Caleb Williams dazzles as No. 8 USC holds off Colorado

Three hours before game time, the overflow lots had long overflown, and USC’s clash with Prime Time was underway.

Pandemonium dawned, with the pink-tinged crest of sun over Colorado morning ridges, staffers and vendors who presumed they’d be getting a head start having to resort to parking cars in grassy areas. Guttural screams and shouts of no language, from Boulder youth presumably off wee hours of sleep and various beverages, echoed through closed-off streets and brick buildings. A small group of CU students, sporting wide white bucket-hats as disciples of Boulder’s salvation, strolled outside Folsom Field holding a sign that advertised the sale of $5 cowboy hats “for charity.”

One by one, celebrities A- through D-list emerged on Colorado’s sidelines pregame. And the clamor grew from an ever-growing sellout sea of Buffs white. There was “All-American’s” Da Vinchi, and former MLB pitcher CC Sabathia, and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett taking selfie videos. Moths, all, to the Deion Sanders flame that has burned so brightly throughout Boulder.

“Coach Prime brings a energy to Boulder, and to Colorado football,” Colorado Rep. Leslie Harod said, “that we just haven’t seen at the collegiate level.”

Sanders was a showman as ever Saturday in a 48-41 USC victory, the center of 50,000-plus’ attention in a buzzing Folsom bubble, running out with Colorado before the Buffs’ clash against USC and planting his hand to his ear in the direction of the crowd: a physical let me hear you. And it nearly seemed as if he’d pull off a miracle, Colorado roaring back to life after a dead-in-the-water 27-point deficit as USC’s secondary collapsed hopelessly in one of the worst showings in the Alex Grinch era.

In the end, though, the greatest showman proved to be Caleb Williams.

In the Trojans’ first true test of the year, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback was as impossibly precise – and cool in a rollicking atmosphere – as he’d been at any point in a near-flawless start to the season. He tied his personal best of six touchdown passes in front of a slew of NFL scouts at Folsom, each dart seeming easier than the last.

In the third quarter, after a six-yard bunny to Brenden Rice for the former Colorado receiver’s second touchdown of the day, Rice turned to the packed-out home crowd, raising his ear to his helmet. Just the same as Sanders had a couple hours earlier.

And for a moment, the energy in Boulder was gone.

In pre-week media availability, USC players made a tangibly concerted effort to avoid any sort of public potshot at Colorado that could stoke a fiery Buffs squad. And leading the way, more stoic than he’s seemed all season, was Williams, who seemed utterly disinterested in a Shedeur Sanders-related line of questioning from Rivals’ Ryan Young after practice Wednesday.

Had he crossed paths with Sanders? 

He did, younger, around eighth grade, Williams responded.

What was the situation? 

“Uh, All-American game,” Williams said. “And, uh, we played in the All-American game and then went to high school.”

He turned his head, on to the next question, and that was that.

And after Shedeur Sanders’ name had been bandied about in a few early-season Heisman discussions, Williams well outpaced the Colorado quarterback in the first half Saturday, Sanders throwing for just 109 yards with a touchdown and interception as the Trojans’ cornerbacks adeptly shadowed a Buffs room ripe with playmakers.

On a third down on the Trojans’ third drive of the game, flitting in the pocket for an eternity, Williams decided to roll left and – for reasons unbeknownst to man, or perhaps simply because he’s Caleb Williams – opted to fling a ball without setting his feet and found Tahj Washington for a 71-yard touchdown.

“Seems like when he scrambles so much,” center Justin Dedich said Wednesday, “there’s usually a touchdown involved right after.”

But up 34-14 at half, even with a pair of Williams third-quarter touchdowns, USC lost their chance to stamp a true statement win as the Trojans’ defense imploded. Shredded on the ground but robust in pass coverage through the first half – Arizona transfer Christian Roland-Wallace coming up with a key first-quarter pick of Sanders – the Trojans’ secondary looked helpless against Sanders for much of the second half, a concerning array of mistakes stacking up.

Midway through the third quarter, Domani Jackson whiffed on a tackle of Colorado’s Omarion Miller, the receiver dashing 65 yards to set up a subsequent Buffs touchdown run. Then Prophet Brown got cooked the next drive for a 43-yard bomb, setting up another score. Colorado cut a 27-point USC lead to 14, Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig nabbing Williams’ first interception of the year in the process.

And the life returned to Folsom, threatening decibel barriers, draining away any hope in Grinch’s defense in the process. Down 14 with a few minutes to work, Sanders moved the ball down the field again and hit Jimmy Horn Jr. for a touchdown to cut USC’s lead, improbably, to seven, sending Folsom into a frenzy.

Time ran out, simply, on Colorado, Williams able to kneel the game away and preserve a win. But for the second week in a row, the Trojans were left battered to the point of nearly crumpling.