USC football banking on Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley trust factor
Sophomore QB, who followed Riley from Oklahoma, is the skeleton key to unlocking the Trojans’ aspirations this year
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — More and more often, USC head coach Lincoln Riley finds he has little to say to quarterback Caleb Williams.
He will still approach the sophomore, ready to coach him on the intricacies of the position or give leadership pointers. But he frequently finds that Williams already knows what the coach is going to say.
“He can kinda take the words right from me,” Riley said after practice Thursday.
Williams’ arrival in February was in many ways the skeleton key for Riley’s first season at USC. The head coach hasn’t shied away from championship expectations even in Year 1, but given all the new faces in the locker room and the new systems, it would make more sense for 2022 to be a rebuilding season.
The Trojans’ ace in the hole, though, is Williams, the quarterback who already knows Riley’s offense after spending his freshman season at Oklahoma under Riley before following the head coach west.
Williams’ intricate knowledge of the scheme has earned him the responsibility of teaching his teammates plays and concepts and philosophies in lockstep with Riley.
“I know exactly where everyone has to line up, exactly where they’re going to be on our side. Making sure we get the right runs into certain blitzes or defensive fronts. Making sure we have certain checks,” Williams said Wednesday. “I want to be sort of like Coach Riley Part 2 on the field. He can’t be out here, he has to be behind the white lines. So that’s what I’m reaching for.”
By all accounts, Williams has seized that responsibility. He organized throwing sessions with receivers after summer weightlifting. He made a habit of taking his offensive line out to dinner at places such as Prince Street Pizza and Fixins.
“We’ll probably tell him to take us out a few more times maybe after some games after we win and keep him clean,” Trojans center Brett Neilon said before camp. “But he’s been awesome, he’s treated us well and it’s been fun.”
As important as the chemistry building is for this USC team, Williams’ on-field role will be the most critical. That might not be exactly revolutionary analysis when it comes to a quarterback, but it’s still particularly true in this instance.
Given the collection of new players and coaches in a program that went 4-8 last season and 0-4 following Drake London’s season-ending injury, it would have made sense to put moderate expectations on USC if, like the rest of the roster, the quarterback was learning the ropes as he went.
Instead, Williams is better versed in this Riley version of the Air Raid than many of the assistants. It allows the head coach and play caller to open up the playbook more than with a first-year starter, and to trust what his quarterback sees on the field.
“He gives me a lot more flexibility,” Williams said. “Me and my teammates were laughing, we kind of communicate really fast, even when I’m on the field, when he’s on the sideline, thinking through plays and things like that. Sometimes I’ll call a play and he likes it, and he gives me the shoulders, which means go ahead or the thumbs-up.”
Williams is far from a finished product as a sophomore. He’s worked to improve his footwork this offseason and trust himself more in the pocket instead of scrambling.
But for Riley – who has coached the likes of Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hurts and Kyler Murray – he is placing his faith in what Williams can accomplish this year on an individual and team level.
“I trust him going into this second year as much as I have any of the other guys,” Riley said. “There’s just a deeper understanding of what we’re doing, and because of that he’s playing with a lot more confidence.
“The way he walks out on the field, I can almost tell you the kind of day he’s going to have,” Riley said. “I’ve seen now so much, every mannerism and every word. I’ve got to a place where he can tell and I can kinda know what’s in his head even before. And I think he, in a lot of ways, [feels] the same thing with me. I think a lot of times I’m getting ready to make a point to him, whether it’s about playing the position or leading or anything and he can kinda take the words right from me. We’re in lockstep.”
ocregister.com
________
TrojanDailyBlog members — Always feel free to add information or new topics to the TDB which don’t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.
So is Mr. Lincoln Riley telling players (and his coaches) that the only thing on their mind now should be something call Rice (and not the food)….Next time they talk and/or think about moving to the Big-10 should be around Mid-January (To me at least) Now its only about winning games Moving to big-10 comes in second now subject-wise………Fight On !!!!!
