It’s already been a season filled with magical moments for true freshman quarterback Caleb Williams.
Assuming Williams announces at some point soon that he’s here to stay at Oklahoma, what happens in the Valero Alamo Bowl against Oregon will set the tone for what the expectations are for Williams and the Sooners in 2022.
The Washington, D.C., native burst onto the college football scene when he engineered the largest comeback in Red River Rivalry history. Williams rallied Oklahoma back from 28-7 down against Texas and Oklahoma won 55-48.
Williams ran for a 66-yard touchdown against the Longhorns on a 4th-and-1 snap and the rest is history. He finished with 212 passing yards and a pair of passing touchdowns to Marvin Mims versus Texas.
“We go out there with a certain energy and a certain passion and we go and do the unthinkable. I get chills every time I talk about the game. I still get chills,” Williams recently said of the comeback against Texas.
Then, Williams never relinquished that starting spot.
His first season as a starter included plenty of other moments of brilliance, too. Like the following week against TCU when Williams passed for 295 yards and four touchdowns and sprinted in another 41-yard touchdown in his first official career start.
Against Kansas, Williams dazzled on two fourth-quarter fourth down plays. The first was a 40-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-3 with 8:03 remaining. Then, with OU clinging to a 28-23 lead late, Williams took the football away from redshirt junior running back Kennedy Brooks and flipped a turnover on downs into a game-saving first down.
Texas Tech was Williams’ finest performance. Against the Red Raiders, Williams became just the third OU quarterback in program history to pass for six or more touchdowns with no interceptions in a single game.
The 6-foot-1, 218 pound quarterback racked up 402 passing yards versus Texas Tech. Then, things got more difficult.
As the schedule ramped up to close the regular season, Williams’ play oftentimes resembled that of a true freshman. OU closed with a three-game stretch against teams ranked inside the nation’s top 21 scoring defenses.
Against those better defenses, Williams’ completion percentage dipped from 73 percent in games against Texas, TCU, Kansas and Texas Tech to just 49 percent in Oklahoma’s final three.
Williams was also intercepted just once in those first four games and was picked off a combined three times in games against Baylor and Iowa State.
Williams passed for just 142 yards against Baylor and then for 87 against Iowa State.
It appeared Williams and Oklahoma had righted themselves against Oklahoma State when he threw three touchdown passes and for 204 yards in the first half against the Cowboys.
But, then Oklahoma’s offense was held scoreless after halftime against Oklahoma State and Williams completed just 6-of-18 passes for 48 yards.
Oregon doesn’t present a defense like Oklahoma’s final three opponents. The Ducks own the nation’s No. 60 scoring defense, No. 36 rushing defense and No. 87 passing defense.
Oregon will also be without All-American edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and starting cornerback Mykael Wright who opted out of the bowl game. Fellow starting cornerback DJ James and backup defensive tackle Jayson Jones entered the transfer portal.
Still, Williams can send Oklahoma into its offseason on a high note and remind fans and analysts alike of his star potential with one final impressive, winning performance in 2021.
If it’s the opposite, then some of the shine surrounding Oklahoma’s potential entering the 2022 season will dim.
Interim Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said on Dec. 15—the first day of the Early Signing Period—that Williams has impressed during leadup to the bowl game.
“The last couple weeks here he’s been an incredible player for OU, a great teammate. He’s been out hustling, been at all his workouts. Like coach Venables said, he lit it up on Saturday in our team sessions and pass skill sessions. He had a great day out there, so it seems like he’s, you know, is feeling positive the way things so far have been moving, but again I’m not going to speak for he or his family on where that is,” Stoops said of Williams’ play and the quarterback’s upcoming decision.
New Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables sat down with Oklahoma City News 9 sports director Dean Blevins recently. Venables said he’d “be surprised” if Williams wasn’t Oklahoma’s starting quarterback moving forward.
Venables also stressed that Williams’ talent mixed with Oklahoma’s coaching staff would be a fantastic pairing.
“I think the best version of Caleb Williams combined with the supporting cast coaching, playing, offense, defense can be a wonderful marriage. He’s a wonderful young guy that’s got big dreams like all young people. Hopefully, him and their family feel like that we can help facilitate that. That again our values and his dreams are our dreams and so forth. Obviously, we want to be a great teammate, but he’s the face of our program moving forward,” Venables said.
If he chooses to stay, there will be excitement for the beginning of the Venables era and for Williams’ future at Oklahoma regardless of the result against Oregon.
Williams can add some extra fuel and excitement for 2022 with a strong season-closing performance.
A final reminder of just how bright Oklahoma’s future might be with Williams would send OU into its offseason as one of the legitimate contenders to take part in next season’s College Football Playoff.
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