Lincoln Riley breaks down conversation with Caleb Williams amid struggles vs Oregon State

USC faced their toughest test of the Lincoln Riley era yet in Oregon State, and Caleb Williams fought through some troubles to come out with a victory for the Trojans.

While Williams completed just 16 of 36 pass attempts for 180 passing yards and a touchdown, he connected with star wide receiver Jordan Addison that put the Trojans ahead in the fourth quarter. As USC held on to remain undefeated, Riley revealed what he told Williams that got him out of his funk.

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“Just said we’ve been there before,” revealed Riley. “These games, you can’t — everybody wants to define like, how they’re going to go before the game’s ever played. You’ve just got to go play. Some days you’re not going to be at your best. Some things are not going to go your way, and how you respond in those moments is what separates you. I just reminded him, we’ve been in a few of these when he was younger, and we talked about throughout the off-season, about how we wanted to handle it.

“Him doing what he did, and our guys — it’s not just him obviously, but our offense doing what they did on that last drive showed a lot of grit and determination, to match what we were doing on the field defensively.”

As you can see, it’s easy to see why Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams are so fond of each other. The duo have had immense success in their short time together, and USC couldn’t be happier to have them both.

Caleb Williams evaluates his progress in second year of Lincoln Riley’s system

Moreover, Caleb Williams might be in his first year as quarterback of the USC Trojans, but he’s now a quarter of the way through his second season under head coach Lincoln Riley. Following his headman from Oklahoma this past offseason, the two are firing on all cylinders in year two together.

“Knowing my checks throughout each week, being more consistent and more accurate get through my reads,” Williams said of what he’s learned in year two. “Instead of wanting the big deep ball, big post ball, big go ball, [I’ll go] intermediate, just taking the check down, making a defense stay true to our offense and not making them play deep and force me to throw. I’m fine with throwing under not looking for the deep ball.

“I’m looking for us to stay on the field as long as possible. That gives us the best shot to win the game and putting point on the board. So, those have been the main ways that I’ve been trying to grow. I think so far, I’ve been doing a good job and I want to do better.”