USC star quarterback Caleb Williams has long viewed his path through college football in the same way as most five-star prospects — a three-and-done track to the NFL. While being recruited, Williams’ father, Carl, asked schools for specific plans to illustrate how his son could become the “first pick in the 2024 draft.”
Heading into the 2023 season as the prohibitive favorite to be the No. 1 pick in April, Caleb Williams is on the precipice of that vision coming to fruition.
But Williams told ESPN this week that now that he is on the cusp of his goal, there remains a chance he could deviate from it.
“That’s for sure now going to be an in-the-moment decision at the end of the year,” Williams said of the 2024 NFL draft. “It’s my third year, and the dream and goal was to go three-and-out. Being around these guys and in college and enjoying it, we’ll have to see at the end of this year.”
Williams earned his status as college football’s top player after winning the Heisman Trophy last year by throwing for 4,537 yards and 42 touchdowns and running for 10 more touchdowns. He led USC to an 11-3 record and a spot in the Pac-12 title game.
Along the way, he said he has come to appreciate the college experience and the culture built at USC by coach Lincoln Riley. That’s one of the reasons Williams is not certain about the timing of his professional decision.
“Being in college now,” Williams told ESPN, “being part of this brotherhood and being with Coach Riley, it’s been awesome.”
Asked specifically if the NFL team in position to draft him could be a factor, Williams mentioned there’s “a lot” that could impact his decision, with variables ranging from the results of USC’s season to the draft situation and whether he accomplishes the goals he has set in college.
“I don’t think there’d be one specific thing to effect and detour that type of decision,” he said. “It’d have to be a multitude of things to lead me to one side or the other.”
Williams enters the 2023 season as college football’s defining star, a burgeoning boldfaced name in Los Angeles who said he was recognized when traveling in Europe with his mother, Dayna Price, this summer.
Williams’ profile will grow in the upcoming weeks when he stars in the Dr Pepper Fansville commercials, which will run throughout the season. His spot in the ads revolve around his pregame tradition of painting his fingernails and will feature his mom, who is a nail technician.
“It’s something I’ve been around all my life,” Williams said of the tradition. “I’m going to keep doing it. It’s my thing. And it’s something I’ve done before I got to college.”
Williams maintained that not much changed after he thrived in his first year at USC in 2022, when he transferred from Oklahoma in a move to follow Riley. It’s considered the highest-profile transfer portal move since the advent of one-time transfer.
He said his goals have remained the same — “to be one of the best, if not the best ever.” And that means he hasn’t changed much since his starring season.
“I try and stick to what got me here and pushing me along,” Williams said. “It’s not too hard when you have goals and aspirations that are bigger than this.”
Along with Riley, one of the new USC coaches who can help him achieve that goal is former NFL and Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, who joined the staff this spring. Williams has connected with Kingsbury, whom he said he will send plays and concepts to. He said they will talk through them before going to Riley about adding them to the playbook.
“He’s a players’ coach and a great guy to have in the room,” Williams said. “Very real.”
George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.
The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.
Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.
Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.
Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.
New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.
Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.
He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.
“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”
Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.
The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.
“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”
Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.
Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.
Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).
As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).
During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.
Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.
Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.
Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.