USC’s Caleb Williams named 2022 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, presented by Nextiva
2 years ago - Dec 06, 2022, 8:58 PM
USC quarterback Caleb Williams has been named the 2022 Pac-12 Football Offensive Player of the Year, presented by Nextiva. A 2022 Heisman Trophy finalist, Williams gives the Trojans back-to-back Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year winners (WR Drake London last year), the first time a school has repeated since Stanford won three straight from 2009-11 (Toby Gerhart, Andrew Luck). The last time USC won this award in consecutive seasons was from 2003-2005 when Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush each won the award once individually while sharing in 2004. Williams was an instrumental part of turning around a USC program that went 4-8 in the 2021 season to an 11-2 team in 2022. The 7-win increase matches the biggest turnaround in USC history. Prior to any bowl games, Williams ranks among the national leaders in almost all passing categories. He leads the nation with 37 passing TD, which is two short of the school's single-season record held by Cody Kessler (2014) and Matt Barkley (2011), and also leads with a USC record 47 total TD (37 pass, 10 rush). Williams is third in the country with 4,447 total yards, breaking the USC single-season record set by Sam Darnold in 2017 (4,425), and is fourth in in FBS with 4,075 pass yards to become just the second Trojan to reach 4,000 yards in a season (Darnold with 4,143 in 2017). He's also fifth in the country in lowest rate of interceptions (0.9%) with just for picks in 448 pass attempts which would set the school record (currently Kessler, 1.1% in 2014). Williams' 372 rushing yards are the most by a USC QB in the last 70 years since complete records were available, breaking the previous record of 342 by Jim Sears in 1952.