Top ESPN insider gives update on when Caleb Williams will (or won't) transfer to USC

ESPN's Pete Thamel dropped some intel on the timing of Caleb Williams' potential transfer to the USC football program, and it's complicated.

Thamel did say that the decision could come soon, according to Caleb's father.

"This is all nebulous, the Williams’ first (recruiting) process when Caleb was in high school took a year and a half,” said Thamel (credit to 247Sports for all quotes in this article). “Carl (Williams) said we’ve got to do it now in two weeks. So, it could be as soon as the end of this week."

And I could see that, especially if he is going to transfer to the USC football program. His partner in crime in OU WR Mario Williams just transferred to SC, and therefore the timing would make sense. He has already visited SC, so there wouldn't be any issues there.

With Williams also having visited UCLA, and maybe going there, however, Thamel points out that a later transfer date could be on the horizon. There's more than one reason for that to potentially be the case.

"But there’s also schools on the quarter system where they could wait until March," said Thamel. "They want to see how NFL hires that could trickle down to college shake out, because they really want NFL training for Caleb Williams to best prepare him for pro football.”

That's no surprise, as Williams' father has made it clear from the start that being prepared for the NFL is King when it comes to this situation. But that would work out to the Trojans' favor anyway.

All seven of their previous seven starting quarterbacks (excluding Kedon Slovis and JT Daniels who have not declared for the NFL Draft yet) have been drafted to the league, and even one of our backups did and was a Pro Bowler who led his team to the playoffs (Matt Cassel). Four of those starting QBs went in the top ten as well.

Lincoln Riley posed a threat to SC in terms of developing quarterbacks at OU, as all three of his QBs were drafted in the first two rounds. Now, he's with us, pairing the best QB program in America with the best QB coach in the country.

Williams, the No. 1 transfer (247Sports) in the nation will likely choose SC, though, and in fact has 100% of his 247Sports crystal balls going the Trojans' way. Thamel revealed that he has already visited both USC and UCLA, and has also virtually Zoomed with "at least a dozen other schools." We don't yet know where he'll go for certain, but hearing of how seriously he takes his NFL aspirations and seeing the experts crystal balling him to our team is incredibly encouraging.

This may take a long time, but it's still trending in the right direction for the Trojans, no question.