Caleb Williams unexpectedly took Oklahoma’s starting quarterback job from Spencer Rattler last season. While he saw the field sooner than most anticipated as a freshman, it was still a long wait.
Appearing on the Momentum podcast (h/t Riley Gates of 247Sports), Williams described the difficult period competing for an opportunity on the bench.
“I mean, I was fighting every day,” Williams said. “I love football. And so, it was hard to some days get up, go to the 5 a.m. workouts, 6 a.m. workouts …. It was very dreadful. It was dreadful. I hated it, because it was just like, ‘I’m not even getting a shot right now.’
“But there was no way I was going to allow that to affect what I always wanted and promised myself when I was younger that I was going to keep going, keep fighting, keep reaching my goals and dreams. Stay ready.”
Williams said he kept approaching head coach Lincoln Riley, who told the quarterback to “keep going.”
“Make sure that I have the trust that if you get the shot, if you have the opportunity, you go in and I put you in, you don’t have to come back out,” Williams recalled Riley telling him. “And that’s what I kept doing.”
Getting his first chance at meaningful playing time in Week 6, Williams finished the season with 21 passing touchdowns and four interceptions. He followed Riley to USC, where Williams is expected to start.