They can’t stop him. They can only hope to contain him.
I said that as a joke. But at the end of Saturday night, it might be true about Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams, and the Arizona State defense.
The defending Heisman Trophy-winner is definitely looking good. Now, granted, he hasn’t played a schedule like Auburn is facing (Texas A&M this week, with Georgia, LSU, and Ole Miss to come in the next five weeks).
But Williams is slicing through defenses like a hot knife through butter. He’s already got 12 touchdown passes, he’s completing 78 percent of his throws, and he’s thrown for 878 yards – in eight quarters (they’ve played three games; he’s played eight total quarters).
The Trojans (3-0) play at Arizona State (1-2) Saturday night on ESPN, and first-year Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham says, hey, man, I ain’t skeered.
“I want to be on a team that you have to grind and scratch, crawl and compete and fight, and dive for loose balls, where you have to do everything necessary to give yourself a chance to win,” Dillingham said. “This is my world, just in life this is my world and I love it — that’s what I love. If you are scared to play somebody, like leave, we don’t need you in the building,” Dillingham said, in the Associated Press’s preview of the game, here: No. 5 USC is hoping to avoid a letdown against Arizona State in the Trojans’ first road game ).
Scared or not, Arizona State doesn’t even have a healthy quarterback room of their own. Their fourth-string guy, Jacob Conover, got playing time against Fresno State last week.
Coach, is it time to panic yet?
“I think Jacob did a nice job coming in from no reps in practice and just executing,” Dillingham said. “His interceptions, one of them he’d like to have back and another was just him forcing the ball in a game where we didn’t get anything going. I got a lot of faith in Jacob if he takes the field.”
OK!
