ULM is expected to sign a pair of quarterbacks Wednesday on National Signing Day with two very different high school careers.

Bivins Caraway III grew up in Longview, Texas, with the intent of playing football as long as possible.

Bogalusa quarterback Brian Williams did not plan on playing the sport at all until football coach Craig Jones invited the standout basketball player to work out with the football team during the offseason during his sophomore year.

After lifting weights with the team, Williams decided he would give football a try. As a sophomore he played receiver and accidentally became a quarterback by his junior year.

“During a JV game at halftime, he was fooling around on the field,” Jones said. “The coaches told me, ‘He can throw the ball really nice,’ so we tried him out at quarterback and it turned out to be the best for us.”

The 6-5, 190-pound Williams passed for 2,962 yards with 29 touchdowns while guiding the Lumberjacks to a 7-3 record and 4-1 in District 8-3A last season.

“He’s a passer now,” Jones said. “He can run, but he’s not that type of quarterback. What sets him apart is his intelligence and his ability to catch on to what we’re doing offensively. He accepted the coaching to make himself a better player.”

Bogalusa lost in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs to No. 13 Jennings by a touchdown, and Williams has since moved on to one final basketball season.

The guard and sometimes forward is averaging 25 points a game for the 15-7 Lumberjacks, but he spent last weekend in Monroe for his official visit and committed Sunday after a few days around the campus and team.

“It was just coach Berry and the rest of the coaching staff and how they’re like a family and how they treat the players, and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Williams, who also had contact with Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Southern, Southern Miss, Alabama State, North Texas, McNeese and ULL. “I wanted to go to ULM ever since they beat Arkansas.”

Longview’s Caraway became the first commitment of ULM’s 2013 signing class this past June.

A scholarship gives Caraway a chance to keep playing the sport he grew up loving, but an injury cut his senior year at Longview High School short.

This Wednesday will mark National Signing Day for several high school athletes, but it also marks the five-month anniversary of when Caraway went down with a torn ACL in the Lobos’ season opener.

“It was tough, but I was just happy to have a scholarship,” Caraway said. “I called them (ULM) and they were going to honor my scholarship.

“I was happy for that. There’s a lot of people that are not able to play college football, but I kept getting my spirits up because I was sad for a long time.”

As a junior, Caraway garnered interest from several schools after throwing for more than 2,400 yards and 22 touchdowns with just five interceptions.