Tuned into H.S Football to watch QB Malachi Nelson, it was Makai Lemon who stood out as the gem in the pair to me. Am I wrong or does he bring comparisons to Marqise Lee?
In some ratings he is #1 in the state. He sure is a talent. Nelson showed me a lot even if his team wasn’t that good around him. Quick, fluid, cool, and aggressive. Let LR coach him up and we may forget Caleb Williams.
Nelson has potential but did not look great today. Lemon has next level speed, faster than most everybody else on the field. Lemon has great hands as well. To bad for LA just not as strong overall as American Heritage.
Possibly the difference between a public and private school. Heritage is pretty selective in who goes there. Nelson didn’t look that good, but his team ran into a good sized and well coached team that really mixed it up on defense and offense both. They had talent at every position it seemed. Perhaps Nelson needed to get roughed up a little, it may sharpen his game. Although it was the first time I have watched him, I could see what LR sees in him, he is quite good. Lemon is exactly as advertised and everything you said he is.
Just heading back after an outing at the DelMar race track called a taste of New Orleans. I wore my usual USC wear. It’s been a long time but I lost track of the number times people said “Fight On” to me. But the highlight of my day was a gentleman who told me “The Trojans ain’t going nowhere in the Big 10-my buckeyes are going to teach you guys big boy football.” I said, sir you have me confused with a Ucla Bruins fan. Just look at our head to head records with Ohio State I think you’ll see… Read more »
Will Scott Frost make it through seasons end?
His team is slow and cannot tackle. That boils down to two things, recruiting and coaching. I doubt it.
The problem with Nebraska, they wore English Red. Northwestern had Irish colors on their helmets!🍀🇮🇪
I doubt it very much, folks in Nebraska are long on patience….but
when it done, it’s done !
Northwestern just running straight at them.
For the first game of the season, this NEB/NW battle is pretty amazing IMO.
NW is pretty consistent on O and D, but the Neb D is suspect and looks slow.
Excellent football….. And to think USC has been operating with 2-3 times less $ as these programs..
Scramble, ok go ahead and run out of bounds, never mind run backwards instead, huck one up for a huge gain. Nice play kid!
That was a pretty good play. Kid has his eyes open looking down field.
Watching B1G football… they punch it out…Nebraska sure travels well. Can you imagine the Red and white on Hollywood and Vine?
B1G enjoy the lull, before the 2024 Trojan’s explode on your scoreboards
If NEB loses to heavy underdog (11.5) NW, there will be red hell to pay in Dublin!
NW leads 17-14 with 25 secs to go in the first half.
Many sad Husker songs will be sung in the taverns before they take their hangovers onto the long flight home…..
Like USC 6-7 years ago trying to kill the football program, Nebraska’s administration eliminated the pipeline Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne created bringing in out of state recruits and develop them, by firing the coach who would have kept that pipeline going, Frank Solich and brought in Bo Pollini then really screwed things up hiring Bill Callahan (who got his clock cleaned by PC twice) who did what Helton did in throwing out a Nebraska offense that worked for 15-plus years. Nebraska football has been a loser ever since!
Bill Callahan was a huge mistake. Program crippler. 15-17 in conference.
In Houston as well !!!
Ooops, got my Coaches mixed up, O’Brien not Callahan, though about the same competence.
I’m watching as well. They both look physical and plodding. Not sure if either are really scary.
For some reason the Phrase “Mount Rushmore” is currently under attack …..That being said when I picture My Mount Rushmore of USC Head Coaches in my mind I picture McKay ,,,,,,Robinson ……Carroll and Maybe that 4th spot is empty …….Will that 4th spot be getting filled in the near future ?????…….FIGHT ON !!!!!
