USC football QB depth: Caleb Williams is back, but who’s behind him?

We're beginning our USC football position by position analysis with the Trojans' quarterback room

With spring practice in the books, we've released our projected USC football depth chart for the fall. But let's go deeper. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll release position-by-position breakdowns of USC's roster. 

Who is back from last season? Who's new? Who will have the biggest impact? Who's an under-the-radar player to watch? What does the future of the position look like?

We'll answer all of those questions and more. Let's start at quarterback.

THE ROOM

Caleb Williams (Jr.), the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, will start under center this season. The three scholarship quarterbacks behind him are Miller Moss (R-So.), Malachi Nelson (Fr.) and Jake Jensen (R-So.). 

Nelson, an early enrollee, is the lone new face in the QB room this year. He was a five-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class. 

DEPTH CHART

USC head coach Lincoln Riley has pretty much confirmed that Moss will back up Williams in the fall. 

"The depth chart and those decisions don't get made until later on, but Miller Moss is pretty clearly the second guy right now. That's no surprise," Riley said on Thursday. 

So that puts Nelson behind Moss and then Jensen as the No. 4.

2022 STATS

Williams completed 333 of 500 attempts (66.6%) for 4,537 yards, 42 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. His 42 touchdown passes were the most in college football. Williams also rushed for 382 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

As the backup a year ago, Moss appeared in five games completing 12 of 14 passes (85.7%) for 159 yards and 1 touchdown.

COACH'S THOUGHTS

Riley has talked at length about Williams, Moss and Nelson this spring. 

Following the spring game, Riley was asked what Williams could improve on after having such a great season last year. 

"I think consistency in situations, situation mastery," Riley said. "I thought he did some really good things last year, but there are some things that we would want back. There's learning the position, there's learning the offense, there's learning the routes, there's learning how to execute, and then you take it, and the game situation can change a lot of that. You have to be able to process that so quickly because the situation can change down to down. We've really worked hard on that. It was good last year. It needs to be great this year."

Back in March, Riley said he's been impressed by the progress Moss has made in his time with the new coaching staff. 

“I think his experience, his confidence has grown," Riley said. "We’ve challenged him physically to make some of the improvements, and he’s had a really nice offseason. He’s probably in the best shape of his life right now. He’s throwing the ball well. He’s playing very confident, so it’s fun to see a guy’s confidence like that really take off. You start to see their best ball, now you combine that with some of the jumps physically. Really proud of the way he’s progressed.”

In his final press conference of the spring, Riley provided an update on Nelson's performance following his shoulder surgery in the offseason.

"I give Malachi a lot of credit, because with some of the physical limitations he had this spring, a lot of guys would have maybe tapped out or tried to save face and not even taken the reps,” Riley said. “We and he, I think, understood the bigger picture that even though he wasn’t physically in a great place, for him to just get the reps and have to communicate and go through it was more important. He learned, he grew a lot. He started to throw the ball towards the end of spring a little closer to what he’s capable of. He’s still certainly not 100 percent but he's really improved and I think he’ll have a very clear picture on what he needs to do better.”

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF THE POSITION LOOK LIKE?

Williams is eligible for the NFL Draft after this upcoming season and it would be a shock if he didn't enter. If every college football player from last season was draft eligible this year, Pro Football Focus wrote that Williams would have been the No. 1 pick. 

So with Williams likely departing, where will that leave the Trojans' quarterback position?

Get ready for a competition.

Moss and Nelson will certainly be involved barring something unforeseen occurring. There could also be a third name.

Earlier this spring, Riley said that he'd "love" to bring in really good quarterbacks in back-to-back recruiting classes. It's clear that adding Nelson in the 2023 cycle won't deter Riley from signing another high-profile QB recruit in 2024. 

Right now, the hot name to pay attention to from the high school ranks is four-star Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) QB Elijah Brown. He could be a part of the quarterback battle next year at this time too. A different high school recruit or a transfer coming in is also possible.