Caleb Williams shares how he handles Heisman Trophy hype

The recruitment of star quarterback Caleb Williams took the college football world by storm. A highly-followed saga that went on for quite a while after Williams announced his transfer from Oklahoma, Williams ultimately made the decision to join Lincoln Riley – his former coach at OU – at USC.

Now that Williams – a former On3 Consensus five-star recruit – is in Los Angeles and ready to quarterback the Trojans, there’s plenty of spotlight on him, and many people are already saying that he should win the Heisman Trophy this next season. Despite all of the hype that surrounds that, Williams made it clear that he’s only focused on being successful with his new team.

“I don’t worry about it,” Williams said when asked how he handles the Heisman Trophy hype. “I focus on the guys here, focus on leading these guys. Those guys will get me to there – and I’m going to help those guys to get to our main goals, which is winning national championships and going 1-0 every week. That is my main goal.

“I don’t really focus on my own goals. Obviously, who wouldn’t want to have a Heisman? I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s one of my goals, but not really a goal of the team – and that’s what I’m focused on here.”

A 6-foot-1, 218-pound signal-caller, Williams had a strong freshman season at Oklahoma in 2021 – throwing for 1,912 yards, 21 touchdowns and four interceptions. He also tallied 79 carries for 442 yards and six touchdowns on the ground – all numbers that make USC fans excited about what Williams can accomplish with the Trojans.

Williams dissects first month at USC

Star quarterback Caleb Williams took the college football world by storm this year when he transferred to USC, and after one month with the Trojans, he’s feeling good about the outlook of the program.

“It’s been a little weird. I wasn’t ever expecting to be here,” Williams said of his decision to transfer to USC. “But now I’m here. So, I’d say we have a lot of similarities from workouts and verbiage and language — just talking to the coaches, talking to the strength staff, and thinks like that. Hearing that and a bunch of guys — coaches — came to here (USC) from there (Oklahoma), my old school.

“Like I said, it’s just a little weird because you have new colors, new logos and all these other things, so it’s a little weird. But it’s been really, really fun.”

On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this report.