It’s the final event for the 40 Audubon students who were selected to participate in a program developed by USC’s Trojan Outreach and Williams’ own foundation, Caleb Cares. And certificates are handed out to the two kids whose GPA improved the most and to the one who performed best in the creative writing prompts assigned to the group.
Carl is a small-business owner and Williams’ mother, Dayna, runs a nursery school. His grandfather is a pastor at St. Paul’s Baptist Church in his hometown of Washington, D.C. They provided an example he soon followed. But it wasn’t until the summer before his senior year of high school that Williams realized the platform he had as a rising quarterback prospect.
But every superhero needs an origin story, and Williams’ came last season at Oklahoma. He arrived in Norman as the top recruit in the country, a tantalizing quarterback prospect ready to be molded by one of the position’s best coaches, Lincoln Riley. “Sometimes we’d sit there in silence for a little bit and I’d finally say something,” Williams said. “It was tough for me.”
USC quarterback Caleb Williams warms up before a game against Washington State on Oct. 8, 2022, with his fingernails painted to bring awareness to a suicide prevention hotline called the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.