Caleb Williams and USC receivers are perfecting ‘the art’ of the deep pass
Brenden Rice has learned how to stay active until Caleb Williams can find him open. They’ve found the ‘”rhythm”.
Thuc Nhi Nguyen (LA Times) — There were drops. There were drive-killing penalties. But most importantly for USC, there was still Caleb Williams.
When little was going right in USC’s passing game in a sloppy matchup against Arizona State on Saturday, the Heisman-winning quarterback rescued the Trojans with deep-ball fireworks that have become the signature of this season’s USC offense.
Williams has tossed eight touchdown passes traveling 20 or more yards in the air this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Of Williams’ 15 touchdown passes, 11 (73.3%) were on passes 10 or more yards compared to last year, when the Heisman winner threw 17 of his 42 (40.5%) touchdown, passes farther than 10 yards.
It’s tangible progress in Williams’ goal to improve in every aspect even after winning college football’s highest individual honor. The coaching staff made it a point to work on expanding the intermediate and deep passing game to make opponents “respect the whole area of the field,” receivers coach Dennis Simmons said.
“I for sure worked on it,” Williams said Saturday night after USC’s 42-28 win over Arizona State. “I thought I was pretty efficient last year, but this year … when you have those moments, and you have those big plays that come up, you want to be able to execute and capitalize in those moments. And we’ve been able to do that so far.”
In possibly the best collection of quarterbacks ever in a single conference, Williams stands out for his efficiency. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Williams’ counterpart in Saturday’s highly anticipated game between the Trojans and Buffaloes in Boulder, is second in the country in passing yards per game, trailing only Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., who also leads the nation in passing touchdowns.
But Williams is the nation’s most efficient passer, especially after improving his accuracy on passes in the intermediate and deep range. Williams has completed 81.8% of his passes between 10 and 19 yards this season, according to Pro Football Focus, a jump from 55.7% last year. His deep throws connect 57.4% of the time compared to last season’s mark of 41.8%.
Part of the key might have been Williams accepting that deep throws can’t always be perfect, coach Lincoln Riley said. Instead of over-thinking a wide-open receiver then missing him by a foot, Riley said Williams has adopted a mentality to at least give his teammates a chance to make the play. Many of his receivers have stepped up to the challenge.
“It’s some of the trust that’s been built in,” Riley said. “How we want to attack people down the field and in the intermediate part and the guys really buying into it and taking it from meeting room to practice field to game field.”
Moments like Brenden Rice’s 43-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter against Arizona State get replayed on TV and shared on social media, but it’s the time away from the spotlight that made the play happen, Rice said. The Trojans practiced the situation often in practice before the game. They knew the middle of the field was going to be open. All Rice had to do was attack the defender with a five-step post, then burn him to the middle of the field.
For a 210-pound receiver who proudly recalled his best 100-meter sprint time of 10.78 seconds, it was easy work.
Rice finished with a career-high seven catches against Arizona State for 133 yards and has five touchdowns on the season, eclipsing his total of four from last year when he and Williams joined the Trojans out of the transfer portal. Williams followed his Oklahoma head coach to USC while Rice jumped from Colorado.
Adjusting to the new environment and new teammates was “a little rocky,” Rice said, because “we were just in such a hurry.” But this year, he has made it a point to connect with his quarterback outside of the field. They watch NFL games together on Sundays and order wings.
“It really translates,” Rice said. “And then you go ahead and put in the work that we get after practice with all the other receivers and that’s why all the other receivers are able to go and dominate and that’s why I feel like this group is No. 1 in the nation.”
USC’s receiving corps can make a case as the best in the country because of its depth. Rice leads the team with five touchdown catches while freshman Zachariah Branch leads in catches (13) and Tahj Washington leads with 278 receiving yards.
Brenden Rice scores on a 43-yard TD reception in the first quarter against ASU on Saturday. (Rick Scuteri / AP)
With Rice’s breakthrough, Washington was almost a non-factor for most of Saturday’s game. He wasn’t targeted with a pass until early in the fourth quarter, finishing with only one catch. But he made that moment count.
