After being dismissed from UM, freshman safety Avantae Williams will put on a Miami Hurricanes jersey this fall.
Williams, who had been arrested for three counts of aggravated battery on July 22, was reinstated to Miami’s football program Thursday, according to his attorney, Michael Etienne. Legal charges that involved three counts of aggravated battery were dropped Saturday.
“I was informed that Miami will reinstate Avantae,” Etienne said in a statement. “Compliments to Coach Manny Diaz, Assistant Recruiting Director Edwin Pata, the Athletic Director [Blake James], and the entire UM administration. Now that this chapter is finally over, let’s wish Avantae and his UM teammates well as they forge ahead.”
The university’s administration reviewed the dropped charges and cleared the DeLand, Florida, native to return to campus after both parties met via Zoom Wednesday. Williams’ girlfriend claimed that she was never a victim after Miami-Dade Police reported that Williams grabbed her and threw her outside, causing damage to her head and bruising of her arms.
“We talked to our guys about that,’’ Miami head coach Manny Diaz said following Williams’ initial dismissal. “You know, it can be just one poor decision, one poor choice. Unfortunately, it has consequences. So, I hate to just trivialize it as just a learning incident, but certainly we spoke to our team about it and what it means and hopefully we all can learn from it going forward.”
Having been sidelined for the entirety of last season due to an unknown medical condition, the nation’s No. 1 safety in the 2020 recruiting class remains at Miami despite also having entered the NCAA transfer portal, receiving interest from over a dozen of other Power 5 schools.
“Thanks be to God that the truth came out and all charges against me were dropped,” Williams said in a Twitter post Saturday. “As the father of a daughter and son I will always focus on my responsibility to set the right example of how women should be treated. In the future, I want to help others who face false charges.”