Lincoln Riley calls Caleb Williams' finger injury a 'nagging nuisance,' will not prevent him from playing

Over the course of a college football season, players can get nicked up and dinged up in many ways that don’t necessarily show up on injury reports. Somewhere on the way this year, USC star quarterback Caleb Williams, injured his pinky finger on his throwing hand.

 There has been some concern about the taped-up finger and whether or not it has impacted his play. But on Thursday, Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley put those concerns to rest as USC prepares for their top 25 matchup against Utah.

“He got it hit. I can’t remember; it’s been a few games ago. It’s just been a little bit sore, kind of tender, but it hasn’t affected him, hasn’t affected (his) play. So kinda more of a nagging nuisance but not a hindrance to play,” said Riley.

Williams has had the tape on his finger for a few games now, but it did not appear to impact his throwing ability. Outside of last week’s offensive debacle against Notre Dame, the former Heisman trophy-winning quarterback has been spot on. Still, even taking the stats from the Trojans’ loss to the fighting Irish into consideration, Williams has completed 142 of his 203 attempts (70 percent) for 2,021 yards. He is also averaging 10.0 yards per attempt and has 23 passing touchdowns to just four interceptions.

The Trojans won’t have Williams at 100 percent come Saturday, but they will need his best if they are to defeat the Utes. Utah has had Williams and USC’s number, beating them in both meetings last season.

Richard Johnson questions USC’s offense ahead of Utah game

Since becoming the USC head coach prior to last season, there has been no bigger thorn in Lincoln Riley‘s side than the Utah Utes. And in Week 8 of the 2023 college football season, the Trojans will get a chance to exact revenge against the Utes in the Coliseum, where they are favored by 6.5 at home. Still, Johnson is not sold on USC or its offense following their loss to Notre Dame in Week 7.

“I think we may have overrated USC’s offense,” said Johnson. “Because you look at every defense they’ve played, until they played Notre Dame, you sort of look back in totality, and you’re like, ‘eh, maybe they were selling us a bill of goods.’  You score 30 in regulation against Arizona and are inept and unable to do anything against Notre Dame. I think they struggled to run the ball against a decent run defense, which hampers them; Caleb Williams is trying to do too much.

“It boils down to Caleb Williams go back there and try and figure something out, which I don’t think is a winning business model against Utah… And the whole, I’m going to sit back there for 15 seconds and wait for somebody to pop open is not fine against a good defense. And just because of that, I’m taking Utah; I might take Utah outright.”