It’s hard not to get excited when reading about Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams telling assembled media that they’re on the same page.
It’s true that Riley and Williams are entering a second year together as a collegiate head coach and quarterback. That obviously helps in developing and building a relationship. Yet, Riley had a second season with Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma in 2021, and that didn’t work out well.
It’s true, as we noted on The Riley Files, that the Rattler-Riley relationship didn’t blossom because of pandemic practice limitations in 2020 and 2021. That interrupted the flow of what those two men were doing. Such limitations have not existed for Riley and Williams.
Even then, however, Williams is only a sophomore. Is he really at a place where he and Riley are basically completing each other’s sentences and immediately understand each other?
Williams really thinks he’s in that head space, as he told Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times:
“I can see things. I don’t necessarily just have to worry about playing,” Williams said when asked about his progress in Year 2. “I can see things better from the defensive side. I know exactly where everyone has to line up, exactly where they’re going to be on our side. Making sure we get the right runs into certain blitzes or defensive fronts. Making sure we have certain checks. I’ve said it before, I want to be sort of like Coach Riley Part 2 on the field.”
Riley, who doesn’t hand out praise like cotton candy, thinks he and his quarterback are in sync:
“The way he walks out on the field, I can almost tell you the kind of day he’s going to have,” Riley said. “I’ve seen now so much, every mannerism and every word. I’ve got to a place where he can tell and I can kinda know what’s in his head even before. And I think he, in a lot of ways, [feels] the same thing with me. I think a lot of times I’m getting ready to make a point to him, whether it’s about playing the position or leading or anything and he can kinda take the words right from me. We’re in lockstep.”
If Riley and Williams really are connected to this degree, and if that manifests itself on the field this season, USC will average 40 or more points per game. Book it.
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