Caleb Williams explains transfer portal process, decision to pick USC

Caleb Williams didn’t decide to transfer to USC without carefully weighing all of his options. The former five-star quarterback spent nearly a month in the portal considering offers from multiple schools including Wisconsin and UCLA before finally settling on the Trojans.

There he reunites with coach Lincoln Riley, whom he played under as a true freshman last season at Oklahoma. With spring practice getting underway at USC this past week, Caleb Williams opened up to reporters about his thought process on deciding where to transfer.

“If you followed me in high school, I was very detailed with all of my recruiting process,” he said. “I wasn’t just going to make an impulsive movement and go somewhere. I didn’t want to be in the transfer portal. It was never my goal throughout my recruiting process. It didn’t happen that way, but I’m very detailed so that’s what took so long. Just making sure everything was right and everything was set in place. I was trying to figure out if it was gonna be here or Wisconsin, UCLA, wherever it was gonna be. Obviously I’m here and I’m a Trojan and can’t wait to get things going.”

Williams is set to join a USC team that is coming off of a 4-8 finish to the 2021 season. Lincoln Riley has retooled the Trojans offense through the transfer portal, not only adding Caleb Williams, but also former Oklahoma receiver Mario Williams and Oregon running back Travis Dye. That gives USC three of the top 25 transfer in the nation according to On3, which is tied with Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas for the most of any school.

Coming off of a true freshman season in which he threw for 1,912 yards, 21 touchdowns and four interceptions, Caleb Williams projects to be the Trojans’ starting quarterback in 2022. His main competition for the job appears to be redshirt freshman Moss Miller, who was the No. 11 overall quarterback in the 2021 class according to On3.

So far, early reports on Williams from spring practice have been all positive, with Riley saying he has had no trouble fitting in with his new teammates.

“Caleb’s got a good way about him,” Riley said in an interview after Tuesday’s practice. “He’s one of those guys that can walk into a room of people he doesn’t know and he’s kind of a chameleon. He can fit in at any place. Now that he’s played some ball, he’s been through it and wanted to come here and establish himself as a leader. We’ve had a number of guys step up as far as who can lead the charge from the players’ side, and he’s one of them.”

Caleb Williams will get his first opportunity to show off his skills to fans when USC hosts its annual spring game on April 23. After that, he will await the Trojans’ season opener against Rice on Sept. 3.