Caleb Williams wants to be ‘immortal’ in college football history

USC star quarterback Caleb Williams isn’t afraid to look at the big picture, speaking on numerous occasions about setting out to be immortal in college football history.

The former five-star quarterback from Washington, DC already took home last year’s Heisman Trophy and is a shoe in to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. But he still strives to be remembered forever, and following a recent practice, he defined what being immortal means in his eyes.

“That’s an on and off the field kind of thing,” Williams said. “Helping out communities and things like that but also adding to that is you gotta go on the field and make special plays, be special, and so you gotta work hard day in and day out.”

Williams has been quite busy off the field this offseason, from recently inking an NIL deal with Dr.Pepper to throwing out the first pitch at both an LA Dodgers and Washington Nationals game this summer.

And he was surely special on the field last season, throwing for 4,537 yards and a nation-leading 42 touchdown passes along with 382 rushing yards and 10 scores on the ground. He did so in dazzling fashion, drawing comparisons to NFL great Patrick Mahomes, but he believes truly being immortal comes by taking home more hardware than just the Heisman Trophy.

“Immortality comes from championships and things like that and I haven’t reached one here in college yet and we got a special moment here this year to be able to go reach one,” Williams said. “It’s a special word to me because it’s a word that you touch rooms and your name reaches rooms that you may never step foot in and so that’s important to me.”

Being immortal may seem like a personal goal, but Williams also shared the crucial role his teammates play in his legacy, a notion that he wasn’t afraid to share with the himself.

“And I explained that to the team, and the coolest part about it and this is exactly what I said to them, is that the coolest part about it is that after I said the championships portion you can’t go win a championship by yourself,” Williams explained. “So the cool thing about it and the best thing about football, and ball, and things like that is it’s a whole 110 players that’s immortal with you. And the brothers that you work hard with day in and day out, spring ball, workouts in summer, and now going into the season.”

Williams and the Trojans reached the Pac-12 Championship game last season in his first year with USC, and were in the conversation for the College Football Playoff ranked the No. 4 team in the nation in that very game. But a loss to Utah erased both their Pac-12 title and national title hopes in one moment.

Many wonder if Williams can become just the second player in college football history to win two Heisman Trophies, joining the likeness of Archie Griffin. But at the end of the day, striving for championship hardware is what motivates Williams and will allow him to achieve what he wants most. Immortality.

“So it’s a meaningful word to me and something we’re going to try to reach here this year,” Williams concluded.