Lincoln Riley is a huge fan of Caleb Williams. However, his former head coach at Oklahoma and USC does not believe that the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback is deserving of the comparisons to Patrick Mahomes… yet.
The 40-year-old sees the similarities and knows that Williams has the potential to become an all-time great on the professional level. But, as of right now, Riley is not willing to put the two superstar signal-callers on the same level. He knows that would be unfair and untrue.
All of the conversation surrounding Caleb Williams and Patrick Mahomes started in December of 2022. Tom House, who is often referred to as the “father of modern pitching mechanics” and a “quarterback whisperer” told Adam Schefter that the former is the second coming of the latter.
Williams responded by essentially saying yes, that is true.
Merrill Hoge vehemently and loudly disagreed. Other NFL analysts are torn.
Some believe that Williams has the tools to be as good as Mahomes on the next level. Some believe that he is overhyped.
Riley falls much closer to people in support of House’s opinion but won’t go so far as to say yes. He joined J.D. PicKell on The Hard Count to discuss the soon-to-be top-two pick and offered his thoughts on the comparison to the reigning Super Bowl MVP. They are two-fold.
Listen, there’s some physical comparisons. Like, no question. Both great athletes, both have really elite arms, guys that can throw from all types of different platforms, can really do anything from a throwing perspective that you can imagine.
— Lincoln Riley
While Riley sees the similarities in Williams and Mahomes, he is not naive to the differences.
Pat has had one, a lot more experience and Caleb up to this point. I mean, Pat played a lot of ball in college, Pat didn’t miss a senior year in high school. And obviously, he went into a great situation there in Kansas City, and then he has just done a phenomenal job.
— Lincoln Riley
There was an intricate balance in Riley’s comments about the quarterbacks. His hopes for Williams are high, but he won’t go so far as to put him on the same pedestal in this current moment.
Caleb certainly has some of the same physical tools, which is exciting because there’s not many people that have that.
But certainly, to continue to climb to a guy to like his level, there’s going to be a big process there. But I certainly wouldn’t put it past him. Excited, hopefully he can end up in a great situation and take advantage of it anywhere to the level that that Pat has done.
— Lincoln Riley
Riley is being rational in a world where a lot of personalities in sports are not. There was no inflammatory hype and his honesty is refreshing!