USC football: Let’s stop acting like Caleb Williams isn’t nation’s best QB

Not often does a reigning Heisman Trophy winner deserve more respect and attention, but USC football’s Caleb Williams is still fighting for it.

Even though he won the Heisman last season, he’s heading into the 2023 campaign as the second or third-best quarterback in the country.

While this may not be the majority opinion of fans, I’ve seen many reports from “scouts” or even college football experts saying that there are a couple of other names that might just be better.

This really sparked my interest in writing about Williams:

Many scouts believe that JJ McCarthy is a better quarterback than Williams. How is that even possible? Did they watch any football last season?

Another ranking that caught my eye was Mike Farrell’s in which he had Drake Maye No. 1:

Just insane given the fact that Williams dominated last season and is only going to get better this year. Sure, Maye and McCarthy are very good quarterbacks, but to say they’re better than the reigning Heisman winner when top-10 NFL draft picks CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, and Anthony Richardson weren’t even as good as Williams last year is asinine.

Let’s stop this.

Comparing Caleb Williams to Maye, McCarthy

So since we’ve seen both McCarthy and Maye being called “better” than Williams, let’s just take a look at the numbers:

Caleb Williams (2022)

• 4,537 yards, 42 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, 66.6% completions, 9.1 yards/attempt
• 382 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns

JJ McCarthy (2022)

• 2,719 yards, 22 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, 64.6% completions, 8.4 yards/attempt
• 306 rushing yards, 5 touchdowns

Drake Maye (2022)

• 4,321 yards, 38 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 66.2% completions, 9.2 yards/attempt
• 698 rushing yards, 7 touchdowns

As you can see, Williams has better numbers in every single category between these guys outside of rushing yards (Maye) and yards per attempt (Maye) — but the numbers are basically the same there.

Williams attempted about 150 more passes than McCarthy and had the same number of interceptions and a higher completion rate. That’s pretty telling.

Maye might have a case here, but I just think that Williams is the best quarterback in the country (clearly, in 90 percent of statistical categories) until proven otherwise. And no one has proven otherwise yet.