Caleb Williams named 2022 Heisman Trophy Award winner
University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams has been named the 2022 Heisman Award winner after a stellar season in which he led the Trojans to an 11-2 record and the No. 8 ranking in the nation.
Williams was as dominant as it got in college football this season, piling up huge stat lines game after game.
He finished the year with 4,075 yards through the air and 372 yards rushing. He had 47 total touchdowns on the season - the most ever by a Trojan in a single campaign. His 4.447 yards total yards are also a school record.
Williams beat out three other quarterbacks who were named finalists for the award, including Georgia's Stetson Bennett, TCU's Max Duggan and Ohio State's C.J. Stroud.
He received 544 first-place votes and 2,031 points, nearly double the runner-up in TCU quarterback Max Duggan (1,420). Stroud finished third and Bennett finished fourth.
"Thank you, thank you. This is awesome, this is really awesome," Willams said after receiving the award. He told the fellow finalists, all of whom engineered College Football Playoff runs with their teams, "I may be standing up here today, but you all get to go to the college bowl playoffs."
The quip got laughter and cheering from the crowd before he added, "Guess you can't win 'em all."
Williams thanked a litany of people for their help in winning the award, including other former USC Heisman winners in attendance — Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart — as well as his parents, his offensive line, USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn and Head Coach Lincoln Riley, who coached Williams at Oklahoma before signing on with the Trojans after the 2021 season. Williams announced his intent to transfer shortly after the signing.
He now becomes the eighth Trojan to win the award, and first since Reggie Bush in 2005, breaking a four-way tie with Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Ohio State for the most in college football history. Bush's award was vacated, however, and unrecognized by NCAA. The most recent USC winner was just a year prior though, in quarterback Matt Leinart during their National Championship season in 2004.
He is also the 19th quarterback to win the award since 2000.
Riley has now coached three Heisman winners, after helping Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) to the award in back-to-back seasons.
Williams is the fourth transfer to win the Heisman in the last six years, joining Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) of Oklahoma and Joe Burrow (2019) of LSU, according to the Associated Press.
