USC quarterback Caleb Williams is officially college football’s best player, winning the 2022 Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.
His triumph makes USC the first school to win the player of the year award eight times. He is the first Trojan since 2005’s win by Reggie Bush, whose award was later vacated when an investigation found that he accepted what, at the time, were considered to be improper benefits.
Williams received 544 first-place votes and 2,031 points to beat runner-up Max Duggan, the TCU quarterback, who had 1,420 points.
The star quarterback transferred from Oklahoma to USC, reuniting with coach Lincoln Riley. Williams is the fourth transfer to win the Heisman in the past six years — joining Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) of Oklahoma, and Joe Burrow (2019) of LSU.
Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud was third in the voting after coming in fourth last season. Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett finished fourth.
Williams will next be seen in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2 in Arlington, Texas against Tulane. The team tumbled from its No. 4 ranking and a shot at the championship round with a loss in the Pac-12 title game.
But overall, Williams led USC to a dramatic turnaround from 4-8 last year to 11-2.
In his ten-minute acceptance speech, Williams acknowledged that USC missed its opportunity to play for the national title when it lost in the Pac-12 championship to Utah. Still, Williams led USC to a dramatic turnaround from 4-8 last year to 11-2.
“I may be standing up here today, but y’all get to the College Football Playoffs. Guess you can’t win’em all,” Williams said.
“Dreams really do come true. Thank you, and fight on,” Williams said at the end of his 10-minute speech.