Caleb Williams, USC hope first loss will be an emotional catalyst in Utah rematch
Caleb Williams yells to the sideline during the first half against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. (Michael Caterina / AP)
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — His first loss at USC, almost exactly one year ago, hit Caleb Williams like an emotional haymaker. The quarterback carried the Trojans all the way to the brink, conjuring whatever magic he could to extend USC’s spotless start to the season. But it wasn’t enough. Utah slipped past USC on a late two-point conversion, a devastating dagger to the Trojans.
Williams left the field that night in Salt Lake City with tears in his eyes and a fire in his gut, convinced it could be a catalyst.
“I hate losing,” he said, bleary-eyed. “I really, really hate it.”
So through the rest of October and November, Williams simply didn’t allow USC to lose. The Trojans went on a five-game win streak, while Williams went absolutely nuclear, scoring 22 touchdowns and locking up the Heisman Trophy in the process. It wasn’t until the Trojans got a rematch with Utah in the Pac-12 title game that Williams felt the sting of defeat again.
That familiar feeling crept to the surface once again last Saturday at Notre Dame, in the wake of USC’s first loss of this season. But considering how last season played out, the hope around USC is that a crippling midseason defeat once again could serve as an emotional springboard into the second half of its schedule, which is far less forgiving than the first.
“You don’t want to be in a situation where you have to use [a loss] as motivation, but we are in that situation now,” Williams said Wednesday. “So let’s use it as motivation. Let’s keep going. Let’s find ways to get better. Truth over harmony.”
The truth is it’s Williams who needs to be better. The quarterback was intercepted three times by Notre Dame. He was sacked six times while under constant pressure in a collapsing pocket. And he struggled to move the ball down the field, finishing with a meager 199 yards, his lowest total since before that first Utah loss last season.
It wasn’t tears so much as frustration and disbelief that welled up as he left the field in South Bend. It was at that emotional nadir that a Notre Dame fan ran up to Williams and recorded himself taunting the quarterback and his painted nails.
The video clip, which went viral, didn’t sit too well with Williams, who responded Wednesday by telling reporters that “everyone wants to be in these two 12.5 shoes here.”
“I’ve got a lot of guys over here that I’ve got to lead. So some opinion of a sheep, lions don’t worry about that,” Williams said.
With No. 14 Utah (5-1, 2-1) awaiting Saturday night at the Coliseum, No. 18 USC (6-1, 4-0) has plenty to worry about.
Forget for a moment the emotional heft inherent to a matchup like Utah, which single-handedly kept USC out of the College Football Playoff last season. Amid the many crises USC seems to be facing, it was merely a footnote this week.
USC’s defense remains a sore spot after half the season. Its offensive line has unraveled the last two games. And Williams hasn’t exactly looked like himself lately, culminating in his “first bad game in college.”
“That’s one game in the past three years that I’ve had a bad game,” Williams said of the 48-20 loss to the Irish. “So you don’t let that one game bring you down and cause you doubt. It’s something that Kobe [Bryant] said. Doubt is a weird thing. When you’re striving for greatness, striving for things like that, you’ll have failure, you’ll have success, but doubt, why even think about it? Why have something like that ruin something you’ve been working hard for?”
Caleb Williams attempts to throw the ball as Notre Dame LB Jaylen Sneed, center, and DL Howard Cross III, right, pressure him. (Michael Caterina / AP)
No one is doubting Williams, but USC can’t afford to have him struggle in the same fashion Saturday, lest it lose control of its season. Nor can the quarterback be expected to operate any longer in a collapsing pocket. But against Utah’s vaunted front, it won’t be easy for Williams or his offensive line to right the ship.
“We know that if we can give him time, and we can do our jobs, he’s the best player in the country,” left tackle Jonah Monheim said. “He’ll be all right from there.”
The Utes terrorized Williams during their two meetings last season, tallying a combined 11 sacks and 44 pressures. This season they lead the Pac-12 and rank seventh in the nation in sacks, led by defensive lineman Jonah Elliss, whose nine sacks and 13½ tackles for loss have him on track for an All-American campaign.
“They’re extremely aggressive. You have to give them credit,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “You can tell they’ve been in that system for a long, long, long time, and they’ve recruited for that system for a long, long, long, long time. And they do a tremendous job of it. Against a group that’s going to be tremendously aggressive, you have to make some of your big plays too. We were able to do that quite a bit in the first game, and we did it at times in the second game too. But this is going to be a new challenge.”
Whether that clean slate includes a new quarterback for Utah remains to be seen.
Utah has been without star quarterback Cam Rising all season after he suffered a serious knee injury in the Rose Bowl. His return has long been rumored, and while he hasn’t been ruled out, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham this week even discussed the possibility of a medical redshirt, allowing Rising to return for a seventh season.
In Rising’s absence, Utah has tried to trade off between two quarterbacks, Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson, neither of whom has been that effective. Through six games they’ve combined for 897 passing yards and just four touchdowns, 19 fewer than Williams has thrown in seven games.
That should be music to the ears of the Trojans’ secondary after it was torched by Rising for 725 yards and five touchdowns between their two meetings last season.