You gotta include super authoritarian, utterly humorless Howard Jones, even though he died in 1941 at only age 55 of a heart attack. I had a couple of friends’ dads (Marshall Duffield and Grenny Lansdell), both fantastic QBs, who played for Jones and each said Jones was a very quiet person. Nonetheless, Jones was a Trojan fantastic coach. You’ve gotta include Jones. Leaving him off would be like leaving Knute Rocke off ND’s Mt. Rushmore. Jones coached the Thundering Herd at USC (’25-40) and compiled a career record of 194–64–21 (.733). His 1909 Yale team, 1921 Iowa team, and four of his USC… Read more »
MY Bad ↑↑↑↑↑ Leaving him out !!!!!
My grandmother spoke very well of Howard Jones. She and her first husband, CA State Senator Frank Weller, had USC season tickets starting in 1926: Tunnel 22 Row 44 Seats 1-4 in the old Coliseum configuration. She told me many stories about Coach Jones and his players like Morley Drury, Grenny Lansdell and Cotton Warburton, just to name a few. My Grandpa Weller, as USC Alumni Chairman, organized a fund raiser to send the USC band back to South Bend for the first time in 1932. That was the game where USC guard Johnny Baker came out of the line… Read more »
I think Howard Jones would be considered the 3rd best USC football coach after McKay & PC. Then Robinson might follow after that. It will be debated for years to come if PC had stayed as long as McKay coaching at USC, who would have the better record & most natties. We are fortunate though being alive today to see where LR will fit in compared to these other great coaches.
Ya, Jones has to come before Robinson, unless you just pretend Jones didn’t win four NCs at USC. JMHO.
The USC Mount Rushmore is cool…
So how about ‘The 3 Stooges’ of USC coaching?
I got Sark as Moe ( be good Shemp) “You numbskull”
Ted Tollner as Larry
And of course Curley Joe Helton Nyuk, nyuk nyuk
Please don’t insult the Three Stooges by including the Cat. Sark and Tollner showed they had coaching abilities—just not Head Coaching skills. The Stooges were genius, helton is a brown-nosed suck-up who never accomplished anything on his own and relied on Daddy’s contacts and Forrest Gumping his way into 10 years at USC.
Don’t belittle Forrest, he had mental issues. Helton lacks character and is incompetent, there is a difference.
As I switch to the Nebraska game it no longer surprises me when I am discussing college football with someone under say 35 yrs old when they ask me was Nebraska EVER a top 10 football program ? …….It has been a while since the Corhuskers won a National Championship (1997 per Wikipedia ) .
Kickoff is here! NEB vs NW in Dublin, Ireland (Fox)! Big-time CFB is back. NEB leads the series 9-6 all-time. Lots of pre-game talk about the Huskers ready to emerge after years of futility, and close losses under Scott Frost. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Fox College Football Pregame is making up for GameDay’s lack of coverage. Said Chris Petersen — “It’s amazing that the whole show just isn’t about the Trojans here.”
(Not that I care about the 2 teams playing) But just watched kickoff to start Austin Peay vs Western Kentucky …… Football is back !
GameDay’s panel unanimously picked UTAH to win the Feeble-12. It was the quickest pronouncement by Rece Davis in the history of the program. Literally took three seconds, while the other conferences were each covered more thoroughly. Just another example of why the Trojans had to leave.
At least the greatest sport on the planet earth is back!
“At least the greatest sport on the planet earth is back!” <<<<<<<<<< 100 Percent Accurate !!!!!
Utah is the easy pick for the Pac12. Defending Champs, played OSU tough in the Rose Bowl, no coaching turnover, not much player turnover. The rest of the Pac is a big unknown black box. We will find out next week with 4 big match ups and the debut of the new and improved Trojans. Utah/Florida, Oregon/Georgia, Notre Dame/OSU, and LSU/Florida St. Gotta give teams credit for not scheduling a cupcake for your first game.
To win it, UTAH has to beat USC twice in one season. Hope the two teams meet for the championship.
Bru McCoy finally got his transfer waiver approved by the NCAA and is eligible to play for TENN.
