Temper your expectations for USC but not Caleb Williams


The Trojans’ new QB likely isn’t enough to carry the load all by himself.

The Trojans’ new QB doubtless isn’t sufficient to hold the load all by himself.
Picture: Getty Photographs

All the delusional SoCal bros flooding Vegas with USC nationwide championship bets could be higher off taking that cash and stapling it to bar partitions or burying it. A title crew constitutes greater than Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams because it takes pallets of expertise to face down the Alabamas, Georgias, and Ohio States of the world. Even with Pitt large receiver switch Jordan Addison, the Trojans must play flawless soccer to succeed in the playoff not to mention win two rounds.

So in mild of that actuality, enable me to supply up one other wager with, because the consultants name it, higher worth. I’m not right here to truly give betting recommendation. Most of what I find out about playing comes by way of popular culture or osmosis from my many degenerate mates who nonetheless yell at TV screens within the fall. That mentioned, seize Williams for Heisman at +700 proper now (when you haven’t already parlayed it together with your title wager).

The 2 favorites for the trophy — Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Younger — deserve the chances that they’ve been given. Younger gained it final 12 months, and Stroud accomplished greater than 70 % of his throws whereas posting gaudy numbers — 4,435 yards passing, 44 touchdowns, and solely six interceptions. The Tide’s QB largely put up higher stats than that (4,872 yards, 47 TDs, and 7 picks, with a 67 % completion proportion), which is why he walked away with faculty soccer’s most prized particular person award.

These numbers are objectively beautiful, and if both surpasses them, they’ll undoubtedly be frontrunners. That mentioned, it’s actually freaking onerous to repeat these years. Matt Leinart’s landing totals dropped yearly from his sophomore season to his senior 12 months. Lamar Jackson scored six fewer occasions within the follow-up to his Heisman-winning marketing campaign.

I wouldn’t name it regression as a result of it’s extraordinarily troublesome to have a season touched by God when everybody has the sport movie that acquired a participant anointed the earlier season. Think about opponents’ familiarity and some working again dives from the one-yard line, and it’s sufficient for the common pundit to push away the spoonful of hype like a toddler with an additional sense of what’s a vegetable.

Within the case of Williams, he didn’t come anyplace near his stat ceiling as a result of he didn’t see enjoying time till after Spencer Rattler’s incomprehensible 2021 Heisman marketing campaign got here to an finish when he acquired benched in opposition to Texas. Williams’ comeback was the stuff of legends, and as a lot as Texas want to rectify final 12 months’s meltdown, the Longhorns gained’t have that chance — not in opposition to Williams a minimum of.

In eight-plus video games, the brand new Trojans’ QB had 1,912 yards within the air, 21 move TDs, 4 interceptions, and one other 442 yards and 6 scores on the bottom. He may simply prime 3,000 yards passing this 12 months with a full season below middle, and the receiving expertise on that crew. I additionally wouldn’t be shocked if he eclipsed 1,000 yards on the bottom as USC’s backfield is made up of latest or former transfers and a freshman who mixed for 958 yards speeding in 2021.

Regardless of all the transfers and recruits, USC will want Williams to do every part. The crew improved simply sufficient, and the convention stays simply weak sufficient, for 10 wins to be within the realm of potentialities. There is perhaps an occasional blowout the place Williams sits 1 / 4, however I’m banking on Riley needing — and utilizing — him fairly a bit.

Plus, familiarity gained’t be a difficulty. The one crew within the Pac-12 that confronted Williams final season (Oregon) isn’t on the schedule until they meet within the convention title sport. The percentages of the Trojans making that sport is perhaps just a little longer with commissioner George Kliavkoff scrapping the divisions this 12 months. That mentioned, they gained’t must battle preseason No. 7 Utah to succeed in it, and No. 11 Oregon has query marks with a brand new coach and new (switch) quarterback, Bo Nix, who I don’t belief in any respect.

Notre Dame and Utah are the hardest matchups on the schedule, and the Trojans don’t play the Golden Domers till the ultimate sport of the common season. Whereas the Utes in Week 7 scare the shit out of me, if Williams can get out of there with no efficiency like he had in opposition to Iowa State in ’21, present out in opposition to Notre Dame, and win a attainable rematch with Utah (or beat Oregon) to win the Pac-12, there might be tidal waves of help for Williams’ Heisman candidacy.

And I haven’t even talked about the historical past of quarterbacks going ham below Riley’s tutelage.

So there you go, USC followers. If you would like a wager to scream “Combat on!” about the whole season, go along with Caleb for Heisman, a wager you would possibly truly win reasonably than a pipe dream.