Trojan Caleb Williams adds Maxwell, Walter Camp, AP awards to growing collection
The Trojans quarterback, who is the first USC player since running back Marcus Allen in 1981 to win the Maxwell, received 32 of the 46 first-place votes and 117 total points from AP Top 25 poll voters to win the AP award
AP — Days before he perhaps hears his name called as the Heisman Trophy winner, USC quarterback Caleb Williams collected a few more honors.
He started Thursday by being named The Associated Press college football player of the year, becoming the school’s first winner of the award since 2005 with his stellar debut season for the Trojans.
Later Thursday, during the ESPN College Football Awards show, Williams also won the Maxwell Award as the most outstanding player in college football and the Walter Camp Player of the Year award.
Williams, who is the first USC player since running back Marcus Allen in 1981 to win the Maxwell, received 32 of the 46 first-place votes and 117 total points from AP Top 25 poll voters to win the AP award. The Heisman Trophy favorite finished well ahead of TCU quarterback Max Duggan, who came in second with six first-place votes and 64 points.
Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud (Rancho Cucamonga High) was third, with Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker in fourth and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett fifth.
Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr., the first repeat SEC Defensive Player of the Year, was the only non-quarterback in this year’s top eight vote-getters, finishing sixth after coming in fourth last season.
Stroud and Hooker got two first-place votes apiece, while one first-place vote each went to Bennett, Anderson and star running backs Bijan Robinson of Texas and Blake Corum of Michigan. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who won the AP award last season, finished 11th this year.
Williams, Stroud, Duggan and Bennett are the finalists for the Heisman, which will be presented in New York on Saturday. The winner of the AP award has differed from the Heisman winner just twice in the past two decades. Duggan – who threw for 3,725 total yards and accounted for 36 touchdowns – beat out Williams for the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback.
Other Thursday night award winners included Anderson, who claimed the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defensive player; Olusegun Oluwatimi of Michigan, who won the Outland Trophy as the top interior lineman; and Robinson, who claimed the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back.
The clear favorite for the AP honor was Williams, the elusive passer and runner with an electrifying arm and strong leadership skills. The sophomore followed Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to the West Coast last winter, and the duo immediately returned USC (11-2) to national prominence with a seven-win improvement over last season’s record.
Williams has passed for 4,075 yards with an FBS-leading 37 touchdowns and just four interceptions this season, completing 66.1% of his passes while winning the Pac-12’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
His ability to avoid defensive pressure has bordered on the supernatural at times, and he has racked up 372 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns while setting the USC school records for total touchdowns and total offensive yards (4,447) in a season.
“I think he’s just elegant in the way he plays the game,” USC receiver Kyle Ford said. “That’s the only word to describe it. He’s out there and he’s in the backfield, zigzagging around and doing spin moves, and he doesn’t get touched and has a first down, and he’s out of bounds. Stuff like that is amazing to me, stuff that he pulls off during a game. He’s a gamer, and he’s a winner.”
Perhaps most impressive, Williams has played a critical role in bringing cohesion, teamwork and 11 victories to a program returning from a four-win season with a new coaching staff and more than two dozen veteran player additions through the transfer portal.
Although he usually deflects questions about his own play by praising his teammates, Williams admits leadership “means everything” to him.
“I’ve been trying to lead more,” he added. “Being in a position where you can go and do something bigger, or do something that you’ve always dreamed of as a child, it brings that understanding that the time is right now.”
From his first weeks in Los Angeles, Williams welcomed the responsibility of organizing and motivating this group of new teammates and becoming a leader in the community. He swiftly cemented friendships across the roster with his charisma and upbeat personality.
“Talk about a dude you can count on for anything,” USC left guard Andrew Vorhees said. “A guy who genuinely cares, is supportive in every way, really tries to be a guy that brings people together. It’s a brotherhood to him.”
USC went 11-1 in the regular season, and Williams put up one spectacular game after another down the stretch, capped by rivalry victories over UCLA and Notre Dame. Although the Trojans missed out on the College Football Playoff after losing the Pac-12 title game to Utah while Williams hobbled through the evening with a hamstring injury, No. 8 USC will finish its turnaround season in the Cotton Bowl against Tulane.
Williams is the third winner of the AP award in six years for Riley, who also coached Oklahoma quarterbacks Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) to Heisman trophies in the same years.
USC is enjoying its best season since the tenure of former coach Pete Carroll, and the Trojans now have their first AP Player of the Year since those glory days. Quarterback Matt Leinart won the award in 2004, and tailback Reggie Bush claimed it the next year.
Both went on to claim the Heisman, and Williams is favored to win USC’s seventh (or eighth, if you count the one Reggie Bush won but later returned) as the school’s first finalist since 2005.
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Lincoln Riley’s first Heisman winner connects big in his first L.A. Rams game — Newly acquired QB Baker Mayfield (17) celebrates with WR Van Jefferson (12) after the two struck paydirt on a TD pass in the final seconds of a 17-16 comeback win over the Las Vegas Raiders at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Question to Andy Staples (The Athletic): How do you fix the USC defense? Could they do it through the transfer portal for next season? Staples Answer: “Personnel upgrades wouldn’t hurt — but they also aren’t guaranteed to solve the problem. Bring in someone who is to defensive tackles what Caleb Williams is to quarterbacks, and it will become more difficult to run and throw on USC. But even if the Trojans could upgrade every position group, they’d still have to address an underlying philosophical issue. “When I wrote a column following USC’s loss to Utah in the Pac-12 title game saying Lincoln Riley’s first USC… Read more »
This is pretty simple. Let’s figure out how Georgia held Oregon to 3 points. What was it, stamina? Size? Speed? Scheme? All of it? Maybe they are stylestically flexible. But then again, maybe Oregon just didn’t come into the season ready to play, and killed themselves. The fact is, Oregon has had an amazing offense for a long time now, with just an off year here and there, and yet they have never won a national championship. But Georgia is obviously on to something right now defensively. I think Riley’s chances to develop defensive acumen will improve when we move… Read more »
Simple, Dawgs shut down Quacks – playing at home in an opener at home (Atlanta) vs 1st time coach playing a transfer qb.
Good D in college football is holding good qbs and teams to less than 30 pt.
LR should get this done. He will get better talent than he could at Oklahoma. Stoops btw had awful Ds his final years at OU.