Beyond Sooner Summit: Caleb Williams Shows He's a 'Leadership Guy and 'the Perfect Quarterback'

NORMAN — Since Caleb Williams first started playing sports as a little tyke, his dad has missed just one half of one game.

“I was in a board meeting,” Carl Williams told SI Sooners. “I will not miss a game unless I am, you know, infirmed in a hospital or something.”

So continues the resolve of the parents of the No. 1 high school quarterback in America, the mom and dad who will be at Oklahoma’s Owen Field (and at every other field the Sooners play on) starting in 2021.

Carl and Dayna Williams will not miss a game. Just to be safe, they’re moving to Norman.

Well, Dayna Williams is moving to Norman, having landed an apartment during the family’s trip to Oklahoma for the Sooner Summit. Carl, a real estate developer in the Washington, D.C. area, is staying back home but plans to commute “three or four times a month — at least.”

Caleb’s mom has a little flexibility in her work schedule since the daycare facility the family owns was shut down by COVID. So she’s setting down more permanent roots. Carl, in addition to real estate, also oversees a sports performance training facility (“we train D-1 athletes,” he says.)

The natural assumption might be that the Williamses are classic helicopter parents, hovering over their son rather than letting him set off alone on his own journeys through life.

Carl sees it differently. Rather than suffocate Caleb, they want to give him a place he can breathe.

“We can provide support for him and a place to go where he can kind of just get away from everything when it gets so loud and there’s a lot of people around and all that stuff,” Carl Williams said.

“We know our child, right? We know he’s good in the limelight, but we also know he needs some space to get away from things. And, you know, he’ll need a man cave or a theater room or something just to go and get away. We want to be able to provide that as best we can.”

It makes sense. Once Sam Bradford became the Sooners’ starting quarterback, he essentially stopped going out in Norman. Baker Mayfield embraced the limelight much more than Bradford, but he also infamously put a lot of effort into getting away. Kyler Murray was intensely private in the community. Jalen Hurts is still crowd-shy.

It’s unclear yet how Williams will react when an unending stream of Sooner Nation wants a piece of his private time, but he’s friendly in a crowd and also values his privacy — maybe somewhere between Mayfield and Murray.

“Trying to get comfortable here,” Caleb Williams told SI Sooners. “My father and my mother are gonna move out here. Family decision, business decision. They want to come out there with me. They want to come to every game. They want to be around. And that’s fine.”

Carl Williams explained that the Sooner Summit — four days in Norman and Oklahoma City, with as many as 16 recruits from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 classes in town having a good time — was born ordinarily enough.

The family planned a trip to Norman. Offensive tackle Tristan Leigh’s mom remarked that they need to arrange a visit to OU soon. Carl Williams offered a dual family trip. Caleb said it’d be cool to add more recruits to the guest list. Carl told him to send a group text. Everybody said they wanted to come. Carl realized he’d better take it up with OU coach Lincoln Riley first.

“He said, ‘There’s a lot of rules during a dead period,’ ” Carl Williams said, “ ‘but I’ll talk to compliance and let’s see if we can make this a go for you guys.’ ”

Checking with Riley and the OU compliance department, Carl Williams said, was of paramount importance.

“We ran it all the way up the chain, the ladder, with everybody,” he said. “Not just at the school, but my understanding is they reached out to the NCAA. I never talked directly to the NCAA, but they got clarity on what they could and couldn’t do and got back to us, gave us rules and we followed them to the letter.

“I’ll be honest with you: our deal is we want to do it the right way. I’ve said this to everybody who asks: if we were too close to a line, we don’t want to lose one minute of eligibility for any kid. So if we get too close to a line, let me know and we’ll get away from it and go in a different direction.

“There’s always a way to do something you want to do the right way. So let’s figure out the right way to do it and not break any rules.”

When it came to the name — Sooner Summit — Carl said he and a partner at work had come across an old article about Muhammad Ali’s 1967 gathering with Lew Alcindor, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Bobby Mitchell, Willie Davis and other famous African-American athletes, who convened to show support after Ali had been stripped of his heavyweight boxing title for refusing to enter the draft for the Vietnam War.

That event was named the Cleveland Summit.

“I said, ‘You know what? The Sooner Summit. That would be really, really cool,’ ” Carl Williams said. “So next thing you know, The Sooner Summit was born.”

At the event itself, Caleb Williams actually met several of his future teammates for the first time. As the quarterback someday — and as the organizer of the event — he said he needed to establish some facetime with everyone (and maybe put the hard sell on a few).

“A lot of guys just say I'm gonna do whatever it takes to win a national championship,” Leigh said. “But he's literally doing the things before he's even at Oklahoma.”

“I just kind of hang around the guys, joke around with ‘em, kind of be myself,” he said. “Hopefully they loosen up. … Build a bond, show ‘em who I am. Because, you know, I can text, I can call, but seeing me in person, seeing who I am, seeing how I roll and act, from the recruits to the families, is huge, I believe.

“You need some big-time players to come and help you out. Trying to get those kinds of players to come along and see the dream and follow along and let’s go win some big games and some championships.”

“He’s a great leader, as a good quarterback would be,” Leigh told SI Sooners. “ … He’s one of those dudes that will do whatever it takes to win. He’s the perfect quarterback.”

“It says a lot about Caleb,” said linebacker Kobie McKinzie, a verbal commit in the 2022 class. “He can take the reins whenever you need him too. He can show you that he’s a leader.”

The Sooner Summit crowd was also impressed to learn that Williams’ family will be moving halfway across the country to be near him in Norman.

“It just shows you the genuine character that they have,” said Cullen Montgomery, an offensive lineman who has already committed to OU. “They’re all just a good, genuine family.”

“They’re great people,” said linebacker Danny Stutsman, another 2021 verbal commit. “It’s hard to set this all up. I can only imagine. To go the extra mile in recruiting, it’s awesome. … The family that’s gonna do that, they’re all-in.”

“That lets me know that they’re really for real about OU,” said offensive lineman Savion Byrd, who hasn’t picked a school yet. “It shows that he’s dedicated.”

“That says a lot about them,” said wide receiver Cody Jackson, another Sooner pledge. “It says a lot about how they raised Caleb and everything. Them moving down here is a big sacrifice for their family. Because I’ve been through it before. I just think it’s amazing.”

“I feel as though they’re great human beings for doing something like this,” said wide receiver Jalil Farooq, another uncommitted 2021 prospect.

Whichever Sooner Summit attendees sign with Oklahoma, three things seem certain at this point: Caleb Williams will get to Norman (presumably next year) and put on a Sooner uniform. His mom will soon establish temporary residency in or around Cleveland County. And his dad will pop in for games.

“Nothing like looking up in the stands and seeing you and them catching your eye. Right?” Carl Williams said. “It doesn’t matter how many people are in that crowd, like before a game or whatever’s going on, especially if we’re at our home field, Caleb will look up and he’ll nod to me or wave to me or point a finger at me or something.

“There’s just nothing like it, man.”

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