Yeah after either one or both Tennessee & McCoy bellyached USC wasn’t cooperating with needed paperwork on his transfer which was not the case. Get a life!
Tennessee still has recovered from when Kiffin bolted for USC.
A …….. College Game Day is Back !!!!! ……..AND B ? ……Some guy named (as all the guys on the show where predicting this years Heisman Trophy winner) some guy named Lee Corso JUST PICKED Caleb Williams as Lee Corso’s pick to win this years Heisman ! ………FIGHT ON !!!!!
Well we know “coach” is a little slow these days (or has been for a few years due to his health) and you have to root for a guy who is still trying in life being somebody. He has always been a novelty on Game Day willing to be a clown as much as a coach critiquing a player or team. With the exception of Herbstreet, ESPN needs to overhaul the show(as you have pointed out Allen) as it’s getting stale past it’s prime.
St. John Bosco football came to the DFW area last night and played the Allen High team. Allen is the team Kyler Murray played for (It was undefeated for his years at the QB). Allen takes its football very seriously. They have a stadium that is better than most colleges (It seats 18,000). Look it up on Wikipedia. It is amazing. Allen has only one high school for its school district. As a counter example, Frisco (where I live) has I think seven. Frisco School District has a policy not to allow any high school to be larger that 2,000… Read more »
I remember years ago I bought some property in Rockwall. The realtor showed us the new high school. All there was at that time was building pads with material stockpiled on them sitting next to a finished football stadium. Blew me away. Mater Dei beat Gorman (LV) 24-21 last night. Los Alamitos plays today on espn2 at 4pm eastern. Chance to see our future Qb.
I know that many of us have covered this ground in the past few months but as I see it on Saturday August 27th, after everything we have seen and heard, the Trojan offense should score at least 30 points in every game. It does not appear that any team on our schedule has the defense to keep the “MASTERMIND LR” from reaching at least 30 points in a game. They would have to hold the ball for over 45 minutes and score TD’s to challenge that statement. Our Defense which has been questioned forever it seems like, and in… Read more »
Daniel, I do not look at averages, I look at match ups. Our O will match up with any D we face all year. The problem is our D. It will be fine against teams based on the pass. It is vulnerable to teams that have quality OL, quality RBs and a quality O run scheme. These teams will be able to keep our O off the field while scoring. For example, tOSU had a better O last year than we will have this (they had 3 first round WRs and beat Utah with only one of them – as… Read more »
RJJ: Absolutely correct on your match ups. Good homework. Thing is about this SC defense is nobody knows what it is. Lots of conjecture, opinions, and comparisons with last years defense. At this time how do we know they cannot stop the run? Will they stop every run? I doubt it. Will we have speed in pursuit this year? Are the players stronger? Are they more motivated? (it wouldn’t take much to be more motivated than last season) Are they better coached with a system utilizing our talents better? Will this unit gel together? All these questions will get answered… Read more »
Another article appeared today claiming that USC is overrated based on last year’s record. I know 4-8 was an aberration because circumstances were very different last season.
This season, the team is new from stem to stern. Last year’s in the rear view this year hasn’t been written.
USC is the Mystery Team of the Year! Or maybe the High Anticipation Team of the Year.
Never seen so much positive guesswork in my life. A little negative too, for the fun of it. After the last decade or so, what a relief!
This 2022 USC team will go down as the most unique Trojan team of all time.
So many scenarios seem plausible. Such a range. Me — 9-3, good bowl.
We know the team is being well coached and will have game plans to maximize the talent to succeed. But injuries is the big bully in the room that can’t be controlled and can really hurt us until our team depth has been built up sufficiently. It’s about luck being on our side this season.
All this and not once did he call him the love of his life.
😂😂😂
DANG IT (Carolina Panthers Beat Writer) >>>>>> David Newton
@DNewtonespn
Sam Darnold leaving on a golf cart.
Ugly, awkward tackle from behind. Hard to say how serious it might really be. JMHO.
