Caleb Williams opens up on how he bounces back from poor game

USC saw its College Football Playoff hopes at least temporarily derailed last week when it lost to Notre Dame. Quarterback Caleb Williams threw three interceptions in the loss.

It was only the second multi-interception game of Williams’ career, with the other a two-pick outing against Baylor back in 2021.

“You know, it’s my first bad game in college I’d say,” Williams noted. “So you endure, conquer and keep going. You don’t hang your head in the moment, although obviously it felt like everything was… three picks as a QB and your team goes out there and loses a big rivalry game. Three dumb picks.”

Williams and USC were never really competitive in the loss, adding insult to injury. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner finished just 23-of-37 passing for 199 yards with one touchdown and the three interceptions.

It wasn’t the best of games, to say the least.

There are some minor silver linings for the Trojans, though. The loss didn’t come in a conference game, so the team can still position itself to win the Pac-12. Do so undefeated and the College Football Playoff committee might get interested again.

In any case, Caleb Williams is looking to move on quickly.

“When you go out and lose in a rivalry game like that you obviously have something that you’re feeling from it,” he said. “You can use it as motivation and keep climbing, keep going. Obviously that’s one game. I don’t think in the past three years that I’ve had a bad game, so you don’t let that one game bring you down and cause doubt.”

One thing you can be sure of is that coach Lincoln Riley is going to do everything he can to make sure his starting quarterback remains in a good head space going forward.

It’s all too easy to go into the tank after a bad performance, and that’s the last thing the Trojans need.

Instead, they need their star gunslinger fully believing in himself and confident and ready to go out there and rip it up. No second-guessing.

“That’s something that coach said is doubt is a weird thing,” Williams said. “Striving for greatness, striving for things like that, you’ll have failures, you’ll have success, but doubt, why even try and have something like that growing on something that you’re working super hard for, been working super hard for.”