Joel Klatt fuels claim Lincoln Riley is 'Heisman Whisperer' after USC QB Caleb Williams
Caleb Williams was a star as a freshman at Oklahoma and an even bigger one as a Heisman Trophy winner with the USC Trojans this fall. Being coached by Lincoln Riley certainly has its perks as Williams led the Trojans to an 11-2 record and Pac-12 title game appearance. It’s the third Heisman winning quarterback under Riley and FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt fueled the claim Riley is a “Heisman whisperer.”
“In terms of the Heisman, his coach Lincoln Riley has now had five starting quarterbacks in his career as a head coach, five,” Klatt said on his podcast. “Four of them have been Heisman finalists, three of them have won the Heisman trophy. That’s a staggering thought. What Lincoln is doing with quarterbacks is totally unprecedented. We’ve never seen anything like this before. And it’s not just like, hey, they put up great numbers. They’re just so damn efficient. They don’t turn the ball over. They obviously produce on the stat sheets and they win a ton of football games. This guy’s a ridiculously good coach. (By the way), I’m not going to take anything away from Caleb.”
In 13 games this season, with the Cotton Bowl against Tulane on deck, Williams had 4,075 yards, 37 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 66.1% completion percentage. That stat line shattered his numbers from 2021 as a freshman in 11 games with the Sooners, also under Riley.
Despite being scheme specific, Klatt made the argument Riley’s brilliance and the quarterback go hand in hand when it comes to the top guys winning the Heisman.
“Why is Lincoln Riley, the Heisman whisperer, if you will, and there are a few things that we can talk about and break down and it’s not necessarily scheme specific, but it is scheme specific,” Klatt said. “Let me explain what I mean by that. So, Lincoln (has had) Baker Mayfield, Kyler. Murray, Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams all be Heisman finalists, of course Baker, Kyler and now Caleb have taken home the hardware. You can’t say that it’s about a system because every one of those guys is a little bit different. This is not the exact same player. They’re not cut from the exact same mold. They didn’t play the game the exact same way. So it’s not necessarily just like the system like it has been in the past with some of those like air-raid Texas Tech guys. It’s kind of the same player year in and year out. Yeah, different names on the back. But it’s the same style of player.
Mayfield and Murray, upon winning their respective Heisman’s, went on to be the No. 1 overall pick in the following NFL Draft. Williams is still a year away from draft eligibility, but No. 1 overall could be in his future.
“These guys have all been very different players, their strengths, their weaknesses, all been very different,” Klatt said. “So it’s not the system and yet yes, it’s the system. It’s the fact that Lincoln Riley understands that his system has to be quarterback friendly, regardless of the quarterback that’s playing in the system. I’ve talked at length with him about this. And I think one of his best lines that he’s ever given me when talking about like, well, you know, is this system quarterback friendly? Has it been quarterback friendly and he always says like, ‘hey, if your system isn’t quarterback friendly, then you need a new system.’”