Washington (16) sealed USC’s win on a 45-yard touchdown catch with 7:17 remaining. It was the same type of play that he might have struggled to execute earlier in his career.
Simmons called patience one of Washington’s “Achilles heels” when the coaching staff first inherited the Memphis transfer who joined the Trojans during Clay Helton’s tenure. Washington struggled on deep passes because of the lack of concentration. He now leads USC with four touchdown catches of 20 or more yards from scrimmage.
“A lot of times when that ball is in the air as a receiver, you want it to get down to you so you can get your hands on it,” Simmons said last week. “[It’s about] just kind of relaxing yourself, relaxing your mind, especially if someone’s hanging on to you.”
Staying relaxed feels easier when “Superman” has the ball in his hands. While Williams was casually spinning 360 degrees in the pocket on first-and-10 early in the fourth quarter Saturday, Rice had little doubt his quarterback could find him. Instead, the receiver told himself to slow down as he charged toward the sideline. Although he already shook free from a defender, Rice still needed to stay in bounds while mirroring Williams’ scramble path.
Watching Williams scramble is like joining in on a song, Rice said, and the receivers have learned to pick up on his rhythm.
“You kind of just have to stay active,” Rice said, “because you’re looking at the art of what a QB can really do.”
latimes.com
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The Athletic’s Mailbag
If USC and IOWA had a baby, what would its weekly point differential be?
Ari Wasserman — Did you stop to think that the baby would come out with IOWA’s offense and USC’s defense? Now that would be terrifying.
theathletic.com
iowa’s overrated D is same as USC ….SC O nit even in same ball park
Allen, this simply proves my point. The Grinch narrative is now well established in the national collegiate football “mind”. I doubt Grinch can improve. The one who should be learning in LR. He should terminated Grinch after the Cotton Bowl to avoid hearing the Grinch narrative all season.
I think the first time SC played to a large national audience was last week. The time prior to that the national audience saw Grinch was the Cotton Bowl.
I shared Wasserman’s comment about USC’s “terrifying defense” as an indicator of what non-USC fans think about USC football.
And as of now, that’s simply our (and LR’s) well-established rep. We earned it. Now we have to live with it.
More and more people are losing hope for Alex Grinch. That’s pretty clear from the sentiments and the frustration I’m seeing expressed elsewhere. Many of us have refused to completely toss him overboard, giving Lincoln Riley, one of the country’s smartest CFB coaches (IMO), the benefit of the doubt in his support of Grinch’s problematic tenure at USC. But sooner or later, something has to change, and it seemed like Grinch has somewhat reverted back to his 2022 form. At least the team’s tackling has. Furthermore, players like Mason Cobb, Max Williams and Stanley Ta’ufo’ou are getting the nod from USC to stay on the field over other players who… Read more »
You and me both. Well said Allen. I do think Grinch is a good game manager and judge of talent. He simply in my opinion has over coached the schemes to the point there is just to much confusion. Guys are communicating and missing the snaps. Let them play, it’s not rocket science.
Grinch is a slow learner … same crap all the time. No clue on 3rd and long, when teams now just run zone for 15 yds. Never a stop on 4th down, so now a wide open swing pass goes for a 52 yd TDs. And 2pt conversions or trick plays … teams should do those over and over. They will work 90% of the time. That high school level fake punt was brutal. And the usual 3 or 4 play 80 yd drives after SC O seemingly wrap up the game, making it tighter than needed to be. Slow… Read more »
He can only be a slow learner if he actually eventually learns. Do we have any evidence he is or has?
I just caught a replay of the 52-yard swing pass and watched it in slo-mo. Two separate defenders were lined up for kill shots — the second while the runner was stumbling backwards. The first one totally whiffed; the second went low and the runner just stepped over him. Pathetic.
Guys may as well have had blindfolds on. Both are great examples of poor Trojan tackling form.
But I do have to give credit to that short, stout, nimble 225-pound ASU RB Cam Skattebo. He had an incredible game and really put on a show against USC last Saturday night.
