When coach Lincoln Riley left the University of Oklahoma after last season, and his first-year star defender Caleb Williams followed, along with a large number of other transfers to the University of Southern CaliforniaIt is expected that USC will return to the top of college football.
Expectations were met – and then some. USC has won 11 games, seven more than last season, its highest total since 2017. Had it not been for the Pac-12 championship, USC would have entered the Ball Qualifiers for the first time. rock University, with a chance to win its first national title since 2004.
The National Championship will avoid the Trojans this season, but Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night in New York, awarded USC a consolation prize. Williams won 544 votes in first place, finishing comfortably ahead of other quarter-finalists: Max Duggan of Texas Christian (188), CJ Stroud of Ohio State (37) and Stetson Bennett of Georgia (36).
“I watched it, to now be a part of it and be a part of this fraternity, it’s a blessing,” Williams said. “It was everything I dreamed of.”
As Williams began his speech, he pointed out that the other three players had something he didn’t: a spot in the College Rugby Qualifiers.
“Guess you can’t win them all,” Williams said, as the crowd burst into laughter and Bennett nodded in agreement. Williams invited eight of USC’s offensive linemen to the ceremony, asking them to stand up as the crowd cheered for them. He thanked his family, calling his mother “the most important woman in my life” and his father for “sacrificing your life so I could do my thing.”
Williams said: “It may seem like you go unnoticed and unappreciated, but you are the world to me. “We’re here together and I don’t want it any other way.”
Williams, who was honored for her pregnancy dress and nail polishwears a custom brown suit designed by Gucci and Adidas, along with “boots that look like loafers” and clear nail polish.
Williams excelled all season, beating the defense with his hands and feet, finishing with 4,075 yards of passes and 47 touchdowns in total. His worth has never been more apparent than in USC Pac-12 Championship Loss to Utah, in which he suffered a leg injury that made him limp. Although Williams managed to stay in the game, the USC offense could not muster anything when he was injured.
Despite finishing his sophomore season as the college team’s best player, Williams got off to an unpopular start. The late-night TV show that began for the West Coast teams, combined with the historically very lackluster Pac-12 conference, may have left Williams’ name off Heisman’s early-season favorites list.
But after the match against rival UCLA, then 18th, in which Williams wanted his team to win by accumulating a total of 503 yards (470 passes, 33 jabs), plus a total of three touches. ball, he seemed to have a firm grip on Heisman. (The game also starts at 8 p.m. ET.)
“It took a whole season for the rest of the country to catch up,” said Carson Palmer, former USC quarterback and 2002 Heisman winner.
It was the second year Stroud smiled and clapped as another finalist won the Heisman Trophy. Last year, Stroud made it to the final round, but he finished last in the final round of voting, as an Alabama man. Bryce Young takes home the award. Young did not make it to the finals this year, and Stroud was the favorite player to win most of the season, especially after the game against Michigan State, in which he threw 361 yards. England and six touchdowns. But Stroud struggled in the final stages of the season, including a 45-23 loss to Michigan.
This could be Stroud’s last chance at Heisman. He will qualify for the NFL draft after this season, and he is predicted to be the pick in the first round.
Of the finalists, Duggan seemed the most unlikely of pre-season. He started playing for three years, but he was substituted for red shirt freshman Chandler Morris, then returned to the starting lineup after Morris was injured in the first week. Duggan led Texas Christian to a 12-1 record and a spot in the College Rugby Qualifiers, and his numbers are amazing – 3,321 passing yards, 36 touchdowns in total – but still one step behind Williams.
Bennett is aiming to become Georgia’s first winner since Herschel Walker in 1982. Bennett, a former walker, is the only finalist to win the game’s title game. himself, but he has no flamboyant statistics on the other finalists.
Williams was USC’s eighth Heisman winner – technically – but the NCAA vacated Reggie Bush’s 2005 win after it was determined that he and his family had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from two agents California when he was in college. Bush returned the award in 2010and he was initially permanently banned from affiliation with USC, but the ban was reduced to 10 years in 2017.
Williams said he spent time with Bush earlier in the week and Bush advised him on what the night would be like. On Saturday morning, Williams had breakfast with Heisman Prize winners Palmer and Mike Garrett.
“The craziest thing for me is that the people that I’ve talked to, the Heisman winners, in the past, they’ve all retired,” Williams said. “And now that I’m leaving USC, perhaps the greatest thing for me is that my jersey will be retired.”
Williams’ stellar season has brought championship aspirations to a football program that hasn’t won a title since Bush and Matt Leinart led USC to consecutive national championships in 2003 and 2004. ( The 2004 victory was later vacated following Bush sanctions.)
“It’s hard to watch, it’s hard to watch,” Palmer said. “Being beaten by a bunch of teams you don’t see USC getting beaten up.”
Palmer added: “This year, I can’t wait until Saturday morning, turn on the TV and watch him play. Without a doubt, he has changed the level of excitement and expectation to see USC play.”
Williams said he grew up watching the Heisman ceremony, noting that the victories of Lamar Jackson, Robert Griffin III and Joe Burrow were the most memorable. In his speech, with Griffin III and other Heisman winners in the background, Williams thanked Riley, his coach, whom Williams left his hometown of Washington DC to follow to Oklahoma, and now is California.
“We were committed to each other on two separate occasions, but with the same dream,” Williams said, adding: “But even with the sudden shift from Norman, Oklahoma, to the University of Southern California, Our dream remains unchanged. They say either change your dreams or change your habits, and damn I certainly won’t change my dreams; glad you didn’t change yours either. Even though we both know the job isn’t done yet.”
