Caleb Williams shares mindset when he entered Red River shootout

Caleb Williams vividly remembers the turning point for his career last season as Oklahoma trailed No. 21 Texas in the Red River Rivalry and Lincoln Riley called his number.

The Sooners trailed 35-17 in the second quarter, and Williams —who had only been used in short yardage situations up to that point—stepped in.

“There was no way I was not scoring,” the now USC quarterback recently shared on a podcast. “I was so confident, I was ready, I was angry, I was just like, okay just go out there, take a little deep breath and execute. And like in my head, I was just like, there’s no way I’m not going to score right here, so then I had a little slide shuffle and then cut up.”

Williams made the most of the opportunity and on fourth-and-one, took a quarterback draw to the house for 66 yards. While Spencer Rattler, the starter at the time, came back in after that, he struggled. Williams went on to lead the Sooners to a monumental comeback victory and cemented himself as the starter for the season.

Caleb Williams on how trust in the USC offense has grown this offseason

While USC had spent the past month-and-a-half going through its spring practice period, the Trojans wrapped it up with their annual spring football game on Saturday at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. As USC fans had the chance to see their new-look team in action for the first time under new head coach Lincoln Riley, they were also able to see quarterback Caleb Williams on the field for his debut. 

After making the decision to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal and ultimately leave Oklahoma after a successful year, Williams has now reunited with Riley – his former coach at OU – and is ready to help lead his new team 2022. Now that he’s in Los Angeles, there’s been plenty of spotlight on Williams – and Trojans’ fans had to have liked what they saw out of him on Saturday. 

In his first outing in front of 33,427 Trojans’ fans, Caleb Williams completed 10-of-12 passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns to lead the offense to a 34-30 win over the defense. Both of Williams’ touchdown throws went to wide receiver Mario Williams, who also transferred to USC from Oklahoma. 

As Caleb Williams and the USC offense performed quite well on Saturday, the quarterback was asked after the spring game how his trust in the unit has grown over the past couple of months. 

“The trust in the offense – I hit a couple of good shots to Rio for touchdowns,” Williams said. “That connection between me and Rio, as we all know, goes back to the old school I was at. It was a smooth day, but we’ve got to get better at a lot of different things.” 

With USC’s spring practice period officially in the books, Williams and the Trojans now turn their attention to summer workouts before jumping into fall camp in August.