After everything they’d weathered during one year together, all Caleb Williams needed now from his coach was a look from the sideline. A shoulder shrug. A head nod. A thumbs-up. That, the USC quarterback says, would be signal enough for him to know exactly what Lincoln Riley was thinking.
By that point, the USC coach could usually tell what was coming from his quarterback, too.
“The way he walks out on the field, I can almost tell you the kind of day he’s going to have,” Riley said. “I’ve seen now so much, every mannerism and every word. I’ve got to a place where he can tell and I can kinda know what’s in his head even before. And I think he, in a lot of ways, [feels] the same thing with me. I think a lot of times I’m getting ready to make a point to him, whether it’s about playing the position or leading or anything and he can kinda take the words right from me. We’re in lockstep.”
Nothing is more crucial for USC in its first year under Riley than that relationship between the coach and his Heisman contender quarterback, and in Williams’ case, there seem to be no concerns on that front. As the pair enters its second year together, both describe a connection that borders on telepathic. By their telling, it’s not unreasonable to think coach and quarterback could finish each other’s sentences.
“Me and my teammates were laughing about this,” Williams said Wednesday. “We kind of communicate really fast, even when I’m on the field, when he’s on the sideline, thinking through plays and things like that.”
It’s been a few years since Riley has had the luxury of a lasting relationship with his leading passer. Baker Mayfield was the last quarterback to spend multiple years in the coach’s system. His previous three starting quarterbacks at Oklahoma before Williams — Spencer Rattler, Jalen Hurts and Kyler Murray — were each only under center for a season apiece.
In each case, Riley still adjusted his offense accordingly. Two of those three quarterbacks still wound up Heisman finalists at year’s end, and Oklahoma still ranked among the top six in scoring offense during all three seasons.
But the contrast between a quarterback’s first campaign and his…