he moves on? Sure but I'll believe it when I see it.
He seems massively underrated to me. I think he'd be tough to pull from Cal based on the relationships and the love he's shown but who knows. Cal coaches told him and Justyn Martin (their other commit 4* QB that Michigan and others seem to be drooling over) to go check other places out if they wanted because Covid fucked up their recruiting experience. We'll see how that works out for them...
Ream was never good at this level so I agree, he must have dirt on USSF masterminding a puppy murdering kennel or something (wait, sorry...he's there for his "experience"). We've never seen the level of talent the US currently possesses but one area with zero depth is CB. Brooks may last til '26 and Richards is an extremely exciting prospect. But past them? Long...meh and currently crippled. Miazga...meh. MacKenzie...meh. List of MLS level CBs with limited potential (Zimmerman et al)...meh. Palmer-Brown and Carter-Vickers have yet to kick on. Maybe Otasowie who is an interesting prospect but might be more DM than CB?
I get wanting to play 3 at the back because of Dest because so far he has shown to be hopeless in a back 4. But you have to have the horses to do that and the US doesn't. Maybe Dest needs to play wide like Fabian Johnson did. Johnson was a fullback if I remember right and ended up playing mostly winger for the US (or was it the other way around?). Anyways, 3 at the back is for Dest but find some fucking CBs to make it palatable.
Mexican fans have a tradition of chanting homophobic words and they have been getting in trouble more and more. There now is a rule to stop the game if it happens but they give zero fucks...even though it pisses off the Mexican players big time.