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Oklahoma Quarterback Caleb Williams Reacts to Lincoln Riley News

The Sooners' freshman QB reacted on social media Sunday about the shocking news that his coach was leaving OU for USC.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma Quarterback Caleb Williams Reacts to Lincoln Riley News
Oklahoma Quarterback Caleb Williams Reacts to Lincoln Riley News /

Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams publicly reacted to Sunday’s stunning news of Lincoln Riley’s departure for USC on Twitter, showing support for the man who coached him in a crushing loss to Oklahoma State less than 24 hours earlier.

Multiple news outlets are reporting Riley has already accepted the USC job, and Williams’s tweet would seem to indicate he's been informed the same. 

Williams committed to OU on July 4, 2020 after Georgia prospect Brock Vandagriff decommitted from the Sooners six months earlier, then took over the starting job from Spencer Rattler in the middle of this season after Rattler struggled to find a rhythm. 

According to Williams’s father, Carl, Caleb Williams was willing to walk-on at OU if Vandagriff remained committed strictly because he wanted to be coached by Riley.

Sources told SI Sooners that once Vandagriff found out Williams was coming to OU, he decided to flip to Georgia.

With the NCAA transfer portal remaining open, Williams leaving Oklahoma—perhaps to join Riley at USC, perhaps for his second choice of LSU—is now in play, although the "#boomer" sign-off at the end of his tweet will provide hope to Sooners fans that he plays to stay in Norman.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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