USC QB Caleb Williams wins 2022 Heisman Trophy

Ahead of the Heisman Trophy ceremony this week, USC quarterback Caleb Williams said he has a list of goals on his phone. He said he reached “a couple” of them — but a big one was still there for the taking.

“Heisman has been one of the ones that was on there,” Williams said this week. “I’m here now and we’ll see what happens here soon.”

He can check that off, now.

Williams won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night after putting up huge numbers as a sophomore this year. Not only did the Walter Camp Player of the Year throw for 4,075 yards and 37 touchdowns, but he also rushed for 372 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground to cement himself as a true dual-threat.

Williams burst onto the scene last year at Oklahoma as a true freshman after taking over as the starting quarterback. But after head coach Lincoln Riley left the Sooners for the Trojans, Williams followed his coach after entering the transfer portal and starred under the bright lights of Los Angeles.

Williams now joins an elite group of USC players to win the Heisman. He’s the first to do it since Reggie Bush in 2005 and the first quarterback to win the award since Matt Leinart one year earlier in 2004.

Williams’ high-profile transfer made waves across college football last season, leaving Oklahoma — where he threw for 1,192 yards, rushed for 442 yards and had 27 total touchdowns — to re-join the head coach who made him a starting quarterback in the first place. He became the No. 1-ranked transfer to enter the portal during the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings, and lived up to every bit of the hype this year.

The Washington (D.C.) Gonzaga Prep product biggest game of the year came on one of the biggest stages in the Pac-12 when he completed 74.4% of his passes for 470 yards and two touchdowns — and a touchdown on the ground — to help lead USC past UCLA 48-45 in a shootout Nov. 19. He also had two games with five passing touchdowns, doing so in back-to-back games against Arizona and in the Trojans’ loss to Utah during the regular season.

USC fell to Utah again in the Pac-12 Championship, dashing the Trojans’ hopes of making the College Football Playoff in Year One under Riley. They’re now turning their attention to the Cotton Bowl against Tulane on Jan. 2, 2023.