Caleb Williams: QB · USC · #13.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Caleb Williams
Picks you apart underneath and protects the ball. Played for two head coaches at two programs in three seasons: Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley. All-America (Consensus) in 2022 made it two straight seasons on the honors list. On tape: 403 passing yards and 12 rushing yards against Colorado, Week 5, 2023.
Play style
High-percentage passer who protects the ball. Loses the matchup on improvisation.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
54.1% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 22.7% conversion-per-dropback — 50.0% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
8 of the team's 27 inside-the-5 carries (29.6%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
247Sports Nov 2
USA Today Nov 1
On3 Oct 21
Yahoo Sports Oct 16Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
Game log · Week-by-week
2023 season · 12 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 56-28vs San José State | 18/25 | 278 | 4 | 0 | 11.1 | 84.9 | 5 TD passes |
| Wk 1 | W 66-14vs Nevada | 18/24 | 319 | 5 | 0 | 13.3 | 92.1 | 5 TD passes |
| Wk 2 | W 56-10vs Stanford | 19/21 | 281 | 3 | 0 | 13.4 | 97.5 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 4 | W 42-28@ Arizona State | 20/31 | 322 | 3 | 0 | 10.4 | 69.7 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | W 48-41@ Colorado | 30/40 | 403 | 6 | 1 | 10.1 | 93.1 | Season-high 403 yds |
| Wk 6 | W 43-41vs Arizona | 14/25 | 219 | 1 | 0 | 8.8 | 78.3 | |
| Wk 7 | L 20-48@ No. 21 Notre Dame | 23/37 | 199 | 1 | 3 | 5.4 | 55.7 | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Wk 8 | L 32-34vs No. 14 Utah | 24/34 | 256 | 0 | 0 | 7.5 | 89.3 | |
| Wk 9 | W 50-49@ California | 23/40 | 369 | 2 | 0 | 9.2 | 62.1 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 10 | L 42-52vs No. 5 Washington | 27/35 | 312 | 3 | 0 | 8.9 | 89.1 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 11 | L 27-36@ No. 6 Oregon | 19/34 | 291 | 1 | 0 | 8.6 | 68.1 | |
| Wk 12 | L 20-38vs UCLA | 31/42 | 384 | 1 | 1 | 9.1 | 79.4 | |
| Total | 266/388 | 3633 | 30 | 5 | 9.4 | — |
Week 10 · 2023
L 42-52
vs Washington
312 yds · 3 TD · 0 INT · QBR 89.1 · 16 rush yds (10 car) · 1 TD
With T. Washington — 8 rec · 122 yds · 1 TD · A. Jones — 127 rush yds (11 car)
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 370 passing plays (252 completions) against the box score's 388 attempts (266 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
9.1017 of 212 QBsSack rate
7.8%168 of 212 QBsSacked on 7.8% of dropbacks (168 of 212) — and still 17 of 212 in Adjusted ANY/A.
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 68.6% completion on 388 attempts · 52 deep completions averaging 33.2 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2023 baseline
No situation moves him more than 47 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
Splits · Per-game
2023 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 293 | 2.4 | 10.3 | 0.1 |
| Road5g | 317 | 2.6 | 8.7 | 0.8 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 289 | 3.3 | 10.4 | 0.6 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 322 | 1.4 | 8.7 | 0.2 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Lincoln Riley
Pass share
56.7%
457 pass / 349 run
Plays / game
62.0
13 games
Scheme: Pass-leaning, slow tempo.
Player standing · 2023
388 pass attempts, 99 carries and 1 catch in 12 games, more passes and runs a game than most FBS quarterbacks who play every week.
Surprisingly productive for a quarterback with no award recognition yet — top-7% completion rate, top-3% yards per attempt.2023 profile
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
Former five-star. Now #8 at the position.
Selector Grid · 2022
Named Consensus All-American — recognized on 3+ of the 5 NCAA-recognized selector lists.
Career, closed
Gone at No. 1 overall.
How it ended
Three seasons, at Oklahoma and USC, 10,080 passing yards, the Heisman Trophy (2022) — drafted at No. 1 overall by the Chicago Bears.
Honored in a first season.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-AMERICA · UNANIMOUS
Unanimous AA (2022)
Named to 9 first-team selectors
National awards
Heisman, Maxwell, Walter Camp
2022 season
ALL-PAC-12 · 1ST TEAM
All-Pac-12 1st team (2022)
Weekly recognition
3 weekly honors (2021)
Big 12 Newcomer Player of the Week, Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week
Coaching lineage · 2021–2023
1 coachPlayed for 1 head coach at 2 schools: Lincoln Riley.
Next stop · NFL
Chicago BearsEntering 3rd NFL season
Chicago BearsEntering 3rd NFL season
