Caleb Williams is expected to be taken No. 1 by the Chicago Bears in Thursday’s NFL Draft. Williams, who played quarterback at Southern California and Oklahoma, faced challenges at a young age.
Tears cascaded down Caleb Williams’ face. The then-9 year old couldn’t believe the mistake he made.
Williams was starting his first game at quarterback for the Bowie Bulldogs in Maryland. He’d previously played running back and linebacker in the three years leading up to this moment.
But after Mark McCain saw Williams throw a 40-yard pass on the dot … as his team’s third-string quarterback the season before, McCain, Russell Thomas and Carl Williams, Caleb’s father, agreed to try the fourth grader at signal caller.
So here was Williams, in his first contest – a 7-v-7 game – and his first throw was an interception.
He attempted a 15-yard pass but made the wrong read. He disregarded what he saw the defense had set-up, and paid for it immediately.
« Since I was 4, when I lost, I cried, » Williams told The Pivot Podcast. « One thing about me is my guys know I care … and winning is the most important thing to me. … There is a time and a place for it and understanding, even if it’s raw emotion, and it comes out then and there, but being able to control it and hold it in until you get home. »
His tears, the frustration with himself and that initial failure weren’t for naught, though. In fact, those mistakes proved to be invaluable. This was the first pivotal moment in Williams’ development at quarterback.The legend begins
The second happened three years later. He was then playing for Bowie Elite, a youth football program. McCain, his new coach, benched Williams during the team’s playoff game after he went the wrong direction on a handoff, fumbled a snap and didn’t throw to the right places.
It was after that game when Williams, the presumptive No. 1-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, flipped the switch and altered the trajectory of his career. It’s also where Williams’ legend actually begins.
« That really kind of started that; when he realized that it was deeper than just going out running routes and seeing who was open, » McCain, who co-owns the Athletic Republic with Thomas and Carl Williams, told NPR. « It changed his vision of the game. »
« There was a switch [between seventh and eighth grade] where that energy that he was taking – when he was upset with losing – the switch kind of made him, somehow [take] away the uncontrollable emotion. All of a sudden he didn’t feel pressure anymore. He just kind of seized the moment. »Williams’ path to the NFL Draft
The start of Williams’ ascent doesn’t begin with winning the starting job as a freshman at Gonzaga College High School in 2017.
Nor when he helped the Eagles erase a 20-point deficit and tossed a 53-yard Hail Mary to cap Gonzaga’s improbable win in the 2018 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference final.
Or when he led the Oklahoma Sooners to an unfathomable 55-48 comeback victory over Texas Longhorns in 2021 as a true freshman and playing only half of the contest.
These moments occurred because those first two experiences taught him exactly what it would take to master the position, and Williams hasn’t looked back since those initial growing pains.
« I worked with the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, » McCain said. « None of them have that competitive drive that [William’s] has. … It’s unmatched. He simply does not compute losing. He doesn’t accept failure at all.
« Going into high school, he would want to watch film of the game right after.
