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Faces in the Crowd: Caleb Williams

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Baker Mayfield. Kyler Murray. Jalen Hurts. Now following suit: Caleb Williams, a rising senior quarterback at Gonzaga College High in Washington, D.C. who officially committed to Oklahoma on July 4 and will next fall join Spencer Rattler in coach Lincoln Riley’s cavalcade of quarterbacks. The top-ranked dual-threat QB in the recruiting class of 2021, Caleb forged his connection with Riley during an early two-hour visit.

“I think he’s an offensive mastermind,” he says of Riley. “He’s gotten his past three quarterbacks to the NFL.”

After beating out two juniors to earn the starting job as a freshman, Caleb guided the Eagles to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title game, where they lost 30–7 to St. John’s College High. The next season he brought Gonzaga back to the final. Trailing DeMatha Catholic 43–40 with 15 seconds left, Caleb connected with senior receiver John Marshall on a 53-yard Hail Mary, giving the Eagles their fourth WCAC championship and first since 2002.

“It’s pretty cool that I’m the only African American quarterback who started as a freshman at Gonzaga and won a championship,” Caleb says.

That season he earned D.C.’s Gatorade Player of the Year honors after throwing for 2,624 yards, rushing for 394 yards and scoring 36 total touchdowns. As a junior Caleb led Gonzaga to an 8–3 record, with 1,770 yards passing, 838 yards rushing and 37 touchdowns. Caleb protested for justice with his teammates in late spring. On July 1, he was named MVP of the Elite 11 Finals, a national QB competition.

Three days later Murray congratulated the future Sooner on his commitment, tweeting “best of the best.” “That was pretty cool,” says Caleb.