Actually, a blind man whose other senses are well developed could have made the tackle.
I watched my recording of the ASU game. One word, inconsistency. Inconsistent in all 3 phases. There were great plays by O, D and ST. Then there were blown plays, yes even by CW. A bad night by everyone is still my take away. But I agree with the crowd, the over scheming on defense has guys running around not knowing who to cover. Grinch, simplify!. A better offense than ASU will score bunches on this team.
You’d think Grinch would have figured this out by now. Instead, he needs to read the TDB for input and guidance. Baby steps.
That was The Cat’s biggest mistake, he didn’t read TBD either and look how he turned out.
He was too busy kissing foltie’s butt to have time to read this blog–trojan football news definitive record.
Funny! I think he is getting plenty of advice! I do not think he can change his ways – the saying “he is what he is” is apt. Unfortunately, what we say the last half of 2022 is what Alex Grinch “is”. By the way, the same applies to Helton.
Yup, teams like WA and OR are going to light this D up big time. The issue will be whether Caleb and this O can outscore them. The Grinch narrative is taking hold. I still stand by my position that Grinch does not survive this year (candidly, IMO he never stood a chance).
Allen, This is the reason that I thought last spring and still think it a mistake that LR brought Grinch back. LR ran the risk the media coverage of this very special team would center on the Grinch narrative, which you have outlined masterfully in your above post.
Your thinking looks more and more correct RJJ.
I’m still hanging on to a bare thread of hope for Grinch. I guess I find it hard to believe LR could be so wrong. But we all are sometimes.
I think LR made a mistake. My guess is LR simply was unaware of the power of media narratives in a national market like LA. I am convinced Grinch has reached his capacity (he has laid two eggs this year – SJS and ASU & he will lay at least three more, most likely more). The issue is can LR learn? The LA media market is totally different than that in Norman, OK. I really would like Grinch to prove me wrong. But I expect the Buffs will light up his D yet one more time. I just think Caleb… Read more »
I sure wish two-way phenom Travis Hunter was playing for the Buffs. That would have been a sight to see against some of USC’s poor tacklers.
This game might take so long to play that the 10 am local start in CO might interfere with fans’ 7pm dinner reservations.
Apropos of Grinch and Helton, can you name a bad coach who “grew” into being a good coach, let alone an elite coach?
Our clutch kicker Denis Lynch is a style maven for sure!
Wait, we have another blind football player? 🤣
You know who’s turning into a great NFL/college football analyst?
Mark Sanchez
This Trojan has been killing it lately. He knows so much and is really developing his own super informative, colorful style. He’s also been terrific and very insightful on Colin Cowherd lately.
Suckisian owes him a Heisman and a national title … F ing hack
13 years ago on Facebook I posted that we started in a good spot in the polls and after each win we got bumped up to the point where we went from the top 10 to put of the top 10 in three weeks. Our defense then was the culprit, the reason voters didn’t think we were a whole football team. In my dreams I’d like to believe ASU was an aberration, but my sense tells me otherwise. My question is what can the Alex,Lincoln trust do to fix this problem? I can see Alex has schemes that scheme schemes,… Read more »
I think you found the problem. Schemes are not so necessary
Give Grinch more ritalin–maybe he has ADD?
What was recently posted about Scott “Despicable Behavior” Scott Wolf, I would like to point out your lack of professionalism and integrity as a sports journalist. My background is in the IT field and am familiar with WordPress architecture. After ghosting your blog several times something odd came to my attention. A person who often replies under the username “Cowardly Gabby” (too many characters to list the entire name) is replying with “embedded posts” lifted from Twitter accounts. Here’s the problem with that, only the administrator/ owner of this website would have access to “developer t00ls” that could permit these… Read more »
Gabby, my guess is Scott could be using two or three aliases. Instead of taking the high road, Scott claims to not read comments on his blog. The blog he inherited from Michael Lev of the O.C. Register, was a nice place to post and expect replies from the blog owner. My advice is to stay here where you will never see either of the two blog owners quote, “an NFL coach I talked to.” Civil discourse is encouraged and disagreements do not lead to name calling . For the record I closed my account for “Inside USC” Sunday after… Read more »
For fun, I went to Wolf’s blog just now. I.noticed that even Temu isn’t advertising there anymore. It has degenerated into a blog for name calling and extremely childish comments. I stand but my advice above.
