USC Trojans News: Caleb Williams Player of Year nods, Julien Simon hits portal, more

USC Football QB Caleb Williams took home the AP Player of the Year Award honor on Thursday, but that wasn't the only Player of the Year he's won so far. CBS Sports also named him their Player of the Year. The Heisman Trophy ceremony on Saturday can't come soon enough.

Williams will likely be acknowledged by the Heisman voters as the best player in college football as well. He threw for 4,075 passing yards and rushed for 372 rushing yards.

Throwing for 37 touchdowns and running for 10 touchdowns (and only throwing four picks), he's the obvious choice. Also averaging 9.1 yards per pass attempt, and 10.3 adjusted yards per pass attempt, it's a no-brainer to choose Williams as the Heisman.

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Former USC Football four-star linebacker prospect Julien Simon has entered the transfer portal. There was a lot of hope for Simon when he showed up on SC's campus, but unfortunately he has not developed here. He didn't see the field despite SC having a suboptimal linebacking crew in each of his two seasons of college football.

Simon was the No. 14 Linebacker in the country (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports) coming out of the 2021 recruiting class, so he certainly does have talent. Nobody loses talent, and Simon was ranked within the top 120 of the nation in recruiting for the 2021 cycle. Hopefully he has success somewhere else, and both sides prevail.

NCAA News

Former five-star linebacker for Oregon, Justin Flowe, has entered the transfer portal. Flowe was the No. 1 Inside Linebacker in the 2020 recruiting class, and he was expected to commit to USC originally. As USC was finishing their 2020 recruiting debacle, however, Flowe committed to Oregon. Who recruited him, though? Donte Williams, who is of course now on USC's side.

Williams is one of the top recruiters in all of college football. If there's anyone who can lure an Upland kid back home to Southern California; it's Williams. Flowe has battled injuries in his Oregon career so far, but he's healthy now. SC needs to pick up a commitment from him, if they're serious about improving their current core of linebackers.