Williams had his way with Utah in that first loss a year ago. The question this time, with both USC and its quarterback reeling, is whether he can return to that level, and whether that would be enough to author a win.
latimes.com
_______
TrojanDailyBlog members — We always encourage you to add factual information, insight, divergent opinions, or new topics to the TDB that don’t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.
Say what you will…..this team is entertaining. Bet the Colly is nearly filled Sat. As far as the lines……unfortunately the posts have nailed it……might have to take a lower tier QB to redirect some cash to the lines because we are not getting the types and most importantly the quantity. Quite a few teams have lower tier linemen that turn out great…..we need coaches that know how to develop…..the old days of CPC getting all the goods ones is over because you just cannot fight the tidal wave of national cash sloshing around……we are only one program…..this era is going… Read more »
You need to convince LR of this illinoiusc.
The rest of us are already on board (I think), unless one thinks being “entertaining” at home is good enough. I agree though. USC remains very exciting to watch, good or bad.
Highly entertained Domer fans will be forever laughing at their big payback game against despised USC. Too bad. It didn’t have to be like this, that’s for sure.
check it down … on last two picks underneath wide open
Had Branch just waiting to create magic and threw into 6 guys
Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda.
Half the games I watch could have turned out differently if teams made the plays they should have made.
Give Caleb some time and he’s literally always deadly. But with a sieve-like Trojan OL, he just found out what it’s like to play against a good team for the first time this year.
When no time check it down especially to Branch … good training for NFL. Not playing the fan boy imaginary game here, just check it down.
Maybe offensive genius Lincoln Riley should be telling exactly that to Caleb during those animated sideline conversations they are always having.
Or maybe Caleb should just learn how to listen better.
Right now, USC’s lucky to be in the Top 20 anymore. UTAH, a team with a lot of injuries, should be easy pickings in the Coliseum with Cam Rising on the sidelines. If not, solid fave USC will already be out of the picture for anything and everything most of us predicted in the pre-season.
Nothing is easy for this team … see since at ASU. Some dump offs and CW keeping it more has to happen or this O will continue to go backwards.
It was a reasonable theory to not pay big bucks for HS kids and wait for the portal and get more proven talent. It looks like you just have to risk losing some money on HS kids that bust. But odds are good 5 stars will pan out. Some clever combo of HS and Portal will pay off. But you need good assistant coaches to develop and game play.
That last line to me is the key……coaches that don’t develop are not going to work. I don’t view myself as a great football person knowing all the X’s and O’s but I sometimes recognize talent……Bear is being wasted. This guy could probably have been something special at Georgia…..several of our db’s were some of the best recruits in the country at CB…..
New DL Anthony Lucas from A&M reminds me of Korey Foreman, who has proven to be mediocre at best under two totally different staffs.
The list of Trojan players who don’t seem to be doing much so far is pretty long.
I agree…..without being too hard on Trojans…..Barrs and Lucas are subpar…..which in my humble opinion is going to happen more often than not with transfers. Foreman needs to find another hobby.
We have not brought in enough people on the lines so that a few diamonds in the rough can surface.
Oregon seems to have struck gold with some of their transfers on both lines,qb and lb…….maybe Tosh and Lanning are better talent evaluators but we did bring in Bear….could be he is surrounded by mush so he can’t flower.
Pete Thamel, Rece Davis question if Lincoln Riley needs to change his coaching philosophy, or recalibrate… Kaiden Smith (on3.com) — USC suffered their first loss of the season last weekend as Notre Dame laid the smackdown on the Trojans in South Bend with a 48-20 victory in their rivalry game. The loss serves as just the fourth for Trojans’ head coach Lincoln Riley in his second season in Los Angeles, but all have a similar theme, their opponent scored over 40 points. Defense has been a weakness of Riley’s teams historically with quarterback play being their strength dating back to his head coaching days at Oklahoma.… Read more »
Rinse and repeat. This has been said by all the media already. I sure hope LR gets the picture soon, there is such a plurality of this same thought. Is everyone wrong?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1715084151433375969
Few men are safe on USC’s floundering offensive line Luca Evans (OC Register) — “The little things that you don’t see when you’re not playing as good competition, they start becoming big things, when you play good people,” USC OL coach Josh Henson said Wednesday. After a handful of admirably clean games to start the year, little things started to sprout around USC’s sloppy win against Arizona State, when the line allowed 11 pressures and 10 hurries, according to Pro Football Focus. That was masked, as usual, by Williams’ brilliance in a five-touchdown game. There was no masking the struggles… Read more »
We are going to need to change our philosophy on NIL. Ive heard all of our local beat guys say that they know for a fact that kids are not coming here because we are not making up front NIL deals. Once they are in the system they are getting those deals. Other schools are just paying kids to come, we are not. We ave lost out on many good kids because of it.
Lincoln has bombed so far in recruiting preps, relatively speaking. He’ll continue to do so while other willing programs take the best guys out of HS. He should redirect some of our NIL $ instead of pushing for facility upgrades, which aren’t nearly as important as giving recruits what they demand right now — $$$. Of course, LR has known this for a while already. Maybe the ND beatdown woke him up, or at least got him thinking. We’ll find out.
