Caleb Williams Continues to Recruit Others While Junior Year Comes to a Close
Caleb Williams is the top quarterback prospect in the 2021 class with scholarship offers from elite programs coast to coast. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his experience as a high profile recruit to his home life and preparation for his senior season. This is 'All on the Line.'
Hey guys!
Welcome back to Caleb Williams: All on the Line. Glad to be back so I can tell y'all about the new week. This week, I've been really focused on finals week, finals preparation. They start tomorrow (Monday). I'm done with school as this is the last week to sign in, say that I'm there and do some tests and exams we have to do.
I'm happy junior year is about to be over. Also kind of sad that it's becoming my last year. This weekend and week have been about school preparation. I've had projects, this is a little bit different from the way we normally do it at school.
Obviously it's online and everything, but our midterm and finals week is always on paper, never electronically. I also only have one real exam where I have to sit there and take it, the others have been projects, essays, research papers and things like that. This week will be easier than a normal finals week and I'm very, very happy about that. It's usually hard, two finals a day, so I'm kind of happy we've got it this way even though I can't see my guys, the football team and the other kids in school.
I've been working out a little less with it being finals week, but I threw Saturday with a few of my friends. One of my pups at quarterback, Carson Petitbon, love the guy. He's a sophomore and one of the quarterbacks at Gonzaga. He came, thew a little bit, joked around and I messed with him. His brother is Luke Petitbon, he was my guard and he's going to Wake Forest. I threw for about an hour, hour and a half.
Sunday I threw with one of my old teammates, who stayed over at my apartment. We went down to the field and threw, working on a few routes just to make sure we're staying nice and oiled up. Keith (Boddie) is going to his senior year like me, he's at Wise High School in Maryland. We're staying optimistic about our season, our last year in high school. It's really the only thing you can do. I'm hoping we can all play and go out with a bang.
Going into senior year we just had a meeting with my head coach at Gonzaga. All the seniors had the meeting Sunday morning at 12. It was about it being our last year and how his leaders in past years kind of just explained what the team needed at that time. He just wants the best for us and for us to win a championship. He was trying to inspire us to be the best and putting our best foot forward for our senior year. This last dance we have together, all my senior boys that are juniors right now. We count them as seniors now.
We talked about how we need to focus on what we can control, help the underclassmen and the kids younger than us to understand what we're gonna have this year. We're all confident, we're all inspired to do great things this year and we need to make sure we're doing the right things so they can follow us and continue the tradition of doing great things. Then when we can get together and it's time to go, we can have fun winning big games.
I have been still doing my thing, recruiting-wise. Recruiting defensive players, Jeremiah Williams, I've been recruiting him. I've also been talking to Emeka Egbuka a lot. Very good player, real smooth. I've been recruiting him really hard, making sure he goes with me. Tristan Leigh is one of my good friends, one of my good buddies. He's a pretty good ball player [laughing]. He has a bunch of offers, I think 40, including LSU, Maryland and Oklahoma. I'm recruiting him to come be my left tackle and protect my backside. He can get whatever he wants to come with me, I'll pay for his freaking dinner every day [laughing].
Recruiting for me has been crazy. I'm thankful I've had 30-plus offers, dropped it down to a top five, dropped it down to these last three schools. Things are really getting into focus. I'm focusing on the little things with these three schools because everybody can see the big things. I'm focused on the little things that are best for me and my family. I'm looking for a school, and I've said this before because I love Gonzaga, but I made a promise my freshman year that I wouldn't leave this place to one of my senior wide receivers.
I'm really looking for another Gonzaga, that's the summary of the little things. Gonzaga provided the little things for me, that's why I chose this place. I'm looking for a 2.0 of Gonzaga even though I know it can't be Gonzaga. I'm hoping it can be as close to this because this place is awesome. You do feel the brotherhood, the connection, the togetherness, it's real. Not just in the football program but the connectivity of the student-athletes at the school and the other kids like the actors in the theater program. They're in other sports, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, rowing, all of that. The connectivity of our community is insane. We never have any problems at school. We're all good with each other.
Something that can better me for another three years and that can prepare me for what's to come after that. I can't be in high school forever and I can't be in college forever.
These seniors going off to college this year, they mean a lot to me. They kind of welcomed me in. They were always the class above me, up next and they kind of lobbied me and accepted me to be their quarterback at the age of 14 or 15 years old as a freshman. That was huge for me, meant a lot to me. At our banquets I always burn a little bit inside because the guys that I've been with for three years are leaving now, off to college. They were there to protect me, my linemen. The defense would go get us the ball back when we needed it.
The times we hung out, outside of football, in the school, all the laughs in the locker room, playing basketball...those guys mean a lot to me. Some of my best friends for life.
Alright guys. Signing off, Caleb Williams: All on the Line.
I hope everybody is staying safe, staying healthy, staying optimistic and being strong.
Make sure you wash your hands.
All on the Line: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11
Twitter: @CALEBcsw
Instagram: ayeeecaleb