USC QB Williams voted AP Player of the Year

LOS ANGELES– Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams is the Associated Press college football player of the year, becoming the school’s very first winner of the award considering that 2005 with his outstanding debut season for the Trojans.Williams got

32 of the 46 first-place votes and 117 total points from AP Top 25 poll voters to win the award provided by Regions Bank. The Heisman Prize preferred completed well ahead of TCU quarterback Max Duggan, who can be found in second with six first-place votes and 64 points.Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was third, with Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker in fourth and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett 5th.2 Related Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr., the very first repeat SEC Defensive Player of the Year, was the only non-quarterback in this year’s leading 8 vote-getters, ending up 6th after coming in fourth last season.Stroud and Hooker got 2 first-place votes each, while one first-place vote each went to Bennett, Anderson and star running backs Bijan Robinson of Texas

and Blake Corum of Michigan.The clear favorite was Williams, the evasive passer and runner with an electrifying arm and strong leadership abilities. The sophomore followed Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to the West Coast last winter, and the duo right away returned USC (11-2 )to national prominence with a seven-win improvement on last season’s record.Williams has actually passed for 4,075 lawns with an FBS-leading 37 goals and just four interceptions this season, finishing 66.1%of his passes while winning the Pac-12’s Offensive Player of the Year award.His capability to

avoid defensive pressure has actually verged on the supernatural at times, and he has racked up 372 lawns hurrying and 10 touchdowns while setting the USC school records for overall goals and overall offending backyards(4,447)in a season.” I believe he’s just classy in the way he plays the game, “USC receiver Kyle Ford said.”That’s the only word to explain it. He’s out there and he’s in the backfield, zigzagging around and doing spin relocations, and he doesn’t get touched and has a first down, and he runs out bounds. Things like that is amazing to me, stuff that he manages during a game. He’s a player, and he’s a winner.”Possibly most impressively, Williams has played an important role in bringing cohesion, team effort and 11 triumphes to a program returning from a four-win season with a new training staff and more than 2 lots veteran player additions through the transfer portal. USC sophomore QB Caleb Williams has actually passed for 4,075 yards with an FBS-leading 37 touchdowns and simply four interceptions this season.

Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire Although he normally deflects concerns about his own play by applauding his teammates, Williams confesses management”implies whatever”to him.”I have actually been attempting

to lead more, “he included.”Being in a position where you can go and do something larger, or do something that you have actually constantly imagined as a child, it brings that understanding that the time is right now. “From his first weeks in Los Angeles, Williams invited the obligation of organizing and inspiring this group of brand-new colleagues. He quickly sealed friendships throughout the lineup with his charm and upbeat personality.”Speak about a dude you can depend on for anything,”USC left guard Andrew Vorhees said.”A man who really cares, is helpful in every method, really tries to be a man that brings people together. It’s a brotherhood to him.”USC went 11-1 in the regular season, and Williams put up one incredible game after another down the stretch, capped by competition victories over UCLA and Notre Dame. Although the Trojans lost out on the College Football Playoff after losing the Pac-12 title game to Utah while Williams hobbled through the evening with a hamstring injury, No. 8 USC will complete its turn-around season in the Cotton Bowl against Tulane.Williams is the 3rd winner of the AP award in six years for Riley, who also coached Oklahoma quarterbacks Baker Mayfield(2017) and Kyler Murray(2018)to Heisman prizes in the exact same years.USC is enjoying its best season because the tenure of previous coach Pete Carroll, and the Trojans now have their first AP Gamer of the Year considering that those magnificence days. Quarterback Matt Leinart won the award in 2004, and tailback Reggie Bush declared it the next year.Both went on to claim the Heisman Prize, and Williams is favored to claim USC’s record eighth as the school’s very first finalist since 2005. Williams, Stroud, Duggan and Bennett are the finalists for the Heisman, which will be presented in New york city on Saturday. The winner of the AP award has differed from the Heisman winner simply twice in the previous 2

years.