Preview: The Caleb Williams Interview

NORMAN — The one Lincoln Riley quality that pushed Caleb Williams away at first became the same quality that assured Williams it was Riley for whom he wanted play.

By now, everyone knows the timeline: Brock Vandagriff committed to the Sooners in June 2019, then six months later, on New Year’s Day 2020, he decommitted.

That’s when Lincoln Riley offered Williams a scholarship.

None of that was by accident.

“I came on the (unofficial) visit the week before (Vandagriff) committed,” Williams told SI Sooners. “Then he committed and I still didn’t have the offer yet.”

Before his junior year at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., ever rolled around, Williams knew he wanted to go to Oklahoma and play for Riley.

Riley had produced two Heisman Trophy winners and two No. 1 overall draft picks in his first two seasons as a head coach. Going into 2019, Riley also had landed a graduate transfer from Alabama and a promising youngster named Spencer Rattler.

Everyone, it seemed, wanted to play for college football’s hot young quarterback guru.

But while all the quarterback accolades impressed Williams, they weren’t what sold him on Riley.

“What he told me was, ‘I’m not gonna offer you now because Brock and his father asked me to not offer any other quarterbacks,’ ” Williams said. “And he did just that. He didn’t offer me. He was gonna stay true to one guy. He didn’t really recruit me.

“We talked a little bit. We talked a little bit over when Brock was committed, but rarely. Not much.”

College football at the highest levels is an ultra competitive game, and the 6-foot-3, 205-pound dual threat prospect from Prince Avenue Christian School in Bogart, GA, got the scholarship offer that Williams wanted.

Williams, himself a fast-rising, 6-1, 210-pound dual-threat prospect, knew he would have other options if he continued on his career path. Film from his junior season would ensure that.

But he wanted to play for the Sooners. He wanted to play for Riley.

Then 2020 arrived, and suddenly, Williams’ hope was rekindled.

Vandagriff had called Riley and told him he would be decommitting. When the call ended, Riley’s first act was to call Williams.

“Coach Riley told me (Vandagriff) was gonna decommit and probably go somewhere else (he committed to Georgia three weeks later).

“Once he did that, he told me he was gonna be on me hard. Said he was gonna try to get me to become a Sooner. He was gonna push and work hard to try and get me.”

And then Riley applied the same level of commitment to Williams that he had applied to Vandagriff.

“He said he wasn’t gonna recruit any other quarterbacks,” Williams said. “He was gonna focus on me after Brock decommitted.

“And he didn’t recruit any other quarterbacks.”

Of course, Williams hated being Riley’s second choice. But he appreciated Riley’s commitment to the truth and loyalty to one quarterback even more.

“Everything from him telling me that he wasn’t gonna offer me because Brock’s dad and Brock asked him not to, to where he said he wasn’t gonna recruit me while Brock was committed because he was loyal to his guy that he had committed, to when (Vandagriff) decommitted and he told me that he was gonna push for me and try and get me to become a Sooner — and now I’m a 2021 Sooner.

“Basically, the trust that I have with coach Riley, the connection with him — but it was mainly that big piece for me, that he said he was gonna do something and he did it. He stuck with the guy that was committed, and then once he decommitted, he stuck with one guy and it ended up being me.”

People, Williams said, “don’t really know that.”

There’s more you might not know about Caleb Williams. Hear him talk about Riley’s offer, listen to his plans for OU’s Heisman Park, discover his “other” favorite sport, and find out what drives him to succeed in the full SI Sooners interview with Williams from this weekend’s Sooner Summit. The video will post with today’s recap of Williams’ weekly blog, “All On The Line,” at around 11 a.m. CT.

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