USC football fans will be excited about 247Sports' ranking of new QB Caleb Williams

New USC Football Quarterback Caleb Williams is one of the very best QB's in the country. The most highly anticipated transfer in college football history, Williams was the highest-rated transfer player in the portal.

The five-star transfer was the leading Heisman favorite for a time last season despite not even starting until the second half of the year. He was excellent in 2021; averaging 9.1 yards per pass attempt and 5.6 yards per carry. He scored 27 total touchdowns (21 passing). He only threw four total picks.

Brad Crawford of 247Sports recently ranked his 25 best quarterbacks entering the 2022 season, and had Williams all the way up at number three. Taking a step back and looking at how he performed last season, as I did in the above paragraph, it's easy to see that he belongs there.

The only two QB's ranked ahead of USC Football QB Caleb Williams were C.J. Stroud (second) and Bryce Young (first).

And Crawford is right to place Stroud and Young ahead of USC football's Caleb Williams right now. While Williams was for a time the leading Heisman favorite, Stroud finished fourth in the voting and Young won the Trophy. They finished with better seasons than Williams. Young also played in the National Championship.

Young had a 66.9% completion percentage in 2021, which was 2.4% higher than Williams'. As for Stroud, he not only had a better completion percentage than Williams (71.9% compared to Williams' 64.5%), but he also averaged another yard per pass attempt at 10.1, and 1.2 more adjusted passing yards per attempt than Williams' 10.2.

Williams dominated them in the running game, collecting 442 yards on the ground--while both Stroud and Young had just -20 combined. (Stroud had -20 in 32 attempts and Young had 0 in 81 attempts.) Stroud didn't have any rushing touchdowns and Young had just three.

It goes to show that Williams has another element in his game that these two don't, and these two are of course a year older than Williams. For Williams to be in the top three with these two as a true freshman is an honor in itself. Here's what Crawford had to say about it himself:

"As a five-star true freshman last season, Caleb Williams stepped in and was an instant boost to the Oklahoma offense, so much so that Lincoln Riley made him a transfer priority when he left for the USC vacancy. Equipped with talented transfer pass-catchers on the outside, this USC offense should be high-powered this season and Williams already has the necessary star power as a well-known face amongst other quarterbacks. Add in the fact he's now in the West Coast spotlight for a program potentially on the rise and all the ingredients are there for a legitimate Heisman threat."

Brad Crawford, 247Sports

Williams is set to have an outstanding year now that he's back with his head coach from his standout year last year in Lincoln Riley. Reunited with two receivers he already has had chemistry with in 2021 Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison and 2021 OU target Mario Williams, he'll be more than comfortable leading the new squad.