You guys need to be asking/focused on questions on the other side of the ball. Without question, Lincoln has always been on the same page with his QB and offense. The question is how are you going to beat the likes of Utah or Oregon with Grinch calling plays on the D? Oregon hired the architect of the #1 D in the nation last year. Utah is Utah. Lincoln brought the DC of the #76 defense to take over the #89 defense. Doesn’t bode well IMO. Game is played on both sides of the ball. Might work for two years… Read more »
No argument from us, Scioto, we totally get it. What you’ve missed, though, is the recent history of us having some pretty decent skill players on offense, but because of a lack of offensive identity, our “gumbo” offense has chronically grossly underachieved. So naturally, we’re ecstatic that it appears that at least that part of our dysfunctional team is getting fixed. And, to your point, we also may yet get a little too exuberant over any improvement we see on defense that Grinch can achieve because we’ve been so deplorable on that side of the ball. But, hey, don’t rain… Read more »
Correction, Oregon hired the guy that worked for the guy that designed the #1 defense last year. Smart was highly involved in the Georgia defense.
I am as eager as anyone to see what we have on both sides of the ball. But our defense will not be facing either of those defenses.
Oregon’s offense: Bo Nix. Really? Have you seen him? How much did he improve moving to Oregon? Klemm coaching the O-Line? Ok. Enough said.
Utah will have a decent offense but lost thief best player on that side of the ball and have never been known for their stellar offenses. Overall I like our chances.
Rome & the Great Wall of China wasn’t built in one season. And the great fans at Ohio State can be thankful their administration didn’t hire a HC just to babysit the players and do little else like Helton. I wouldn’t call John Cooper a babysitter. The timing may be right in two seasons giving LR & staff some time to recruit & develop depth in the program, that greatly needs to be replenished, and be better prepared to handle the physical nature of Big Ten football. Just don’t underestimate the better programs in the PAC that have played at… Read more »
Jakobi Lane ✌️
I had a thought reading this article. If LR and CW are on the same page in so many ways, I wonder if the same might be said for Mario Williams over the other WRs? Will he be getting more balls thrown to him early on in the season? Mario has a leg up on working with Caleb, the system and routes over the others going in to camp. How hard is it for WRs to get up to speed in a new system?
In the case of LR and CW, I’m thrilled to hear they are so much of the same mind. I would have been incredibly worried if our QBs were of the same mind as our recent coach. 😜
I enjoy reading Adam Grosbard.
USC didn’t offer 4-Star Mesa Red Mountain (AZ) WR Ja’Kobi Lane (6-5, 180) until Aug 1, but his Trojan interest was always extremely high. Earlier today, Lane announced his USC commitment over ORE, which was favored. USC definitely seems to be eating ORE’s lunch lately and its 2023 class ranking has moved to #11, with 17 commits! Lane — “The things USC shows for me is it’s a place I’d thrive at and it’s not a place I need to play right away. I’ll compete to play right away, but I’m okay waiting for my time. It’s a great system to thrive… Read more »
Always good to have these real tall receivers, especially in the red zone. Welcome to USC.
I like that he at least says he is not expecting to start right away.
Wow. Husker Nation is REAL, and in Ireland to watch their team take on Northwestern
In case you didn’t know, Clay Helton goes up against Scott Frost in Lincoln on Sept. 10, 4:30 PT (FS1).
Should be a one sided affair for sure. No doubt Helton will be in his prime making pronouncements about the warriors and such after the game.
things will improve once he watches film.
That one I am going to watch (God willing). The Athletic has Clay as a 3rd Tier coach and Frost as 4th Tier.
It is hard to believe Frost rated that much below the likes of Helton. I have a feeling this year Nebraska could be a force to be reckoned with. Not a championship caliber, but cannot be taken for granted.
I’m sure those watching that game will see Helton with his “game face” on while he’s on the headphone asking his assistant coaches, “OK, anybody know what we’re going to do next?”
I thought he only used his headset to order lunch.