The aftermath of the Holiday Bowl has been fascinating. Football analysts and a subsection of USC fans are speaking as though Caleb Williams was holding USC back this season. That’s ridiculous.
What’s not ridiculous is that Miller Moss did certain things in the Holiday Bowl which Caleb Williams did not do enough in 2023. We can admit that.
Moss got throws out quickly. He didn’t force USC offensive linemen to hold their blocks longer. Moss ran Lincoln Riley’s offense efficiently. When we say “efficiently,” we mean that Moss was content to make quick decisions, even if it meant going to the checkdown or throwing the ball away.
Caleb Williams wanted to make the big play a little too often. He would wait for plays to develop in the hope of finding the big strike, and that caused some — not necessarily most, but certainly some — of the sacks and pressures which thwarted USC drives and got the Trojans behind schedule.
Moss did certain things Caleb didn’t do often enough. That’s true.
What’s not true is that Caleb held this offense back.
The big difference between the USC offense under Caleb Williams and the USC offense under Miller Moss is that under Moss, all 10 teammates did their jobs extremely well. The offensive line and wide receivers rallied around Moss. They did not give Caleb nearly the same amount of help.
Receivers got open quickly for Moss in ways we didn’t see with Caleb. It’s true that Caleb missed (and sometimes ignored) some shorter throws during the season, but receivers did not get open down the field the way they did for Moss in the Holiday Bowl.
The offensive line provided a level of pass protection for Moss which we didn’t often see for Caleb. Against Oregon, UCLA, and especially Notre Dame, the quality of pass blocking was nowhere near what Miller Moss got against Louisville.
If the Trojans played as hard for Caleb as they played for Miller Moss, USC would have won 10 games this year.
We discussed these points and more with Tim Prangley at The Voice of College Football:
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