Williams puts on a clinic in OU rout
Being a true freshman, you’re going to encounter a lot of firsts in college football. For the most part, everything has been smooth for Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams.
Last week was a little uneven, and if you were at all worried about how he would respond, cross that off the list.
Williams had one of the best performances by an OU quarterback ever in the Sooners 52-21 dominating victory against visiting Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon.
It didn’t start that way, going 1 of 4 passing for 19 yards on the first drive that resulted in a punt. The rest of the way? Dang near flawless, and OU never punted again.
Williams finished his afternoon 23-of-30 passing for 402 yards and six touchdowns. He joins Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray as the other two OU quarterbacks to have a six-touchdown performance without a turnover.
“He was just out there playing ball,” wide receiver Marvin Mims said. “You can kind of tell that the whole offense was kind of clicking today. I think it was the way we prepared in practice this week. As a whole, Caleb's performed great. He was thrown into the fire. He's played great and I'm proud of him.”
Mims was back in a big way, too. He had four receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns, his first trips to the end zone since the Texas game.
No receiver had more than five catches as Williams did an incredible job of spreading the wealth. Six touchdowns to five different receivers.
Play breaks down, no problem. Arguably, the best moments for Williams were when it was time to improvise and find something. Multiple touchdown passes came that way.
“I know they call him Superman, but I call him Houdini today because he was making some stuff happen that I didn’t think was able to happen,” defensive captain Isaiah Thomas said. “He was making something out of nothing. I was impressed by his performance. What makes it so exciting is he’s only a freshman.
“He can only get better because he’s definitely not at his peak. But for him to be at where he is as a freshman is really impressive, and I can’t say that a lot for a lot of freshmen that I’ve seen play that position. He’s a special kid. I love that guy.”
What we learned about Williams vs. the Red Raiders is his ability to take coaching. He made his mark earlier this month by chunking up the ball in 50/50 opportunities and letting his guys make the play.
That can’t happen all the time, and he missed some throws last week. This time around, he was patient when he needed to be and explosive when it was time to hit that note.
You can’t ignore the 400 yards and the six touchdowns, but it’s that kind of progression that is going to get the praise from head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Really nice job of things inside the pocket and obviously made some key plays out of it,” Riley said. “His patience was good. I thought we operated more efficiently with him in which was a big goal.”
Mario Williams, Drake Stoops, Austin Stogner and Brayden Willis also found the end zone from a Williams pass.
This didn’t feel like a game where Williams was going to have to carve up a defense, but the Sooners only managed 72 yards on 20 carries with 29 of them coming in mop-up duty time.
Still, nothing bothered him. Put the ball in his arm and let him work. That’s where things stand for the Sooners, a perfect 9-0 and finally reaching their bye week.
A team that entered the month of October wondering where it’s patented high-powered offense had gone will enter Championship November feeling as good as it has all season.
With a true freshman leading the way.
“Fantastic team win. A complete performance all the way around, offense, defense and special teams,” Riley said. “Huge contributions from everybody. I really loved the week of preparation. I could tell guys did a really good job carrying over from the practice field to the game field, made some improvements.”