The 2022 Heisman Trophy competition involved a number of noticeable plot points. One was that when Caleb Williams and C.J. Stroud faced the same opponent, one did noticeably better than the other.
C.J. Stroud did not play poorly against Notre Dame in Week 1, when Ohio State fended off Notre Dame, but he wasn’t spectacular, either.
Caleb Williams was spectacular.
Ohio State fans will make the very reasonable point that Stroud was going up against a Notre Dame team which had eight months to prepare for Ohio State’s offense. Notre Dame’s defense was healthy and had not been banged up by the rigors of a full college football season. Williams and the USC offense were able to establish continuity and rhythm by the time they met Notre Dame’s defense in Week 13.
Yes, Caleb Williams might have struggled more against Notre Dame if he played the Irish in Week 1.
Yet, the results were what they were. We can’t go by hypotheticals; we have to go by what we saw.
The moral of the story for Ohio State: Schedule Notre Dame in Week 2, not Week 1, so that the offense is more lubricated and the chances of your Heisman QB playing a great game go up.
We talked to Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football:
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