Not trying to be rude or provoke anything, but leave that other blog stuff on the other blog.
There are other blogs about Trojan football? I don’t think so–TDB is the only one!
Colin Cowherd says the NIL/Transfer Portal has actually “saved the sport” of CFB. The ratings validate it. College football viewing is way up 14% through only week 4. Big brands like TEXAS, UW, USC and PSU capitalized by buying some players and fixing some spots. ND bought new QB Sam Hartman from WAKE and was suddenly an inch away from beating the Buckeyes. Even a team like CU, a total deadbeat for many years, now could attract a coach like Prime and bring in 80-85 new players to start building a possible championship group in 2-3 years. Any team can… Read more »
Cowturd doesn’t like the make up of college football … hates the hand picked weak schedule. So anything resembling the NFL he is all about. Agree with him.
Cowherd is all about accepting change and not being fearful of it. Adapt and win. Remain stuck, and lose. I totally agree with him.
College football was becoming too much of a regional sport. All SEC.
The West started to get tired of that years ago. So finally, the West migrated east, led of course by USC.
I think in the 12 team format we’d play Oregon in round 1.
After seeing ORE totally dismember CU in Eugene, I’m more worried than ever about that game. Bo Nix looked better than I anticipated. He can wing it, and run it too. Sure hope USC can work out some kinks before we take on the Ducks.
Need a split at ND (more probable) at Oregon … drub Utah and Udub at home. Then beat Oregon or Washington in Vegas. Simple lol
CCG suck to high heaven, at least SC gets a bye week prior.
OHIO ST at ND drew NBC’s biggest rating in 30 years.
USC rolls into South Bend on Oct. 14 for our 4:30 PT (NBC/Peacock) extravaganza against the Irish.
If both teams don’t lose a game until our huge match-up, can USC/ND beat the OHIO ST/ND numbers?
Against “Free Man” Freeman we got this!😉
I think Marcus Freeman is the person I would have least desired to be in the world over the last 48 hours. What a colossal mistake. That said, I’m big-time worried about USC at ND on Oct. 14. We’ve still got some real weaknesses that this Trojan staff needs to finally figure out, on both sides of the ball. While ND lost, they shouldn’t have. They just blew it. In some ways, the game reminded me of USC’s horrible loss to TEXAS. Remember when we dropped an easy pick before Vince Young scored the game-ender? A ND defender did the… Read more »
Yes … the nation will want to watch Caleb
I have yet to find a media outlet that reports the truth: that ND only had 10 defenders out for three of the final four plays of that OSU game. No one in the media is challenging Freeman’s BS explanation that he knew he was short on the final play but decided not to take a penalty to bring in another guy because it would allow OSU an opportunity to “reset.” I am so frustrated with the state of our media today – just NO accountability or truth in anything. Here is the truth: ND has recruited very well, particularly… Read more »
Freeman’s been thoroughly exposed through too many versions of what really happened. All of them are bad.
The bottom line is he and his staff, and their systems failed big time in the hugest Notre Dame game in years. This is a ND stain that will never go away.
I almost feel sorry for them. “Almost” being the key word! 😂. 😂
Ha! Right Allen!