I wonder if stubborn LR has actually woken up? But that would imply him accepting responsibility for doing things the wrong way….
Can USC fix big problems mid-season?
I expect we’ll beat UTAH, UCLA, and CAL, though some would argue I’m too optimistic. I think USC will lose to both UW and ORE, however much it pains me greatly to say it.
But unless USC figures out some legerdemain or other gridiron witchcraft of some sort to immediately rehab our woeful O-line, I don’t see how USC pushes UW or ORE around enough in the trenches to protect Caleb or establish a consistent running game.
I agree with you except I think Utah and UCLA are 50-50. LR, KK and CW have to adapt their play calling/game plan to try to compensate for the O Line if possible. Grinch needs to find guys that don’t get lost in the scheme, again if possible. I am preparing myself for 8-4 but 7-5 is a possibility. Maybe then LR will get a new DC, Line coach and start to pay up front $$$ for 5 star HS linemen, linebackers and DBs.
Well said. Indeed, these next five games will be an enlightening experience, and 8-4 could be in the cards.
I’ve also started to wonder lately about USC’s ability to properly evaluate talent from both the Portal and prep ranks.
Some of our underperformers are definitely Helton holdovers. But we’ve had too many big Portal whiffs to not notice, even though a few of them have turned out to be terrific.
Too optimistic? Ha, you’re conservative compared to my wildly optimistic prognostication of a few days ago. Always hopeful…😆
TENN is at BAMA tomorrow, as you well know vT.
The Tide just completely took over that rivalry since 2007, but when I was much, much younger, it was a huge deal and often a great game. I still remember the days of “The Swamp Rat”.
I think I’m gonna tune into the Tuscaloosa affair tomorrow at 12:30 PT (CBS) and root for the Vols big time.
Watching Bama’s safety’s tackle is refreshing … those dudes fly around
Every Qb has at least one game they would like to take back. Caleb has had his and now he can remind everyone just why he won the Heisman and is projected to go #1. Hopefully his O line gets it done as Utah has a good rush and plenty of film to see what works best against the USC offense. LR has to have made some changes both along the line and in his play calling, perhaps opening up the playbook a little more.
Han Solo makes his way into Trojan football
Luca Evans (OCR) — “USC allowed 13 pressures against Notre Dame, Caleb Williams trying to survive in a pocket crumpling against a five-man rush like Han Solo trying to stop the trash compactor in “Star Wars,” his normally-deft improvisation falling flat in front of a jeering Notre Dame audience…”
USC offensive line positions are still uncertain heading into Utah game Donovan James (Trojans Wire) — This is not good news for USC. Trojan offensive line coach Josh Henson told reporters that offensive line spots are up for grabs heading into the Utah game on Saturday. Early in the season, the frequent rotations of players offered a sensible way to give a lot of players some needed work and give the coaching staff a chance to evaluate many different players and line combinations. It made sense to use many rotations. However, in late September, the rotations needed to tighten and… Read more »
Going into the season the O Line was one of the biggest questions besides the defense.
We hoped the transfer portal additions plus Dedich and Monheim would work but it hasn’t quite.
So it’s not surprising that we’re having to shuffle players around.
Long-term we need to find 5 players who can play together for at least 3 years together. This has to be done via recruitment and not the transfer portal.
Fingers crossed that whoever we put out on Saturday do better than last week,
You would think the Oline issues would be figured out by now
Agree and we should have chosen 5 players in fall camp to run with rather than trying different combinations like we did early on and then shuffle again.
Remember our first game, the so-called “practice set-up” vs SJS where there were just constant wholesale substitutions? Little good that approach did us. It looks like we’ve just never had a starting five that was ever good enough to stand out from the rest, except Monheim.
One of the biggest failures in the off-season was to appropriately address our OL needs via the Portal. We brought in a few guys, but none have really panned out so far, and Dedich hasn’t adjusted to OC well, a bitter pill for the 2023 Trojans to swallow.
That 1st game … you would had thought a message would had been sent especially by Grinch, who needed to rejuvenate his awful rep
That game was a big fail
USC is well beyond the half way point of the season and the coaching does not know who the starting 5 (except one) will be against Utah? Good grief!
Now that we’ve all had the chance to see ND wipe out our O-line with no problem, and reduce Caleb Williams to a shadow of himself before USC’s greatest rival (IMO), you can imagine how the Irish coaches were relishing their payback shot at a disappointing team which still didn’t have a starting OL group (misevals on Portal newcomers) in the seventh game of the season.
It’s so funny how Caleb has one bad game and the national media thinks he’s overrated.
Hope Caleb balls out the rest of the season and proves the doubters wrong.
Caleb remains the likely #1 pick in the Draft (I’m one of the guys who cares about that stuff).
If he had an O-line that could even remotely protect him and give MarShawn Lloyd some consistent running lanes, he would have had another monster game that would have seen USC beat ND, and would have also kept the media hopped up about his usually spectacular play.
As they say, “Wind blows a lot harder at the top of the mountain.”