USC Football: Lincoln Riley Shares Admirable Caleb Williams Story on The Pat McAfee Show

Lincoln Riley made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show and dished on his young, blossoming quarterback.

Caleb Williams is regarded by many NFL Draft scouts as one of the best quarterback prospects in the history of the NFL Draft. If you were to google "mock draft" any time over the past eight or nine months, Caleb Williams is probably the first player taken in 99% of them. 

But believe it or not, there was a point where folks weren't sold on the Heisman Trophy-winning dual-threat, including his former head coach Lincoln Riley. Riley made an appearance on The Pat McAfee show today and among the topics discussed were a quick story Riley had regarding the recruitment of Williams when Williams was coming out of high school. 

Williams was as close as one can get to being the consensus #1 overall recruit in the country in the class of 2021 coming out of Gonzaga High School in Washington DC. But Riley wasn't always all-in on Williams as a prospect, he revealed on The Pat McAfee Show.

"At Oklahoma, there was a time in the beginning where we weren't going to take him, and he said 'Well fine coach, I'll just walk-on'. Like, that's his mindset. It's always about that next step". 

"It's all happened really fast for Caleb Williams and he's got a great mindset..

There was a time at Oklahoma where we weren't gonna take him and he said he would walk on..

He's ready for this and we're excited for him"@LincolnRiley #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/EPqqk3iypj

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 5, 2024

Williams went from having his potential questioned by one of the most respected quarterback coaches in the country to becoming the best quarterback prospect coming out of college since Andrew Luck went to the Indianapolis Colts by way of Stanford. 

Also worth noting is that one of William's coaches, former USC football senior offensive analyst Kliff Kingsbury is on his way to the DC area (where Williams played in high school) to take the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator position. Given the Commanders have the #2 overall pick and that Williams is a virtual lock to be the first player off the board come draft day in late April, a reuniting of Kingsbury and Williams seems unlikely at this point. 

But hey, maybe Williams pulls an "Eli" and lets the Chicago Bears, who have the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, know that he doesn't want to play for them.