The Athletic’s Heisman straw poll: Michael Penix, Caleb Williams lead the way with other Pac-12 QBs lurking Michael Penix Jr. is the early leader in The Athletic’s first weekly Heisman straw poll. Reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams — who was picked three spots ahead of Penix in The Athletic’s preseason Heisman draft — received the second-most votes. And Bo Nix, who went 15th in the same draft, came in third. PLAYER TEAM POS PTS 1 Michael Penix Jr. UW QB 87 2 Caleb Williams USC QB 72 3 Bo Nix ORE QB 19 4 Jordan Travis FSU QB 9 5 Cam Ward WSU QB 6 6 Quinn Ewers TEXAS QB… Read more »
It is very rare when you have the three top QBs in the country all playing each other. My guess is the Heisman is now a 3 way race: Caleb, Nix and Pence. This Heisman, unlike others, will be decided on the field. If Pence sweeps, he is in; if Caleb sweeps, he is in; if Nix sweeps, he is in. This is quite rare and Caleb has a very rare opportunity. He can win in on the field. Given our D, for SC to sweep, he is going to be required to put up huge numbers against both OR… Read more »
I expect with all 4 playing each other, that none of them, SC, Utah, Oregon or Udub will sweep. It is the Pac12, we will beat each other up. Then the Heisman and Playoff voting gets tricky.
It will come down to, surprise, Defense! Stat of the day, Current NCAA Total Defense ranks for SC and upcoming opponents:
#7 Notre Dame, (and that’s with 10 players)
#9 UCLA / Utah,
#11 Oregon,
#37 Arizona,
#55 Cal,
#69 USC,
#72 Washington
#125 Colorado.
Right on Golden, and also political.
Penis and Nux are like 25 years old … it’s not that surprising
So what?
Does that make them ineligible or less worthy? I don’t think so.
Penix and Nix have NIL endorsements with AARP and various Reverse Morgage companies.
And here I thought Pence’s biggest rival was Trump. Learn something new every day! 😄
Well, my suspicions about Marcus Freeman are correct: he is just a slightly less annoying Clay Helton. That was confirmed as I just learned that he only had 10 defenders out on the field for two of the last three plays in the Ohio State game. ESPN reported that it was the last two plays — but that is wrong. Ohio State spiked the ball at the one yard line. Inexplicability, ND had 10 defenders for the two plays AROUND that spike, but had 11 on the field for the spike. That means, they did the unthinkably stupid, corrected it,… Read more »
USC freshman ILB Tackett Curtis was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for his role in USC’s tougher-than-expected 42-28 victory over ASU. This is Curtis’ first career Pac-12 Player of the Week honor.
Travis Hunter begs Deion Sanders for clearance to play against USC “I need to play this week. We need to get everything we can so I can get back on the field,” Hunter’s text to Sanders read. “I’m not taking no for an answer.” Sanders said he responded with, “No, you ain’t ready and I care about you more than I care about this game. You’re going to change the game of football one day when you’re healthy and ready. Your future is brighter than mine ever will be and ever was. Relax and get healthy. I love you, son.”… Read more »
Just shows Deion is everything he says he is. He cares about people first.
Regardless of how this season ends up for CU record-wise, what Prime has managed to do for one of the worst programs in the country is simply one-of-a-kind astounding.
Big Noon KO will have been to Boulder twice in two weeks.
The exposure Sanders has brought CU since the season started is worth more than $90 million, CU Boulder chief spokesperson Steve Hurlbert told the Daily Camera in Boulder.
Totally agree. Prime has done something extremely rare. And, I think he is a sensational guy. He is what Clay Helton tries to be but Clay simply lacks Prime’s ability. That is what bothered me hugely about Helton; I think he really cared for his players, tried to be a man of integrity, but he simply is not very good at what he does. If one is a man of integrity, when you are not good at something, admit it and move on. I am convinced if Prime turns out mediocre product in three years or so, he will move… Read more »
Thats what I kept saying, if Clay was such a man of integrity he would resign. But he didn’t.
DO NOT count Mario in that group. He needs to sit a while, and in his place put Kyron Hudson in the game. He hasn’t dropped a pass yet and has a lot of speed after the catch. When you have a guy like Branch, then throw in a Rice, Singer and MJIII someone has to be wide open both deep and short. I don’t think USC threw to a RB all night. To bad we didn’t get to see Duce, but I have a suspicion LR wants him forgotten until he needs to big surprise. Makai Lemon is another… Read more »
Mario drops too many balls. Agree, for the betterment of the team and all that talent behind him which needs reps. I somehow doubt LR will make the adjustment.